Teaching at Harbor Secondary School

Greetings all,

I have had many questions regarding the students, the school, and the teaching which I thought I might try to address. The greatest shock in the first couple of weeks for many teachers was the realization that we had significant numbers of students who knew virtually no English but were attending a school in which the primary language of instruction is English. There were many frustrations initially, some of which continue at times, but I was realizing today that several of our students have made huge strides in English in just thirteen weeks of school. On the first day, for example, I had one 7th grade boy who could not say, "Hello, my name is ..." Today, though, he was able to explain to me that he reads a lot of books in Arabic and that he likes to read (!) but that he is slow in English. This from the boy who appeared to opt out mentally of all things at school in the beginning. Another day he asked if I could send an email explaining the homework to his mother because they were going to work on it together. When I responded that I would be happy to do that, he smiled at me and said, "Thank you, Mrs. Evans." Remarkable and impressive. This boy, I understand from our Arabic instructor, is a top student in that class - always does his homework, always polite and respectful. I realize that in my class when he does not do homework, it's because he simply did not understand me. He's really trying - and many teachers have noticed.

In my classes, I teach about 12 boys and girls together for world geography and English. In the 7th grade P.E. class, I teach only girls - twelve of them. We have access to the gym with the windows covered so the girls can play sports without fear of being seen. The girls love to play tag and running games, but we have also done units on fitness, badminton, and floor hockey. Sometimes we use the new Harbor Recreation Center where they can use the female gym for organized fitness classes (Jennifer's version of yoga and strength training), treadmills, and training bikes - or they can bowl. We are trying for more of the former. One day the rec center was experiencing water leakage issues and flooding, despite the dry weather, so we had to play basketball outside. For some of the girls with their head scarves and abayas, this was stressful until one girl called her mom to be sure it was okay. Then they relaxed, practiced tossing and passing the ball, and shot at the basket. By the end, most of the girls said it was really fun.

In the humanities class, we have been reading about Incan civilization as a precursor to student research projects and presentations on ancient civilizations of their choice. I have been thrilled to observe the mixture of students discussing questions from the readings (words that people don't understand) and trying to figure out what is important to know. The progress is startling when I remember that it has not even been half of a year.

Our own children are also maturing well. I know that we are throwing a bit of a kink in their lives by pulling up stakes from home and moving, but I have also seen growth in them that I might not have seen at home. Hayden is understanding and aware of the language developing in some of his classmates and he is becoming a leader in his class academically. He is also proud of his improving skills in Arabic. We have lots of younger kids around on our block, and often I see Hayden outside helping a younger boy with his scooter or starting a game of tag with several five-year olds. Logan just seems generally happy with life. He is beginning to read some words, sounding them out little by little, and he is quite pleased with himself. Both boys are good cyclists, getting plenty of practice on these flat streets (as opposed to the steep hills of Seattle), and developing as inline skaters!

Thanks for reading. Sorry if this is too long. Jennifer