Are they learning?

I started my teaching career as an English teacher. Teaching English was my passion--I had always loved reading and writing and felt that teaching English came naturally to me. My students did well on standardized state tests (though many educators think these are useless and counterproductive) and even more national tests such as the AP test. I never went into an English classroom thinking that my students wouldn't learn at the end of the day. I can attribute my confidence teaching English to my degree in English and my love of the language. I get emails, texts, and tweets all the time from past students thanking me for teaching them and how much they learned in my class. Many are in college now and tell me how easy writing an essay is for them and thank me for pushing them even when they were being difficult.

When I transitioned to Special Education, it was almost like I lost some of my teaching passion. I'm sure many teachers have gone through the same type of experience when they are transferred from one subject to another. Special Education is individualized to the point where teaching and learning is almost not a part of the education process. Mastering IEP goals and ensuring that students are in the right classes to learn at their level is what tracks teaching and learning in Special Education. Though a broad definition, I never felt as though I could teach a group of students and everyday I was challenged to meet every kid where they were despite the learning gaps between students and each student needing something drastically different. I did not love teaching Special Ed. like I did English. Was I good at it? Not so much. What I was good at was giving my students the emotional and social confidence they needed to overcome their intellectual differences from other students. In a Special Ed. room, I was the teacher that I have always known myself to be--a relationship builder.

Moving to Denison, I originally thought I would be teaching Speech. I was fine with this as many of my high school accolades were in speaking and I have always been able to help people with public speaking. Though not an English job, Speech was appealing and the coaching fit was my predominant focus. I have always taught something on account of coaching. Whatever I have been needed to teach, I would, because of my passion for coaching softball. The only job that wasn't tied to my love of coaching was my original English job where I was actually advised not to coach because my training with Teach For America would be so rigorous--funny how life works out right?

When I was asked to teach Spanish I said to myself, "Okay, yup. I can do this." Spanish is what the district needed me to teach so I said yes. Getting my certification in English and Special Education was a walk in the park--I studied...not at all...never worried about either of them...and was almost positive I'd pass both on the first try. Spanish was a different story. I learned Spanish through immersion--I didn't sit in a classroom studying grammar or learning to write properly. I learned to speak and understand. Conversational Spanish came naturally to me. I struggle to explain it to people when they ask me how I learned the language so quickly--even I don't really know the complete answer. I can tell you my reading and writing was lacking. I went in to make the test, expecting to fail, still not having studied (yes, many of you may think this is dumb but I wanted to see where I was at before studying for hours). I scored 200 and needed a 240. I hadn't been speaking, reading, and writing Spanish constantly, mainly just translating at the school and the swimming pool that I run in the summer. Starting the year, I knew the goal I had for my students--to speak and understand. I know many people who can read and write Spanish but what people desire the most is to speak and understand the language and that is exactly what I planned to teach my student. People learn to speak a new language like a baby does--they watch how the lips of the person speaking move and how the letters sound and repeat it. I know it sounds weird but I teach my kids to watch my mouth and how it moves when we work on repetition of words etc. I struggle with teaching Spanish because I don't walk into my classroom everyday with the confidence I did everyday in an English classroom. There also isn't a test or standardized method of measuring growth or if a student is learning Spanish at all. I am always caught in a catch 22 wondering if my students are actually learning or not...until this weekend.

I don't like to write about my students' lives or stories because those are their own to tell but this weekend I received an email from a student I currently have in my Spanish class. My student explained that she was in Mexico with her family (she is not bilingual or fluent) and was able to communicate with family members she had never been able to communicate with before. She went on to tell me how amazing of a Spanish teacher I was and thanked me endlessly for teaching her how to speak and understand so that she could communicate with her family. I wrote her back and thanked her and also commended her for her willingness to learn. But wow, what a blessing it was to receive her message.

I know the same isn't true for all of my students and not all of them will be put in a situation like she was to truly gauge if they have learned the language or not. However, her message gave me a breath of fresh air and new perspective on my ability to teach Spanish. The kids I teach will come into my classroom and pay attention because for the majority, they respect me, and we have built a relationship. But now knowing that my students (or at least one for sure) are learning the language is an incredible feeling of joy to me as an educator.