Posts

Thoughts regarding an excerpt from My Broken Language

 This seems like a very interesting story about a Puerto Rican girl and her experience's growing up in a hard working Puerto Rican family.  The portion of the story that I read started out where the mom tells her little daughter ((who is learning English) to go out into the woods, talk to the trees and introduce herself to nature.  This gave me a chuckle, because it brought back memories of the very first time I encountered an ESL classroom 30 years ago.  The teacher was an extremely friendly and upbeat teacher and she knew the importance of letting the students just talk.  Her room was always noisy but for good reason.  I could picture her telling her students to 'go out and talk to the trees'. And they probably would!!!! I find the story interesting because the author has lived a childhood completely unlike my own.  The author tells the story of her journey through life with a mom who worked tirelessly day and night.  She questions why her grand...
1 comment
Read more
  Plessy vs. Ferguson... The Constitutionality of Segregation Over a hundred years ago , Homer Plessy of Louisiana, who was 7/8 caucasian, was sitting in a whites-only section of a railway car.  This was a  test of sorts to determine if the Separate Car act of 1890 was even enforceable!! Due to the fact that the law only applied to within-state lines, as opposed to interstate travel, Homer Plessy was arrested.  His arrest brought about much discussion and argumentation.  Plessy felt that the ruling against him went against the 13th and 14th amendments.  The court, however, did not agree, stating that their original ruling and situation had nothing to do with slavery.  But was simply enforced to "preserve public peace and good order."  Simpy put, "separate but equal" was considered constitutionally acceptable. *The case, in these days and times, certainly seems unfair and immoral.  I understand there is still a lot of prejudice and discriminat...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Importance of Connecting Home Culture with School Culture

Ha ha ha!  My first blog EVER!!! It is important for our English language learners AND educators to make a connection between home and school culture.  These students are not just learning a language.  In many cases, these kids are learning a whole new culture, a new way of communicating.  We, as teachers, need to know where these kids are 'coming from'.  We need to understand how they live at home (or even if they came from another country!).  We need to be patient and realize that this is brand new for many of our students, especially the younger ones!  From my experience teaching in the city, I know that some of these kids come from places where they may have not received a formal education.  Some children have come from refugee camps.  I imagine going to school is the least important thing on their minds, while fleeing to safety in fear for their lives.  THAT is why we need to realize that these kids come from different backgrounds, ...
1 comment
Read more