Junior science is gross and ESOL is for dummies . . . NOT!

It has been little while since my last post, and for good reason! I have been busy . . . so much has happened but here are the highlights:

Junior, as in PRIMARY, science is fantastic. Loving it. For those of you who follow my posts and remember way back when I had to make the decision about Primary or Secondary training and then kinda reluctantly going with Secondary and wishing I had done primary or College level – well, funny that! Not only do I have a primary science class to teach but I have a mixed level/age /cultural ESOL class that has College aged students in it. Someone up above is looking out for me.

The Primary Level Science Class is a bit of an experiment, for the lack of another description, and with “high stakes” for the school. After being told how very important it is about, ohhh, lets see, one billion times (an obvious exaggeration but you get the picture), I just said “it is no use telling me over and over what high stakes it is. I can perform like a monkey and entertain in only the way I know how. They either like it or they don’t”. With that, I shrugged off the stress and pressure and got on with the goal of teaching science. I can only do what I can do the way I do it. Adding more pressure and seriousness will not make me perform or take any more seriously my position. So far, it is all going well.

The students loved the first class about Superman Science, the second about Polarity, Magnetism and Gravity and eating sweets in outer space. Last week the class made snot and we talked bogeys, giant snails and beautiful, lovely, sticky phlegm. All received very positive reviews and feedback. However, I am rather surprised there haven’t yet been any negative comments from this week because I know that at least one student this week didn’t really enjoy the CSI lesson I prepared. Still, the students are great and really press for some hands on blowing things up! They make me laugh. Every week they turn up with the suggestion of making things explode. I must find something like that to do that wont fall outside the safety rules or make parents fret. I suppose the good old mentos and coke trick would do!!!!

ESOL is great but I find I am constantly banging my head in to a wall trying to find anyone to take any responsibility for it, the attitude of students towards it and the insignificant nature of it that some teachers seem to hold. It was only last week that, finally, students started arriving in class ready to work. It has been a very long and drawn out battle convincing students that they are in fact representative of a bilingual population that will one day rule the world – or near enough. They came to class with the attitude that ESOL is a place to veg out, play games, text, phone, chat, sleep or anything else other than learn English! No wonder when all they did, so they tell me, in class last year was sit and copy passages out of books. What a  damn insult to students/kids that already feel they are in ESOL because they are failures. It makes me sick to know this was their experience and thoughts about themselves. This cannot continue.

Teachers commented that nothing was ever done in ESOL. So, no wonder teachers think it is ok to take headsets, data projectors, resources and remotes from ESOL if they do not rate it and used ESOL as a dumping ground for kids they didn’t want. A teacher relieved for me last week and commented that it was the best ESOL class she had ever relieved because previously all she did was sit and watch the kids copy sentences from books. I left her a lesson plan for spelling, pair work, group work, reading, and dictionary work and sentence structure. I hate to diss the person before me but why the heck she was teaching ESOL escapes any comprehension because it seems from both student and teacher perspectives; no teaching of any kind was going on. I wonder if management actually know the extent of the damage.

After being shunted from one department to another I have taken the bull by the horns and decided to implement Unit Standards myself. Of course, I have set out feelers to those more experienced who will be able to support me with this and guide me through the processes. In the meantime I plan to work on CV design with students in ESOL to highlight their skills and abilities and to start building up some confidence they lost by believing they were in ESOL last year because they are ‘dumb’, or ‘stupid’  or as one student told me ‘a loser’. Doesn’t it make you mad!

All in all tho, loving teaching. I love being in the classroom. I love the kids, even the stroppy ones who answer back and refuse to budge when asked to. I like them all regardless and the different challenges they give me. I hope they get as much out of me as I do them. So, all in all, finding my feet and stumbling my way into teacherdom quite nicely so far. Love the school, the leadership, the philosophy and support. All good. I just have to keep working on building up student confidence and belief in themselves and wipe away this idea that ESOL is some kind of drop-out center for thickos. ESOL students are not only already talented due to working on becoming bilingual but have many skills and abilities that are simply not recognised by others, whether students or teachers. They are the leaders of our future. Together, we will prove it.

In summary, junior science lesson are full of gross and yukkie items, but all super cool and funky! ESOL was used as a dumping ground for whatever reason by teachers and I am working hard so that this idea will be dispelled and ESOl students will be seen for who they really are - talented, skilled and able students who just need additional english language support.