Introducing Me!
Hello, My name is Nadia Bhojwani. I am EC-6 Generalist at the University of Houston. I am in my final semester so I will hopefully begin teaching next Fall. I am student teacher in a 4th grade classroom at Velasquez Elementary and I love it! I am from a mixed raced family: my mother is Caucasian and my father is Pakistani: I am bilingual with the ability to speak both Urdu and English. However I am more comfortable speaking in English and even though I can speak and understand Urdu I do not really speak it. I grew up learning Urdu from my father side of the family and watching Bollywood movies! I have always loved teaching since I was young and want to be inspiration for all my students. For my future ESL students I plan to create a fun and safe classroom where they are intrinsically motivated to learn English through group work, sentence stems, and by being patient with my students. I want to build their confidence so they are just as much apart of the classroom community as the other students!
Here's the YouTube Link to My Blog 1 Video:
https://youtu.be/nGt33Mmylds
Hello Nadia,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed watching your introduction video. It is great to know two languages. Are you feeling more confident and often taking in Urdu now? I’m agreeing with you that as an educator it is important to understand that every student learns at his or her own pace with different learning styles and as a teacher we should be patient and accommodate. It’s also important to know what our ELLs students need from us in able to success in our classroom and learn a new language. Wright said “Thus, the more the teacher knows about a student’s experiences, the more he or she can assume about the expertise that student is likely to have” (Wright, p. 17)
Thank you! I am glad you liked my video. Knowing a second language does have many benefits: one of which is that it allows you to connect to a whole new set of people who speak that language and their culture. Knowing how to speak Urdu has allowed me to be more aware of the customs of both Indians and Pakistanis like wearing their tradition clothing at weddings or special occasions, eating their culture's food such as Biryani, and just being apart of their community. I am proud of my culture and love that I come from a mixed race family. As for my confidence in speaking Urdu, I am still struggling with that because it been so long since I spoke to my family members in Urdu that I am not willing to embarrass myself. Like I mentioned in my video when my relatives do speak in Urdu I always response back in English till this day. It does make me feel like awkward sometimes because I feel like I should be responding back in Urdu, but It is something I hope to work on. As a teacher I know that my students are going to come from different backgrounds or cultures and speak different languages. According to Wright, as a teacher It is important to understand your student's culture and how it influences how they learn and act at school ( p. 17). For my ESL students I can to try learn about their culture and incorporate some of their traditions in the classroom as a way to make the environment safe and show that I appreciate their diversity.
DeleteHi Nadia!
ReplyDeleteI loved watching your video! I am also student teaching in a fourth grade classroom, how cool! I think it's awesome that you got to learn two languages at the same time. I learned Spanish in school, and not in a natural setting, but like you I am afraid of saying something incorrectly which often time makes me self-limit how often I use the language. I think that often times languages other than Spanish are "forgotten" about when we speak about ELLs. There are many students who come from other various backgrounds and were taught a variety of other languages, including but not limited to: Vietnamese, Arabic, and Haitian (Wright, p. 11). I love that we live in such a diverse city and that we have the resources to help meet the needs of all students who are all at different stages of learning the English language.
Madeline Downs
Hello Ladies,
DeleteI can relate to speaking two languages like both of you. My native language is Spanish. I can also relate to the fear of speaking a language. I believe many new language learners share this same fear. For me, it was English that made me afraid. I questioned my writing and pronunciation all of the time. Perhaps, I will eventually lose that fear completely. I began speaking English at the age of 12, that is half of my life, yet I still sometimes find myself questioning my writing and pronunciation. I think it is because Spanish is sometimes expressed differently. Congratulations to you both on your student teaching semesters!
Hi! Thanks for watching my video! I completely agree that we do forget that ESL students can speak languages other than Spanish and these students should be provided the same access to resources to succeed. We actually have an ESL student who came to Velasquez a few months ago speaking only Chinese. He's not in my 4th grade, but I do have him on walker bus duty after school. I can definitely see major improvement in his English constantly as he interacts with another student. I think as teachers we need to be prepare for students of all culture and languages in our classroom because Houston is growing in population and become more and more diverse as people migrate from other countries. According to Wright, while it is important to learn about the different cultures of your students and integrate them into your lessons, educators have a common inclinations to generalize the Mexican and Chinese cultures for all Latinos and Asians. For example in the author's previous school they had large population of Cambodian Asian, however some teachers would focus their lessons on the Chinese New Year to celebrate the Asian culture not realizing it did not apply to Cambodian Asians (p. 17).
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