After this morning's exercise class, I had a nice talk with a new friend, Jane who is originally from the South. It is good to be heard. She pointed out that maybe I should go toward teaching students with special needs. I think Jane is the third person who pointed that out to me.
I generally understand and empathize with people that has special needs. I will share a quick background about my experience about this. First, I was born prematurely. I did develop my skills like any "normal" baby but I didn't get to speaking until I was 3 years old. The only word I know how to say before conversing was the word "mama." Next when I went to preschool, I had to learn English. The first 5 years of my life, the only language I knew was Chinese (the Cantonese dialect). When I entered elementary school, I didn't get the ESL support that I needed. (For your information, my elementary school didn't have the resources to have an ESL teacher. It depends on how many students that need the service and then the district would send support. During my elementary years, there was a low enrollment of student with ELL needs.) I was really immersed in English. But I did go to the literacy specialist during my first grade and first half of my second grade year. I am thankful for my family who taught me hard work and perseverance.
Finally, I knew that certain lessons that I need time to learn. Sometimes I will need time to process the information to understand. For example, I was not good at math right away. I hate the myth that Asians are good at math. Because of this concept, in my sixth grade year I was put in the wrong math class. It was too advanced for me. I think it took my math teacher several weeks to figure out that I was struggling. I didn't ask for help because I didn't want to be seen as stupid. I learn to personally adapt how I learn so I can master the knowledge content and skills I needed. There are certain things I can probably learn quickly.
Back to what Jane said to me, that is interesting thought. I never really thought about getting into special education. I didn't think I could be strong enough to really deal with students that has special needs. But I am learning that the special need spectrum is huge. I will have to do some research and get some classroom experience with special needs kids. Maybe I could add an endorsement in special education under my teaching license next to the ESOL one. I don't know yet. First I need to go back to school and get my initial teaching license.
Quick definitions of the English language teaching world:
1. ESL--English as a second language are students learning English as their second language. This term is old school and still used by many school districts in the U.S.
2. ESOL--English Speakers of Other Languages are use for people who know more than two languages while learning the English language. This term is quite popular to use in the college and university whelm.
3. ELL--English Language Learners is students learning English by written and spoken form. By the way, I am aware that many PPS schools use that term as well as ESL. In my opinion, this term is also true for native English speakers since they also are learning academic (formal) English. Formal English is so different from conversational English (aka. playground English).
4. LEP--Limited English Proficiency which means the students' English skills are limited. Many schools may still be using this term. I don't like this term because many students may feel limited by the term usage. If I was labeled as that, I would focus in the "Limited" part of the term and believed I am stupid.
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