I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of the ESL teachers in our schools, both Catholic and Public, for the amazing job you do. Often the ESL teacher is overlooked and undervalued in our schools – and yet they play such an important role.
Recently I was reminded, by a school Principal, of how little regard the role of ESL teacher can be held. The comment was made to me that my classroom based experience was too long ago (5 Years) and that I should beg my Principal to put me on class. That I should have more recent classroom based experience, and that I had been out of the classroom for too long (I have been exclusively teaching ESL since my classroom position).
I came away from that conversation feeling very undervalued in my role as an ESL teacher. ESL teachers are important. Their opinions should be valued and be seen as important as classroom teachers. An ESL teacher has classroom experience – they are in the classroom every day. They often know their students as well as (and sometimes better than) the classroom teacher, as they spend so much of their time attending to their students’ individual learning, social and emotional needs. They follow those students from grade to grade and are not ‘done’ with them at the end of the year.
The ESL teacher is exactly the same as a classroom teacher in that they hold a teaching degree and most of them have been classroom teachers before becoming ESL teachers. The ESL teacher just has an extra qualification (hopefully – or sometimes just extra experience) that allows them to diversify their teaching career and enable them to work in a specialised role.
The ESL teacher often works tirelessly in the background playing a major supporting role. Their job entails them not only supporting the students to achieve academically but also, and some may say more importantly, assists them socially and emotionally – helping the students to fit into the classroom and playground routines and they try to make the cultural transition to school as smooth as possible.
They are also major players in our classrooms – while they are not the classroom teacher they are there in the background assisting the classroom teacher. They are the masters of differentiation! They take a lesson and modify it to suit the direct and targeted needs of their students. They make the lessons fun and engaging – as they know their students, their likes and dislikes and can modify the classroom lessons to ensure that the reluctant writer writes or that the shy student, who lacks confidence, gains the confidence to do their presentation to the class. They are responsible for moving that student through the ESL scales, which in turn moves them through the Literacy Continuum and enables them to meet outcomes from the English Curriculum.
A ‘good’ teacher is a ‘good’ teacher, whether they are on class or have a specialised role. ESL teachers should not have to be on class in order to be taken seriously. It should not be assumed that because they are not on class every day that they are not capable of teaching a class of students. In fact many of our ESL teachers do teach the whole class. ESL teachers are often flexible in the manner in which they teach – they can team teach with classroom teachers, teach specialised lessons (like vocabulary building or modelled writing) to an entire class, they can take small groups (often with non-ESL students thrown in for extra support) and they teach individual tailored withdrawal lessons.
The ESL teacher does all of this, and more, in your school. They deserve the same respect as a classroom teacher, and should not have to ‘beg’ their Principal to put them on class because their role is just as important as the classroom teacher role. They are the same as classroom teachers, just with honed teaching skills that allow them to assist ESL students. They work tirelessly for the needs of their students, often without the knowledge of parents and other staff. They should be appreciated for all the work they do, and yet many are seen as being just above the teaching assistant role and are often treated like teaching assistants. If that is how you see your ESL teacher, then you are not making the most of the wonderful resource that is the ESL teacher. You are not using your ESL teacher in the best possible way, to assist you and your students.
ESL teachers need a bigger and better profile in our schools. They need to be put on equal footing with classroom teachers. They need to know, and their Principals to know, and the wider school community to know, what a wonderful resource they are. If you agree then feel free to share this post with your ESL teacher and thank them for the wonderful job they do – and use them as wisely as possible – they are such a valuable resource. They are a second teacher coming to help you. Imagine what you could do with two teachers helping your students to achieve – because that is what you have with your ESL teacher….a second teacher….use them, work with them to achieve something great….and please do not look down on their experience as being less simply because they are not ‘on class’ because I assure you they are doing the exact same job as the classroom teacher (teaching, assessing, reporting, collating and logging data etc) – you just don’t see it.
So thank you ESL teachers – you are important and your role is very important and we should be working better with you.