VBlog 2

 

                                    

               Vblog Entry Video Link 2

Hello everyone!

My name is Hannah Gooch, and I chose to interview the ESL specialist, Mrs. Gonzalez, at my school (Decker Prairie Elementary) for this blog post. Mrs. Gonzalez had a lot of great advice to share with me. She started off by sharing why she became an ESL teacher, and how she moved from out of state to Texas for this job. She had to immediately get her ESL certification because it was required in all the districts she wanted to work in. She said something that she loved the most about being an ESL teacher was that she can see such clear growth in her students. Mrs. Gonzalez does this by getting to know each one of her students really well to avoid stereotypes and generalizations (Wright, 2019, p. 19). This also helps her to make sure each students needs are met and that she can help them succeed.

    She also explained that an important tool used in Tomball’s district is Summit k-12 which focuses on mastering skills required for ESL students. This program helps ELL students with proficiency in English by targeting the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing for mastery (Wright, 2019, p. 94). Ms. Gonzalez also explained how she had a language kit that she also uses with her students along with Summit k-12. She then went on to give me advice as a future teacher of ESL students that sentence stems were a helpful tool to have in the classroom to act. Overall, this was a very successful interview, and I learned a lot of helpful skills and tools from her.

 

References:

Wright, W. E. (2019). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice (3rd ed.). Caslon Publishing. 

Vblog Entry 1: Introduction

 

Vblog Entry 1 Video Link

Hello CUIN 4361 Class!

My name is Hannah Gooch. I am a senior at the University of Houston and I am an education major with certification to teach EC-6. I will be graduating in May of 2022, and I cannot wait to start teaching!

When I was growing up, my dad spoke Spanish with my grandparents whenever they came over but did not speak Spanish with me or my three sisters. I longed to be able to understand and participate in this beautiful sense of community among the relatives on my dad’s side of the family, so I took every opportunity I could to learn Spanish on my own. I took Spanish classes from kindergarten through college. The format of all my classes were the same. The teacher would do a lesson on a new tense, or vocabulary, then I would complete pages in a workbook or complete a worksheet. There were very few instances where we were able to create videos or PowerPoint presentations where we could talk or have conversations with classmates. Finally, in college I took a class where we would have roundtable discussions and really get the opportunity to make mistakes and learn to truly conversate with peers.

As a future educator, I would like my teaching philosophy to be focused around building relationships and creating a safe environment for my students in the classroom. I believe one of the best ways to do that is truly getting to know my students and their history to figure out what their individual needs are to succeed (Wright, 2019, p. 25). I recognize all my students will be different and they will need different strategies and goals to feel proud of themselves, and they will reach their own goals at their own pace. I think one way I can help my English language learners develop their English language skills is to start them off with their own personal lexicon/dictionary book that they will keep all year. I can create these booklets for them, and before we do a lesson, we can look through all the critical terms being used in the lesson. Then, we can create their own personal lexicon booklet with words, sounds, parts of speech, pictures, and definitions to make sure they will understand the lesson. Doing this with each lesson will help provide context to help them learn the content easier, and to help them feel like they are able to participate in classroom discussions (Wright, 2019, p. 37). This participation will allow them to feel like they are a part of the classroom community. This safe classroom community is the key to success. 

References:

Wright, W. E. (2019). Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy,            and Practice (3rd ed.). Caslon Publishing.