Let me be very clear before I begin: I am not complaining! This is just so odd to me and my experience as a teacher.

This February has been wild so far. For ESL teachers (or EL Specialists as someone recently said), February and March are generally testing months. In Michigan, we are part of the WIDA consortium so that is what my focus is for February.

That focus has been disrupted a couple of times already this year! February 10 we had a snow day. Except for 2019, when Michigan experienced a polar vortex situation and then an ice storm that shut us down for almost two straight weeks (we literally had an entire week off school, two days of school the next week and then three more days off -- unheard of!), snow days have been a relatively rare experience in my career. My old district was pretty notorious for being the only district in our county open and then our enrollment was so low, it counted as a snow day anyway. This always annoyed me to death because a) I was driving past multiple closed districts knowing full well the day wasn't going to count anyway and b) I was risking my safety being out on roads everyone else deemed too dangerous to be out on.

So the unexpected snow day in my new district -- our first one this year -- was really quite nice. [It was even better because my own kids didn't have one and were insanely jealous; I just reminded them of all of the times they had snow days when I didn't. I live 45 minutes away from work now and my new district is along the lake shore in Michigan so the weather there is worse than it is more inland.] The only bad thing about snow days on Mondays is it makes me feel off the next day; I always feel like it should be Monday but its Tuesday ;) Alas, we made it happen. I tested all day Tuesday and Wednesday with my saving grace being my one dedicated 6th hour class because I got to end my day teaching instead of testing. Always a bonus.

Somehow, I had the foresight to bring my backpack home with me on Wednesday, full of the stuff I needed to do. I was pretty confident I wouldn't work on it at home (I rarely do; I just really utilize my time at work to get it done there) but I knew I would have some time Thursday morning between my test sessions to look at it and that's what I planned to do. Well low and behold, Wednesday evening we got an email saying the superintendent was cancelling school for Thursday because we've had excessive illnesses both with students and staff and they wanted to extra sanitize and clean everything. This is a huge deal because we already had Friday and Monday off for mid-winter break (my first one ever as it isn't something my old district has). So I unexpectedly had a 5 day weekend.

As I have spent most of February already testing and prepping for testing and making up testing, the extra days off were super nice. I won't complain!!

I have learned in the last several months to really slow down (a big deal because it isn't something I've ever really been very good at). I no longer feel the need to be on the go 24/7. I've spent a lot of the days off just working on my crochet projects and spending time with my family -- definitely a break! Plus the sun has been shining the last few days which is also pretty rare in Michigan for February so it has been truly wonderful.

Again, I will never complain about an unexpected break, but this one really could  not have come at a better time. I'm so, so grateful to my new district for really thinking of staff and student health and giving us all a chance to get healthy and go back to school on the 18th refreshed and ready to go.

This past summer, right after I got home from Uganda, I went to a SIOP training. SIOP stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol. It is a set of strategies that were designed to make learning more accessible for English Learners (ELs; previously they had often been referred to as English Language Learners or ELLs).

I had taken a SIOP training way back in 2007 when I was a new teacher and had taken my first contracted job at a school that served predominantly students of Hispanic backgrounds. At that time, I was a 2nd year teacher and my principal not only signed me up to participate in the SIOP workshop, but also encouraged me to get my Master's in TESOL instead of Reading. I'm forever grateful that he did because a) I have so much passion for working with my ELs and b) it gave me job security when there was still a lack of job security in teaching. Having the ESL endorsement really ensured I would never be laid off.

As I have worked in a general education classroom for 13 of my 14 years of teaching, I certainly used the SIOP strategies, especially because for 12 of those 13 years, most of my students were classified as ELs. (In fact, last year, of my 29 students, only TWO were not bilingual but ALL of them had at least one parent who was of Hispanic heritage.) However, as I was transitioning from a self-contained elementary classroom where I had the same students throughout the day to a position as an ESL teacher, I knew I wanted to brush up on my SIOP training.

