Theme 3: The Need for More Support from School Counselors (Roxas, Gabriel & Becker, 2017, pp. 20-22)

It was emotional reading the perspectives of ESL students on how the staff and school can help them in their learning experience. Emotional because I know for a fact that they’re not getting the specialized support they need, even from the first day of my student teaching. The common denominator shared through the comments by these students is their need for the school to be more welcoming, accepting, and patient. You would think that since the children don’t understand the language that they won’t know what’s going on at school, for example, not understand the homework, but they don’t need to know the language to feel the difference that exists between them and the other students. A difference that they consider racist and makes it a challenge for them to fit in.

Taking into consideration the student’s suggestions on what could help them during their transition, I want to use it as motivation for me to one day be able to educate or make aware to students and colleagues that we are a part of an ESL student’s school experience, not just the English lessons. It’s important for all staff and non-ESL students to accept, be patient, be comfortable, and support immigrant students during their move from a different country or school. Now, what is too much support?, is there such a thing as too much support?, and how do we help? are all questions of boundaries. When an ESL student suggested that another student could help them read a book, I thought: is that asking too much of a student? should that be their responsibility? For me, that would be so thoughtful, but I’m not sure if there’s a student that would do that. Sometimes I think I’m doubting the next generation’s capability and desire to help others, but I believe I can help that desire grow, it’s one of many reasons why I wanted to become a teacher in the first place, to make global citizens out of any and all students.

I found this passage relevant because as a future teacher of high school, it is very important to keep in mind and constantly reflect that our students are not just students, but also full human beings. Knoester (2008) pointed out the importance of assessing our students not only as students of our class, but by looking at the whole picture through different assessment methods. There are presentation protocols that help teachers describe a student in different contexts and his or her connections with different adults. According to Knoester, these protocols can help remove any general stereotypes and preconceived notions that teachers have of students. But Knoester argues that is pretty time-consuming and challenging to assess a child with these protocols. Even though it can be difficult to do it for every student we encounter, I wonder how, as teachers, can we collaborate more strategically with other teachers to create a more effective and well-rounded profile of our students? What things can we do in the classroom to prevent these generalizations and help students have equal opportunities to succeed?

“…the protocol provides a list of questions that the presenter might think about and answer in describing the child, under five headings: physical presence and gesture, disposition and temperament, relationships, interests and passions, and ways of thinking and learning (Himley 2000).” (Knoester, 2008, p. 148)

Each ‘heading’ seems to accent a cornerstone in a person’s identity, and it is in my opinion that as educators (as humans!) we probably overlook four at any given time and judge a student, or another person, based upon just one. It is also interesting to me how one persons say, physical presence and gesture may either negatively or positively interact with another person’s physical presence and gesture. The five ‘headings’ do not stand alone but constantly interacting with others. Perhaps a student, or person’s, physical presence is more withdrawn or timid than my own. Their body language may be rounded in towards their core and their gestures may try to hide parts of their body or push away physicality of others. These characteristics act in opposition to my more open body language with gesture that invites people closer to my physicality. As an educator (and person) I tend to think something is wrong, when a persons physical presence does not mirror my own, or I interpret our interaction as disconnected. However, if I really take time to be REFLECTIVE and consider the other four ‘headings’ perhaps I will come to realize that this is not true. That I had been purely basing my assessment of our relating off of one aspect of a person’s identity instead of seeing their wholeness and complexity.