Reply to Have you had a positive experience at a Title I school? What worked?

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Have you had a positive experience at a Title I school? What worked? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote]Further, at our local school, there are a lot of ESOL kids which is fine, but again, I worry about classroom time spent to get these kids up to speed with language skills while kids who are English proficient are sidelined. [/quote]

My kids go to a Title I school in Silver Spring, but it is high-performing.  I didn't even know what ESOL was until my son came home from kindergarten talking about his ESOL teacher and how much he loved ESOL.  I checked around and finally asked his classroom teacher why my English-only son was in ESOL, and why wasn't I informed.  She explained that he wasn't, but her class had so many ESOL students, that the ESOL teacher came in and taught lessons to the whole class, along with the regular teacher.  So, for an hour a day, my kid's class of 18 had two qualified teachers working with students.  To me, that reduced student-teacher ratio makes a difference, especially in kindergarten.

Now he's in 2nd grade and I have another kindergartner.  My 2nd grader says that the ESOL teacher comes in and pulls a group aside (he's disappointed that he's not in it!) so again, it means that during that time, my son has to compete with few students for the classroom teacher's attention.  As far as academics, both my kids are above grade level (this is DCUM, after all!) and I feel that they are getting the support they need to thrive.  I'm a little concerned about what will happen in later grades, but DH and I can always find ways to supplement learning at home.

Playdates are not always very smooth, due to the language barriers with some parents, but what a gift to my children to let them grow up among so many different cultures.  My sons have friends who are Hispanic, African, Vietnamese, etc. and are comfortable around children who look different and speak different languages.

I've had a LOT of people wrinkle their nose when I mention which school my boys attend, but honestly, they both love it and we love it.  The smaller class size is fantastic--more ESOL and FARMS kids means more resources for the school, and higher standards for hiring new teachers, and that benefits all the students.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics