Shalom

I realize that making 2 posts in a 24-hour span has the chance of knocking the planet off it's orbit, but I decided to chance it to share a quick glimpse into part of my day.

I had a new student come in partway through my second period today. I found him a seat and stumbled back into my lesson. When the class began practicing comparing fractions or whatever we were talking about today, I went over and tried introducing myself and asking his name. He wrote it down for me so I could enter it into my attendance. He was brought into a class of 12 that has a strong contingent of LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students - so I thought he might be in the same boat. I asked him if he spoke English, which he most certainly does not. Then I asked him if he spoke Spanish, and that turned out to be a no as well.

When I found out that my newest student only speaks Arabic, I didn't know what to say to him. I came up with something that I'm sure would have been comforting had he been able to understand it, but instead he looked at me helplessly and I returned to my patrol of the class.

What do you do in this situation? I shot a quick e-mail to the assistance principal to see about switching this student into my 4th period class, which has a student who speaks Arabic and a decent amount of English. I hope this happens... because otherwise, what do you do?

In Spanish, I could convey some meaning if I absolutely had to. I had another new LEP student today that I was able to help with comparing positive and negative integers by pointing at numbers and asking "menor o mejor?" The Spanish-English barrier is one thing - there are other students in the room who speak both languages... but what about Arabic?

I found out after school that some of the other teachers had used an online Arabic-English translator with him to type out some instructions or find out some more about him - BRILLIANT! That's just veteran teachership, I tell ya.

I've only known this kid for half of a day, so I don't know anything about him or where his math strengths are, but I can't help but feel for him. Of course my initial response was to worry about myself and how I would be able to teach him anything this year - but when I got home, all I could think about was what it would be like to get plopped into a room where no one else understands me and I can't understand anyone else... including the goofy dude with the beard and the tie waving his hands at the number line up in front.