March 5th, 2021

Today was our first Google Meet session with Ms. Kirwin and Ms. Gillespie! The classroom consisted of students who were both physically in the classroom, and those who were joining from home on their computers. We introduced ourselves, then observed as Ms. Gillespie continued with preparing the students to take the upcoming ACCESS testing to assess their English language proficiency. It was very interesting to watch as Angelina went through practice questions with the students to familiarize them with the setup of the test. I was not familiar at all with ACCESS testing and so this class observation was very insightful. 

Earlier in the week we had met with the teachers and the principle of West High School. At this orientation, the staff briefed us on what to expect, the demographics of the school, their educational goals, strategies and techniques to keep in mind when working with the students,  and overall just welcoming us into their community. 

For our weekly readings and reflections for March 5th, we were assigned to read 10 Assumptions to Rethink About English-Language Learners (Opinion) and to listen to How We Pronounce Student Names, and Why it Matters.

In reflecting on the article and podcast, my thoughts were as follows; it is important to strive to properly pronounce all students’ names correctly because, in my opinion, it is the bare minimum. It shows that you care, that you are an ally to your students, and that you respect them as individuals. Our names are our identity, they signify where we come from and who we are, and so mispronouncing names is considerably a very degrading action that can have negative consequences for those who are affected. When teachers are able to acknowledge what students’ correct and preferred names are, this is the basis for establishing a good student-teacher relationship and hopefully a good classroom environment as well. As was touched upon in the podcast, when you mispronounce a student’s name, you are contributing to micro-aggressions, and feeding into “bigotry.” In public schools from time to time when there were substitutes in the classroom, they would mispronounce my last name giving it a certain twang or adding an h to say “champion.” This was a once in a while occurrence and I felt embarrassed from time to time having to correct them or having my classmates laugh about it. I can only imagine having to anticipate this every day in a classroom, and it would be exhausting constantly having to correct others. This just further emphasizes the importance of needing to be a calibrator, especially as I will be entering the education system. Being a calibrator signifies that you appreciate every student for their unique abilities and backgrounds, that you don’t feed into assimilation and what is ‘easier’ but instead put in the effort to get to properly know and respect individuals. This podcast reminded me of a children’s book I read in another class titled “The Name Jar," a story that emphasizes the importance of names and identity.) This week’s article and podcast were beneficial for priming us students in this field site for this semester working with the students at West. Anabel Gonzalez described in the “10 Assumptions” article how communication barriers are certainly breakable with "visual aids, technology, effort and kindness.” As we begin to build relationships with these students, learning their names is essential to that, and to maintaining the welcoming environment that has already been established. From here we can approach future endeavors with positive attitudes and without any assumptions.