Out on the Job: An ELL Director Gives Me Some Pointers

I’m sad to say that my busy life kept me from attending the MTCE conference. It sounded like an experience that would have given my teaching dreams a jump start toward the future. Instead, I found myself watching Dora the Explorer with my almost-3-year-old after a long day at work.

Happily, I had the opportunity to substitute an educational interview with ELL & Migrant Director, Michelle Williams from West Ottawa School District. Michelle has recently been added to the ELL team at West Ottawa as their number of ELL students continues to rise. Currently, they have over 1,500 ELL students in grades K-12. Their students begin the program as soon as they are enrolled in at W.O. Moreover, only one Elementary School currently exercises an immersion program. All the elementary students receive some bilingual class time from a ‘specials’ teacher; however, Williams agrees that,

 

“Ideally, I would love to have each and every one of our students become biliterate. Individuals who have a high degree of academic and conversational proficiency in multiple languages have so many doors open to them. Who wouldn’t want this of the students they serve?”

 

I couldn’t agree with her more on this one. If I have learned anything through my research and language learning experiences, it is that bilingual people have a definite advantage and better ability to learn complex concepts—language or other subject. Personally, I would love to become bilingual in Spanish in an effort to better accommodate my future ELL students, as most of them will have a native language of Spanish. Moreover, Michelle noted that not all of her ESL Teachers are bilingual, but all have language acquisition training or a good knowledge of a second language, if they aren’t in fact bilingual. A both sad and encouraging bit of info for me, as I am studying Language Acquisition; however, I think it would be great if all ELL teachers were fluent in their students’ native tongue. Yet, I am glad that I will be eligible for a position even if I don’t miraculously learn Spanish in the next 18 months—which is very unlikely, just ask my Spanish Prof! Lol.

My last question to Michelle during our interview was for advice as a future ELL educator; her response:

“look for connections and ways to integrate content, language and process”. 

Further, she said that making real connections and being a “synthesizer” will help me write the road signs that will guide my students through the gobs of information we will cover each day. Making links to real life experience and usage through the charts of verb endings and tense usage will undoubtedly be a difficult task. But, with process pedagogy and a good mentor like Michelle, this passionate ELL teacher will “synthesize” with “activities that target specific goals” to help my students connect the dots of language acquisition.

 

Personal Interview: Michelle Williams, ELL & Migrant Director, West Ottawa School District, Holland, MI.

November 14, 2008