Reflecting on the sessions I did for the Homework Hotline this semester, I recognized one overarching thought that I had after every session:
Students deserve an educator who can meet them where they are, no matter what.
I did a lot of great work with students over these sessions — helped with lots of math, taught a student how to identify tone, and in some cases I just sat with a student while they worked through the problems because they just needed some company. All of the sessions, however, inspired me to put this reality pedagogy into real action. They inspired me to learn Spanish.
For context, I am a native English speaker and only really know English. I’ve taken French classes since I was 14 years old, and even now am only conversationally fluent in it. I often found myself regretting that decision during the hotline sessions, because I felt I should’ve invested all those years of learning into Spanish rather than French. But, it’s never too late to learn!
Although I never had a student complain about my monolingualism, I couldn’t help but feel like I was doing them a disservice every time I had to be paired with a Spanish-speaking helper during a session. I felt like these students were going to great lengths to get their work done, and I couldn’t be bothered to help them in their language? It just didn’t feel fair, especially when I know that I have the resources to learn.
So, all of that to say that I have made it a personal and professional goal to learn Spanish. Although I don’t plan on getting my ELA certification before I start teaching, I do want to pursue learning the language to equitably reach my emergent bilingual students where they are. It’s the least I can do!
