Living in Egypt , near denial... or I'm ready to quit

[shootingstar]

I have a very difficult class this year.

The three English Language Learners...

..................................

Oh... and these are kids in the 'burbs, not inner city children.

Veronica

May I ask, are the ESL students main learning difficulties primarily ESL or is it combined with acculturation / adaptation issues that result in spin-off difficult behaviours in the classroom?

ah.....I was an ESL student from kindergarten to gr. 2.
An interesting (but not uncommon) story about 2 children of a cousin of mine. They immigrated from mainland China when they were each 6 & 8 years old with their parents. The family lived with me for the lst 4 months when I was attending university. During the lst 2 wks., the children were wild at home, nearly destructive. They were totally unfamiliar with their surroundings. They were raised in rural China and 'day-care' consisted of throwing the children all in a fenced area with very few toys or play equipment...near the commune.

The 8 yr. old boy was place 2 grades LOWER than his normal grade level. So was his brother.

Happy to report that the 8 yr. old boy is a university engineering graduate who became a middle manager at a major telecommunications firm, happily married with 1 daughter.

His brother also completed university.


Their parents made their boys study hard...after school.

I hope you already have had some positive cases/"graduates" given the fact you've been doing this difficult teaching for a number of years! Sad that in some cases, it does also require parent(s) to change their parenting style and spend more time with a child but when not much happens in that area so pressure is on teachers to cope. Good you pointed out the kids are from the 'burbs'. It's annoying when people talk about 'inner city" schools in a sort of prejorative way...when some of the kids just turn out fine/great.