The very first training I did was one afternoon. You could classify it was a very brief overview (sometimes I say it was a "fly by night" type of training because it was so brief). This past summer, however, the training was much more in-depth. It was 3 full days full of learning, engagement and provided me with so much more to bring into my new role as an ESL teacher.

Earlier this fall, as I was settling into my new role, my ESL team in our district (there are three of us) were invited to join a local EL Connect network. We meet four times per year with other ESL teachers in the area to connect, share stories, get some professional learning around supporting our ELs and network. Most recently they announced an opportunity to become a SIOP Trainer. I was very excited about the possibility because there hasn't been much SIOP work in my district and having someone who can train our staff would be hugely beneficial.

I got a letter of recommendation from my principal, our EL Connect Coordinator and completed the application. Applications were due last Friday and today I got an email telling me that I was accepted for the program! I am so excited about it!

I LOVE providing professional development for my fellow educators and I am super excited to have this opportunity. I will spend two days in March in Lansing at the training and then one day in April there as well. Some time this summer, I will have an opportunity to complete the training by helping to facilitate a SIOP training in one of our regional ISDs.

I'm super grateful because I do have so much passion for supporting my EL students and having an opportunity to bring this work into my district in a professional way is really exciting!

Wow!

I just realized I have not posted here at all in 2020. Oops. Time flies when you're having fun? :)

January felt about 2000 years long, but then it usually does, at least here in Michigan, because the sun barely shines and those gray days just blend into each other.

We have officially entered the second half of the school year, which is crazy to me. This year has been flying by! I have chuckled a little that I'm finally in a groove and then the WIDA testing season shows up and throws a wrench into that groove.

With the arrival of February, we are in WIDA season, which means most of my responsibilities for the next month will surround testing/proctoring. Not the most exciting thing to do, but I AM excited to see where the students make the most growth. If I was a bettin' gal, I'd bet my elementary students will make a ton more progress than my middles. I say this because I've certainly had reluctant learners in my career, but never this many.

It's quite sad actually because it signals to me that somewhere along the way the system has really failed these students. (To be clear, I am not saying my specific district has failed these students, I am saying the system as a whole which has not always provided monies to support these students has failed them. These systems can include trainings and other supports for every adult working with ELs...when those monies aren't there and budget cuts have to happen, these supports are often the first to go and that is a state issue.)

I've done what I can to be supportive and teenagers are known for being fickle beings so even though they complain, I know they secretly like that they have someone there cheering them on and nagging them. If they really hated it, they wouldn't follow my advice, and they do; they just don't want me to think that I'm having an impact because that wouldn't be "cool." (Ahh the teenage mind.)

Despite all of that, I do think my elementary friends are more likely to try to "please" and as I have spent time actually discussing this test with them (I have no idea if my predecessor did or not), I'm curious to see how they grow compared to the middles.

The bad news is, one of our EL colleagues is supporting in a classroom for a new teacher so my mentor and I have to cover her buildings for testing. It's not "bad" necessarily, just throws a wrench in things. If I was only testing my own schools, I'd be done by our mid-winter break (Feb 14) if everyone is present and tests on time. As I am supporting my colleague, I have two extra weeks of testing to do to help her. I don't mind helping at all (that's what we do!), but it saddens me that I won't get to see my own groups during those other weeks.

Testing can be incredibly tedious because you're not supposed to do anything except actively monitor the students as they test. This is so necessary but not mentally stimulating (especially when you're me and you're a pretty animated person who is bouncing all over the room all day). My saving grace will be my 6th hour class.

The good news is, despite my schedule change to support testing in the other schools, I still get to work with my dedicated class every day. That makes me so happy because it's the very end of the day and will give me something stimulating to do before the day is over. We are focusing on novel studies this quarter so that's fun too because I'm a reader (even if they aren't!) and being able to talk about the book with the students and finally see them engage in discussions is quite lovely.

I'm hopeful my schedule goes off without a hitch and that we don't have to spend a ton of time on makeup testing because I am eager to get back to my regular schedule and see my groups. They are excited for that as well. Makes going to work a big pleasure.