Procrastinating and Ranting.

As usual I am procrastinating. I should be doing BTSA, homework, planning, grading, or working on my action research, but I'm not doing any of those things. Well I kink of am planning. I'm reviewing what we are going to do this week. My kids are going to start reading Anne Frank. This is a bit ambitious seeing how my kids are ESL. However, I know my kids can do it with a lot of scaffolding and structure.

As usual i'm watching television on my computer. I'm checking out Roswell. I just finished watching the first season of Jericho, which is a really good show. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Friday Night Lights will get picked up for a third season. Obviously i'm a little obsessed with television at the moment. I have just gotten to the point that I'm not interested in doing very much. I don't feel like reading even though I am reading. Movies are too predictable and that bores me, so i've become obsessed with television.

I have learned something about myself this last year. I love good stories. That is why I have read regularly since I was a child. That is why I love movies. That is why I loooove television. I also realize that I like that in people. Good storytellers are hard to come by. I don't think i'm a good storyteller, but I am a good listener. What is the point of saying this? To justify my love of television.

Anyways, my district is currently in the midst of budget cuts, meaning that I may be layed off next school year. I'm not worried for myself, but for my students who already do not receive the services that they are entitled to. Our district does not have a strong ESL department. There seems to be inadequate resources to address a population of students that can place a school in program improvement. Before anyone says "Well it shouldn't be that hard to learn a new language." Think about the fact that they have to learn a new language, adjust to a new culture, be ridiculed because of their native language and learn the necessary curriculum for them to be assessed and gain the credits for graduation. I think i'm annoyed with other countries that do not make compulsory education a priority. Basic reading and writing should be mandatory. Literacy in the native language guarantees the necessary skills to become literate in a foreign language. I'm also annoyed with a government that has difficulty comming to an agreement with a program that will benefit this population. I have read the research that shows the "sink or swim" method works. I have also read about how bilingual education is a better method. We are currently somewhere in between those two methods. And for whatever reason we assume that these students should be able to go into mainstream classes after one year of ESL instruction. If they can't then it is my faulty. I acknowledge that i'm a teacher who is learing how to teach in an ESL format, but I also work hard to make contenct accessible to my students. I work hard to use materials that students can use in other classes. I know that in my room my students feel comfortable practicing their English skills without the fear of ridicule. I make sure that they understand that how wonderful their native language is it is a necessity for them to learn English. Lawmakers are not truly concerned with ensuring education equality for all students, they are only concerned with pointing out the faults of all the work that teachers do.

Yes I procrastinate, but my mind is constantly on what i'm going to be doing with my students.