Interview Questions

1. Do you find it hard to connect to your students different cultures?

2. Do you educate yourself on their background?
3. How do you go about the differences in culture when speaking to parents?
4. What is the hardest thing to do while working with ELLs?
5. How do you communicate with the parents of the ELLs?
6. What is the most important thing to consider when teaching an ELL?
7. What is your teaching background?
8. What accommodations do you think work the best with teaching ELLs?
9. Have any of your students become emotionally distraught due to being in a
different country?
10. Are you able to speak any of your students languages and if not, how do you
instruct the students?
Self Reflection with Interview Answers
I am very fortunate to have a mom as a teacher. Not only has she helped me a
great deal with my studies, but also she is always there when I need to interview a
teacher. My mom is a 3rd grade teacher at P.S. 42 in Claremont Park, Bronx NY. My
mom has a bachelors degree in social work and early childhood education. She also has
a masters in special education and certified to teach general education and special
education in grades 1-6. She has 19 years of administrative experience in early childhood
education and 5 years of teaching elementary education.
My mom told me that due to her school and her classroom being so diverse it is
not hard to relate to all the different cultures, but it is hard to make someones culture part
of the curriculum because someone is always slighted. Both her school and classroom do
not celebrate any holidays because in her classroom alone there are 2 students who do not
speak English, several who speak very little English, 7 different religions and students
from 8 different countries. She is sure to always be respectful to all the different cultures
around her. I find this very interesting because I could never imagine having a class full
of students with such different backgrounds. I agree with the schools rule not allowing
culture to be apart of the curriculum because it would be far too hard to incorporate all
the different cultures.
My mom is unable to fully educate herself on the students background because
she is not given access to it. She only knows what either her students or her students
parents tell her. She said that she does her best to be up to date with all the different

cultures, but if she spends too much time knowing about one culture and not enough
about another someone will get offended. I could see it being easy and assessable if you
only had one student with a rather different background, but having a class full of
different backgrounds it would be far too hard and complicated to know information
about them all.
Two of my moms students are Muslim and their fathers will not speak to her,
make eye contact with her, or shake her hand. Only their mothers will speak with her
because I she is a female. A few of her other students have parents who do not speak any
English, so if she needs to speak to them she has an interpreter with her and they also
receive all mail and information in their native language. I was really caught off guard
when my mom told me that the Muslim fathers would not speak to her, make eye contact
with her or even shake her hand. I knew that Muslim men treated women differently than
I am used to, but I did not know it was to this extent. Also I feel that having to speak
through an interpreter would be hard because some key information may be lost in
translation.
According to my mom the hardest thing to do while working with ELLs is the
language barrier. She said academically they could probably handle the work, but the
language barrier is so immense that it does not show their true capabilities.
Unfortunately those students often get labeled special needs, even though they do not
have any learning disabilities. Also she said it is hard to find differentiated material with
the same curriculum that I am teaching in the classroom because the students in my class
who do not speak English all have different dialects and slang. I did not even realize that
even if it is called the same language it could have completely different slang and
dialects. I could only imagine how difficult it would be to have to find worksheets or
stuff like that each and every day for all the students who need it. I can now understand
why mom stays up late every night doing all this work.
My mom thinks it is very important to make sure the ELLs self-esteem and
confidence is very high. She tries to find something that the ELLs are good at, find
things that make them happy and feel safe. She also said that a lot of her students
struggle with self-esteem and confidence who are not ELLs because of how rough her
students living situations are. So she tries her best to make sure everyone leaves the day
with a smile on their face. She finds that visuals work best for her ELLs. A few of her
students have a ring with a bunch of laminated cards on it. On the cards there are
common needs, actions and important people that they can point to and use to
communicate. Also her students who do not speak English are pulled out of class for 40
minutes a day to work with learning the English language.
One of my moms students would become emotionally unstable at random points
of the day for the first few weeks of him being at school. He would bolt out of the
classroom because he did not know what was going on and was surrounded by no one
who spoke his language. My mom said she would set up as many obstacles as she could
to make it more difficult for him to run out of the room. If he did leave the room my
mom would call the office and security to go and find him because she was not able to
leave the classroom. My mom had the interpreter call the parents and inform them what
was taking place and then the interpreter had a conversation with the student to inform
him on how dangerous leaving the classroom was. Once this problem was taken care of
and he felt more comfortable and safe he fit right in with the rest of his peers. I could

only imagine how scared that little boy felt being in not just a new classroom surrounded
by people who could not speak his language, but also being in a country he has never
been in before.
After having this conversation with my mom we both realized the importance of
this class. My mom never had to option to take a class like this and she is grateful that I
am able to learn everything I have in this class so far. She told me that back when she
was in college the thought of having a student who did not speak English in your class
was bizarre. Now she says its becoming more and more common in not only her school,
but all the schools.