The school that I work in is a very diverse school. There are many different cultures and that means there are a lot of different languages. If I was the teacher in this class I know my main challenge with working with the parents would be the language barrier. Every morning I am there, there is one mother that comes in and brings her son in. They speak Spanish and the teacher's aide always speaks in Spanish to her. I never see the teacher speak to the mother; it is always the teacher's aide. I'm not really sure if the mother speaks English and that is why the teacher doesn't speak to her but I have noticed that every morning. I took five years of Spanish throughout Jr. High School and High School but I would never be able to hold a conversation in Spanish with a parent. Being able to communicate with parents is very important and has a lot to do with a child's success in school. If I am not able to communicate with the parents it would cause a big issue.
Obviously with a teacher's aide who speaks Spanish is very helpful, but I would like to be the one who speaks to the parents. One way to overcome this challenge would to be able to have a translator. The teacher's aid would be able to help me translate in Spanish but there are other parents who speak different languages. Having a translator at parent-teacher conferences would be very helpful being able to communicate with parents. But it is also very helpful if I was to pick up some words in these languages so that I would be able to communicate to them whenever I wanted to. I know that the language barrier is going to be difficult if I was to teach in a diverse environment so I have already thought about possibly studying abroad in Spain so that I could truly learn that culture but also their language. I think learning Spanish would really help me in the future being a teacher.
A little off topic of the prompt that I wanted to add into my blog was about this little girl who came into classes with bruises. She went up to the teacher's aide to ask a question and I was watching and the teacher's aide looked at the teacher while signifying to look at the little girl's arm. Right away I knew what she was talking about so when the little girl sat back down I looked at her and she had bruises on her arm. I don't know the whole story but the reaction of the teacher's aide made me realize that this wasn't the first time the little girl came in with bruises. The teacher's aide told the teacher to remind her to talk to the nurse and have the nurse look at it. But this made me feel so bad. I know at some point as a teacher I will have to deal with this situation but it is going to be difficult to deal with. Knowing that a child may get beat is just a horrific thing to think about. And there are just so many things to think about in this situation. Like is the child really getting abused? Did the child just fall? And you have to think about what to do. I think it is smart for the nurse to look at the little girl and I'm not sure if they are going to call the parents in or what. But I just thought I would share that.
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The language barrier is definitely a difficult obstacle to overcome. Having a bilingual teacher's assistant helps to communicate with a wider range of parents, but will only allow you to reach out to two languages. When you talk about having a translator, are you referring to a person who knows many languages that will translate for you and for the parent, as the teacher's assistant is doing? It would be difficult to obtain a translator for something such as a parent teacher conference, because the school would have to fund the translator. I am unsure of whether they would allow that. So far, e-mail communication with online translators seems like the best bet for parents who can not speak English, unless the student can translate, or a teacher's aide, as your teacher is doing. Keeping a list of key words nearby such as "very good," or "no homework," (in different languages) during parent teacher conferences, can come in handy to convey to non-English speaking parents a basic message of how their child is doing.
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