this is my 9th year teaching and i've had my ups and downs throughout. i've always thoroughly loved my job and constantly feel like i'm learning new things.
i started out at a public school in nyc. 21 at the time, i went through the nyctf program and jumped into a grade 10 geometry classroom with absolutely no experience in a) teaching b) classroom management and c) adulting. though, arguments *could* be made (sort of) for why programs like nyctf and tfa should exist, in no uncertain terms - i had absolutely no right pretending to be Teacher to the humans merely 4-5 years my junior. i left that job after 3 years (when i moved to berlin) and, objectively, i learned far more from my students and experiences with them (and the dumpsterfire that is the DoE) than i could ever hope to have shared with them in return. in fact, i'm confident that the most impressive thing i offered was simply being there for three consecutive school years. i'm forever grateful to those students and their patience.
though my heart is in public education, once in berlin, the only context in which i could teach was in an international school. my german's fine, but speaking it is not quite the same as explaining math in it (the irony of this will follow shortly). the last 6 years at this school have offered me a tremendous opportunity to grow professionally. this is where i would teach middle school for the first time, evolve my love of math, chaperone class trips to belgium, outward bound, and skiing in italy (more on those another time), take on the role of IGCSE exams coordinantor (more on that another time, too), and now also the role of bilingual curriculum leader for math. which brings me to the irony of having sought out this school to teach in english.
since about two years ago our school (in its conception a learning space for children in berlin for whom joining the german school system doesn't make any sense, i.e. children of diplomats moving every few years and families who have one or both legs in international business) has been required to teach partially in german. the part that the berlin senat is most particular about is math. namely, we're supposed to offer 40% of math instruction time (on average within a given school year) in german.
now, theoretically, it's sensible to require some instruction time in german if we are to require students to sit the berlin state standardized exams, which include math in german.
HOWEVER!
! juggling two languages
! for instruction of a core subject
! which students are already socialized to fear
! within a single school year
makes no pedagogical sense...
...it is confusing for students changing language within a lesson, especially with a non-native german speaker as the teacher (that would be me...).
if two teachers are teaching (two lessons in german by german native, three in english by english native) it is virtually impossible to offer fluidity in lesson content and assessment - as there's really no time to collaborate to that extent from day to day.
we've tried a million other variations and ideas which i can outline upon request, but the bottom line is - the decision of the arbitrary 40% within a school year was political, not pedagogical.
so, now we're trying to figure out a) who we are as a school b) how will we practically offer the german math instruction, and c) how can we implement these changes in a way that enhances (at best) and doesn't disrupt and damage (at worst) the students' learning while d) accepting that teachers are humans, not robots. hence, bilingual curriculum leader needs... so that's my third hat at the school this year.
the problem, of course, is that i'm not a linguist. it's commonly said in schools that "all teachers are language teachers". which sounds great, but there's a reason language acquisition teachers have a completely different degree (or are supposed to, anyway) from just language teachers. much less, non-language teachers...
don't get me wrong, i love language. in most ways, i grew up bilingually (first russian-german, then russian-english), moving between countries and schools five times before grade 7. and i'm fascinated by the lens language creates for our perception of the world around us. i empathize with kids learning subjects like math, science, and history in a second or third non-native language and how frustrating it is to know you're good at something but not being able to show it because you can't access the required content.
i distinctly remember crying in kindergarten my first time in an american school at 5, where russian was no good, german was no good, it was supposed to be english (didn't know it yet), and there was a lesson of french going on...
i also remember hating being stuck in ESL in 7th grade when back in the US a second time, the stigma attached to not attending 'normal' english classes, and the pride with which i finally joined them sometime in 8th grade...
anyway, this week i'm in copenhagen for an ECIS conference (Educational Collaborative for International Schools) on english as a native and non-native language. it's gonna be a boatload of lectures, workshops, and discussions about language acquisition with some really great colleagues and i'm really excited.
i started out at a public school in nyc. 21 at the time, i went through the nyctf program and jumped into a grade 10 geometry classroom with absolutely no experience in a) teaching b) classroom management and c) adulting. though, arguments *could* be made (sort of) for why programs like nyctf and tfa should exist, in no uncertain terms - i had absolutely no right pretending to be Teacher to the humans merely 4-5 years my junior. i left that job after 3 years (when i moved to berlin) and, objectively, i learned far more from my students and experiences with them (and the dumpsterfire that is the DoE) than i could ever hope to have shared with them in return. in fact, i'm confident that the most impressive thing i offered was simply being there for three consecutive school years. i'm forever grateful to those students and their patience.
though my heart is in public education, once in berlin, the only context in which i could teach was in an international school. my german's fine, but speaking it is not quite the same as explaining math in it (the irony of this will follow shortly). the last 6 years at this school have offered me a tremendous opportunity to grow professionally. this is where i would teach middle school for the first time, evolve my love of math, chaperone class trips to belgium, outward bound, and skiing in italy (more on those another time), take on the role of IGCSE exams coordinantor (more on that another time, too), and now also the role of bilingual curriculum leader for math. which brings me to the irony of having sought out this school to teach in english.
since about two years ago our school (in its conception a learning space for children in berlin for whom joining the german school system doesn't make any sense, i.e. children of diplomats moving every few years and families who have one or both legs in international business) has been required to teach partially in german. the part that the berlin senat is most particular about is math. namely, we're supposed to offer 40% of math instruction time (on average within a given school year) in german.
now, theoretically, it's sensible to require some instruction time in german if we are to require students to sit the berlin state standardized exams, which include math in german.
HOWEVER!! juggling two languages
! for instruction of a core subject
! which students are already socialized to fear
! within a single school year
makes no pedagogical sense...
...it is confusing for students changing language within a lesson, especially with a non-native german speaker as the teacher (that would be me...).
if two teachers are teaching (two lessons in german by german native, three in english by english native) it is virtually impossible to offer fluidity in lesson content and assessment - as there's really no time to collaborate to that extent from day to day.
we've tried a million other variations and ideas which i can outline upon request, but the bottom line is - the decision of the arbitrary 40% within a school year was political, not pedagogical.
so, now we're trying to figure out a) who we are as a school b) how will we practically offer the german math instruction, and c) how can we implement these changes in a way that enhances (at best) and doesn't disrupt and damage (at worst) the students' learning while d) accepting that teachers are humans, not robots. hence, bilingual curriculum leader needs... so that's my third hat at the school this year.
the problem, of course, is that i'm not a linguist. it's commonly said in schools that "all teachers are language teachers". which sounds great, but there's a reason language acquisition teachers have a completely different degree (or are supposed to, anyway) from just language teachers. much less, non-language teachers...
don't get me wrong, i love language. in most ways, i grew up bilingually (first russian-german, then russian-english), moving between countries and schools five times before grade 7. and i'm fascinated by the lens language creates for our perception of the world around us. i empathize with kids learning subjects like math, science, and history in a second or third non-native language and how frustrating it is to know you're good at something but not being able to show it because you can't access the required content.
i distinctly remember crying in kindergarten my first time in an american school at 5, where russian was no good, german was no good, it was supposed to be english (didn't know it yet), and there was a lesson of french going on...
i also remember hating being stuck in ESL in 7th grade when back in the US a second time, the stigma attached to not attending 'normal' english classes, and the pride with which i finally joined them sometime in 8th grade...
anyway, this week i'm in copenhagen for an ECIS conference (Educational Collaborative for International Schools) on english as a native and non-native language. it's gonna be a boatload of lectures, workshops, and discussions about language acquisition with some really great colleagues and i'm really excited.
No comments:
Post a Comment