“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
I agree with Dr. King! There is so much we have to teach our bilingual kids before they can become proficient students. We have to be mothers, counselors—the majority of schools do not have bilingual counselors—parent advocates, nutritionist, dieticians and the list goes on. That’s before we can start teaching.
When I was hired to teach third grade here in Texas, I was overwhelmed by all the things I had to do to be able to get those kids where they needed to be to take the TAKS test, the state test of Texas in 2008, now it’s called the STAAR. It was a scary situation because most of my students read but didn’t comprehend what they were reading and TAKS was a difficult test.
But to make a long story short, 92% of my students passed that first year I taught third grade. I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it. All I can think of was “my Hispanic kids didn’t let me down.” And throughout my entire career as an elementary teacher, they have never let me down. I thank them for that and wish I could’ve followed each one of them to see where they are now—TODAY!
Love your students no matter what. They know when the teacher really loves them, they can feel those vibes. Kids can tell!