My Teaching Jouney

I have been very blessed on my career as a teacher. It all started with a very understanding supervisor for my student teaching. It took him only moments in my classroom placement to see that I would not be given much independence in that classroom. He was very encouraging. Told me to do my best. He never put me down or graded me down. He gave me confidence that I could be a teacher.

Before I became a full time teacher, I was a substitute and ESL tutor. I worked alongside with older more experienced tutors and teachers. They valued my experiences from around the world. They appreciated my comments about English Language Learners and showed great interest when I told of my own experiences of learning English.

I became the ESL teacher and coordinator for that district. The ESL tutors that had been there before never gave me anything else except encouragement. I worked with classroom teachers. That was not always easy as many of them had never had an English Language Learner in their classroom before. We built capacity. We asked administrators to place our ELLs in those classrooms with teachers willing to work with them and the tutors. I had a wonderful administrator at the central office who was my immediate supervisor and a great supporter of what we did. My office was at the back of a elementary library next to the most amazing librarian. Kathy became my mentor--not because she was assigned to me, but because that is who Kathy is.

Few years later I moved to my current school. I am still an English Second Language teacher. I work with wonderful children who come mostly from the Middle East. No, I don't speak Arabic, but I have learned so many Arabic words that I can (sometimes) convince my students that I really do understand what they are saying. I also have many Somali and Urdu/Pashto speaking students. I can read Somali with some success (because many letters have similar sounds as in Finnish), Urdu/Pasto, however, is still beyond me. In the last couple of months, I have also been learning Spanish as I have a new Spanish speaking student in my high school ESL class. Thank goodness many of the Spanish sounds are similar to Finnish sounds also.

Besides my wonderful students (and the few that also challenge me), I work with some amazing teachers. No, not everyone keeps their door open or lingers to chat with me, but our teachers are committed to the students that we have. I have had a chance to work together with both younger and older teachers. I have made long lasting friends among the teachers at my school. I have had a chance to advocate for the ELLs, present at workshops and PDs, watch my ELLs graduate and get into good universities, attend weddings and bridal showers. I have signed sympathy cards for many parents of fellow teachers who have passed away, I have had pre-student teachers and student teachers in my classroom. I have welcomed many new teachers and said goodbye to at least as many.

"Ms, do you really like it at this school?"

One of my 10th graders posted that question to me not so long ago. I did not have to think very long:

"Yes, I love my students. This is where I am supposed to be right now."