When newcomer students enter Catherine Stephens' classroom at the beginning of the year, they face a difficult challenge: her students do not speak English. This fact may not seem remarkable, except, the teacher does not speak the students' native languages either. Some do not even speak each other's native tongue. This year's middle school newcomer students come from Vietnam, Panama, El Salvador, China, Korea, and Mexico. Yet, they all share one thing in common. Their teacher is Catherine Stephens.
Catherine Stephens teaches the Newcomer program for all middle school students in MISD at Rogene Worley Middle School. She was recently named the 2007 ESL (English as a Second Language) Teacher of The Year by the Texas Association of Bilingual Education or TABE. Ms. Stephens was selected as the Secondary Regional ESL Teacher of The Year for Bilingual Education Association of the Metroplex (BEAM). This honor made Ms. Stephens eligible to be entered in to the TABE Teacher of the Year selection process. She will be presented her award at the TABE Conference in San Antonio this October 3-6.
Q&A with Catherine Stephens:
What is a Newcomer teacher?
A Newcomer teacher teaches students who have recently arrived to the United States, and who speak little or no English. We cover just about everything from the basic alphabet, to cultural concerns, to content area vocabulary in an effort to help the students acclimate not only to the English language, but also to life in the US.
How long have you been in the district?
This is my sixth year of teaching with the MISD. During my first two years, I taught as a classroom ESL teacher at Wester and Worley Middle Schools. Then, MISD implemented the Newcomer program, and I was selected to teach the Middle School level. We've had three wonderful years, and I'm looking forward to the fourth.
How long in have you been in education?
This school year is my eleventh year as a teacher. I taught in Arlington ISD for four years as an ESL Pull-out teacher before I came to Mansfield.
What would you say are some challenges you face as a Newcomer Teacher?
The biggest challenge I face as a Newcomer teacher is not being able to communicate with my students when they first arrive in my classroom. We use gestures and pictures, among many other things to communicate until we get enough English vocabulary under our belts. Even then, gestures and pictures play a huge part in our classroom daily. The students themselves are not a challenge at all; they are delightful to work with. Sometimes it completely boggles my mind how much they can learn in such a short time.
Why did you choose ESL/Bilingual Education?
When I was doing my teaching internship in college, there was a student who moved in to our school who knew no English at all. When I saw the struggles the student had with trying to understand what was going on around him, I just wanted to help him. He was a bright boy, but he had a hard time demonstrating that to anyone because he didn't know the language. When I mentioned the situation to one of my professors, he told me about the graduate program that could train me to be an ESL teacher. It wasn't long before I was hooked.
In less than a month, Catherine Stephens already has her students prepared to introduce themselves properly, speak with her and each other, read and take notes, all done in English. "They have the ambition," says Stephens, "We are very proud of them."
Being named Texas ESL Teacher of the year entitles Catherine to compete for the national ESL Teacher of the Year which will be awarded at a conference in Tampa, FL February 6-9, 2008. |
