ESL-Hill Highschool
Hi guys,
I am enjoying my practicum so far at UHILL, although UBC does not prepare you for the fact that there may be some juggling of classes happening when you arrive. My sponsor teacher is going on Pat leave in 2 weeks while trying to wrap up 7 courses, do a halloween drama production and prep for the temp teacher in the midst of interm reports! arghhhh so I offered to do some ESL marking for him today and was at school until 5 (poor guy, he is there until 9:45pm each night this week). When I was marking I remembered to not go too crazy with the red pen, although these kids are at the top of the city in terms of exams etc, so it is pretty competitive. I have been told to watch for cheating, because many parents send their kids to this school because it was rated #1 by the Fraser Institute, so they send them from Korea or China to live with a relative near the area, or they move into the area just so that their kids can go to this school. 1/5 students is ESL which is the highest rate in Vancouver, according to the vice principal, but I have only seen about 20% caucasian students, so I assume that the other students began as ESL and then moved into regular classes. Another problem, besides cheating (most of which is take home work done by tutors they believe) is, how do you designate kids as ADD or ADHD when they are ESL? most of their parents are so competitive, that they do not want to admit there is a problem. I watched the SN teacher give a severely ADHD caucasian student Riddlyn (spell) out of the filing cabinet today because he cannot focus without it! (wow, I didn't realize that drugs are so important in working with kids who have this disorder).
SO, I am busy, but really enjoying my classes and will teach some ESL and English next week for observation. I am looking fwd to the Literacy without Borders conference this Friday in Richmond. And I have a staff meeting tomorrow am at 8:00 where they are teaching the staff about how to work with autistic kids. Should be neat. Hope you are all happy sponges!
maddie
I am enjoying my practicum so far at UHILL, although UBC does not prepare you for the fact that there may be some juggling of classes happening when you arrive. My sponsor teacher is going on Pat leave in 2 weeks while trying to wrap up 7 courses, do a halloween drama production and prep for the temp teacher in the midst of interm reports! arghhhh so I offered to do some ESL marking for him today and was at school until 5 (poor guy, he is there until 9:45pm each night this week). When I was marking I remembered to not go too crazy with the red pen, although these kids are at the top of the city in terms of exams etc, so it is pretty competitive. I have been told to watch for cheating, because many parents send their kids to this school because it was rated #1 by the Fraser Institute, so they send them from Korea or China to live with a relative near the area, or they move into the area just so that their kids can go to this school. 1/5 students is ESL which is the highest rate in Vancouver, according to the vice principal, but I have only seen about 20% caucasian students, so I assume that the other students began as ESL and then moved into regular classes. Another problem, besides cheating (most of which is take home work done by tutors they believe) is, how do you designate kids as ADD or ADHD when they are ESL? most of their parents are so competitive, that they do not want to admit there is a problem. I watched the SN teacher give a severely ADHD caucasian student Riddlyn (spell) out of the filing cabinet today because he cannot focus without it! (wow, I didn't realize that drugs are so important in working with kids who have this disorder).
SO, I am busy, but really enjoying my classes and will teach some ESL and English next week for observation. I am looking fwd to the Literacy without Borders conference this Friday in Richmond. And I have a staff meeting tomorrow am at 8:00 where they are teaching the staff about how to work with autistic kids. Should be neat. Hope you are all happy sponges!
maddie
posted by madelaine hill at 7:38 PM
2 Comments:
fascinating stuff, Maddie!
look forward to hearing more,
Doug
Wow, your experience sounds absolutely insane!
Your question about how to diagnose ADD/ADHD in ESL students is an interesting one, since I wonder sometimes whether ADD diagnoses are really all that meaningful cross-culturally. Maybe it's okay if parents are resistant to labelling their kids that way... in most cases I think it's best not to pathologize energetic or distracted behaviour or make it into an 'identity' that will follow a kid around (which isn't to say it doesn't need to be dealt with when it gets disruptive). That doling out of pills from the filing cabinet sounds highly illegal...
I guess if kids are looking for lots of corrective feedback it's okay to give it to them... red pen is so culturally loaded for me that I would probably use another colour myself... but who knows what that colour connotes for the particular students you're working with.
Can't wait to talk to you about your experiences tomorrow!
Alana
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