My English Language Learner

February 13th, 2018

Today was the first day I met with my ELL student. Before this course, I knew what an ELL student was, but I did not know how amazing this job really was. I was amazed with how my mentor interacted with her students. I was in awe to see the process and level of what these students are learning at. I can not imagine coming from a different country and not knowing the language of where I was about to go to school. It made me want to be in her seat. It is fascinating to see how much of a difference she was able to make for these students... truly inspiring.
My specific student is a sophomore at Essex High School and is originally from Nepal. Prior to our visit, our mentor instructed us that he was a bit shy, but loves to learn new things. Today I saw how shy he was, but I also saw how eager he was to learn.  He is currently in the technical program at the school where he is taking tons of culinary courses as well as math and science. He is in the tech center for the first half of the day and then comes back to the high school for the second half in order to take his english and social studies courses. Today he was focusing on phonics, so basically his understanding which words were nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. I hope as I continue to make visits at Essex, I continue to see my students progress and continue to see how my mentor instructs him as he progresses in his learning.