"The first thing you want to do is to get a Sears catalog." That's what she told me. Her name was Pat, as I recall, and she had been teaching ESL for the past couple of years at a local night school. I knew Pat from my graduate teaching program. The one we both had just completed. Pat was off to Europe with her family and offered me her classes for the summer of 1973. Having never taught ESL, I took her advice and quickly procured a Sears catalog. It was all about the pictures. The catalog would provide endless illustrated vocabulary lessons. Beginning ESL was square one. Lots of vocabulary building, recitation, and learning verb tenses.
Being my first paying teaching job, and having no solid prospects for the Fall, I was eager to make a good impression. I knew how to teach an English class but this was going to be a bigger challenge because my students were not fluid English speakers.
That class was about as diverse as it comes. I had Hispanic women from 18 to 45. Many recent immigrant Asian families. One Chinese family that included a child as young as 10 and the grandmother in her 70s. A group of young Middle Eastern men, and various language learners from all over the world. Despite their lack of English skills, I first gave the class a little diagnostic test. Some could answer the questions written in English fairly well. Others got help from a classmate and attempted to answer as best they could. Their returned questionnaires had very light penciled in notes in various languages in the margins.
On the evening of the second meeting of my class, the advanced ESL teacher told me that most of the Middle Eastern men did not belong in the class.
"They have more skills than they are showing you, they just want to be in our class because there are young women there."
That might explain one of these guys' answer to the question, "What do you like to do in your spare time?" I Like to maka the love. was his response. Three of my students were pulled from Beginning to Advanced the next day.
The Sears catalog served me well, as did large newspaper ads, especially those from grocery stores.
That was a memorable beginning to my teaching career. We managed to have some memorable and humorous discussions that semester. Two anecdotes stand out. The first involves a Korean man of about 45. He always carried with his classroom materials a Steno pad. I never saw him use the pad in class, but it was always with him. One day I asked him about it. His answer was astonishing. He was about to go to the DMV for his driver's permit. On the pad, he had translated the entire vehicle code into Korean. His expectation was to score 100%.
Another time that stands out is the evening that we were told to end our classes after the first hour. It was a particularly warm evening and the old school building had received a new coat of paint earlier in the day. The windows had been sealed shut and the temperature inside the building was most uncomfortable. Turning out the lights was not an option, so the Principal had ordered all faculty to end their classes for the evening after the first hour.
I did my best to explain this to my class. They nodded, but nobody moved.
"You may now all go home, class is over for this evening because of the heat." They nodded again. I retreated to my desk. I gathered my things together and announced again to the class that we were done for the evening. Nobody moved. I went out into the hallway to a nearby drinking fountain. As soon as I stepped out the door they all rose and packed up and departed. I later learned that in most of their countries it was a custom not to leave the classroom until the teacher leaves. Hardly the custom here in the USA.
Being my first paying teaching job, and having no solid prospects for the Fall, I was eager to make a good impression. I knew how to teach an English class but this was going to be a bigger challenge because my students were not fluid English speakers.
That class was about as diverse as it comes. I had Hispanic women from 18 to 45. Many recent immigrant Asian families. One Chinese family that included a child as young as 10 and the grandmother in her 70s. A group of young Middle Eastern men, and various language learners from all over the world. Despite their lack of English skills, I first gave the class a little diagnostic test. Some could answer the questions written in English fairly well. Others got help from a classmate and attempted to answer as best they could. Their returned questionnaires had very light penciled in notes in various languages in the margins.
On the evening of the second meeting of my class, the advanced ESL teacher told me that most of the Middle Eastern men did not belong in the class.
"They have more skills than they are showing you, they just want to be in our class because there are young women there."
That might explain one of these guys' answer to the question, "What do you like to do in your spare time?" I Like to maka the love. was his response. Three of my students were pulled from Beginning to Advanced the next day.
The Sears catalog served me well, as did large newspaper ads, especially those from grocery stores.
That was a memorable beginning to my teaching career. We managed to have some memorable and humorous discussions that semester. Two anecdotes stand out. The first involves a Korean man of about 45. He always carried with his classroom materials a Steno pad. I never saw him use the pad in class, but it was always with him. One day I asked him about it. His answer was astonishing. He was about to go to the DMV for his driver's permit. On the pad, he had translated the entire vehicle code into Korean. His expectation was to score 100%.
Another time that stands out is the evening that we were told to end our classes after the first hour. It was a particularly warm evening and the old school building had received a new coat of paint earlier in the day. The windows had been sealed shut and the temperature inside the building was most uncomfortable. Turning out the lights was not an option, so the Principal had ordered all faculty to end their classes for the evening after the first hour.
I did my best to explain this to my class. They nodded, but nobody moved.
"You may now all go home, class is over for this evening because of the heat." They nodded again. I retreated to my desk. I gathered my things together and announced again to the class that we were done for the evening. Nobody moved. I went out into the hallway to a nearby drinking fountain. As soon as I stepped out the door they all rose and packed up and departed. I later learned that in most of their countries it was a custom not to leave the classroom until the teacher leaves. Hardly the custom here in the USA.
Comments