I decided to walk the walk.

Although English is my second language, I learned it as a child and don't recall the learning process as well as I would like. I remember being made to draw a circle on the blackboard and stand with my nose in the center of the circle while my teacher taped my paper with a 0 on the board above me for failing my phonics worksheets every Friday. I faked a lot of stomach aches and headaches on Fridays in order to try to avoid this torturous ordeal.

I remember not being aloud to speak Spanish, not even at recess, and being ignored in class by the teacher, as well as the students, because they were unsure of how to communicate with me, but I don't remember how I went about actually learning the language.

I signed up for Arabic at the local community college and will start classes next week. I'm looking forward to learning this fascinating language and am anxious to learn new ways to teach someone who is brand new to it. I know 1 single word in Arabic. Camise and that's only  because one of my wonderful students pointed out that the word Camisa (the Spanish word for shirt) was similar to the word for shirt in his language. Kids have so much to teach us.

I'll post updates throughout the semester.

Please remember to see our multilingual students (and all our students) as full vessels and honor their funds of knowledge. Just love them and let them know you believe in them and are there to help them reach their full potential.

Students practice their vocabulary word knowledge by playing the Memory Game. Students try to match the word to the image at one table and on the other they match the word to the definition. Students practice reading the word aloud each time they flip the cards. If they find a match they say the word and then either use the word in a sentence or define the word.