Reflections on a trade school fair

Earlier this month, Pete and Mary took students to a trade school fair at the school district's offices. Here are Pete's reflections on the experience:

Sometimes providing an opportunity, some moral support and even just being there can help students overcome their insecurities.

Before the Holiday break Mary and I took a few students to a technical and vocational career fair at the Main Office of the School District. These students had attended a Hispanic College Fair in October which I also chaperoned. On that day, these students wandered around a small gymnasium floor in a dizzying crowd of students from many different high schools. They didn’t really talk to any of the college representatives and seemed to grow disinterested quickly. I tried to encourage them, but we only had 45 minutes and our time was up quickly.

Some weeks later, one of these students expressed an interest in technical training, so Jen arranged this trip as an opportunity for those students who were looking for something other than a “traditional” college or university path. We left the school around 4 o’clock, and after a brief stop for some fast food, we braved the gloom and drizzle. We arrived before five, and I was surprised to see that many of the tables were empty.

I went with one of the students to talk to someone at one of the first tables we encountered about electrician training, while Mary gathered information from other technical schools for some other students who were not able to attend, and for our resource room. This student and I were able to get an application and useful information about the school and program. I think that having Mary and I close by gave the student more confidence to ask questions as well.

Another student was interested in careers in aerospace, so we encouraged him to talk to representatives from several different schools and I stood close by to provide moral support, while he spoke to the admissions person This same student even learned about other careers he had not considered, like computer technician and automotive specialist.

Interacting with career professionals, as an English learner, can be a very scary undertaking. I am glad we were able to support these students by giving them a chance to obtain career and training information that met their needs.

Words, words, words

One game that students and mentors have been playing recently is Boggle. What I enjoy observing about Boggle is how nimble it makes people's brains. It's like watching the beginning of a dance class, while people are stretching their muscles and warming up, and then fast-forwarding to the end of class, when everyone is jumping, bending, and flexing in beautiful ways.

Boggle consists of a set of small cubes (like dice) with letters of the alphabet printed on them. To play the game, you shake up the dice and then let them settle into a small grid. With an egg timer going, players then look at the grid and try to spot as many words as they can in the jumble of letters. Each player writes a list of the words that he or she spots. You can count any letters as part of a word as long as each one is somehow touching one of the other letters. But you can't reverse direction and skip over a cube while trying to spell out your word.

The Boggle grid is small. It can be confusing to look at, because the letters may be upside down or sideways. Many players start with easy words, such as cat or tip. Sometimes that leads to a longer word, such as catch. You can sometimes get more than one word from the same group of letters, such as rear and rare.

Boggle calls upon different kinds of talents. First of all, it helps if you know a lot of words. The more possibilities you have, the more words you can find. Second, it helps if you can visualize and rearrange letters in your head. Some players combine these two skills, and impress us by their ability to find quaint and fracture.

After the game, we review our lists and compare to see who found the most unique words. This is a good opportunity to share new vocabulary, such as nit and mite. We look forward to more Boggle after the holidays.

Work zone

Crunch time. Students have been hard at work in our room during the past week, powering through projects, presentations, and other assignments. Sitting at the computers, they tap away writing essays and letters, while on the other side of the room, they page through their textbooks and scribble homework answers on looseleaf.

School can be a lot of work, but the effort pays off. Students are learning new material, practicing English, and working together. By doing research and asking good questions, they are also setting a good foundation for the years ahead. Many students are preparing to make the transition from high school to college. Just last week, one of our students was accepted to Penn State. Other students are pursuing careers as electricians or cosmetologists. Their diligence and smart choices now will make a big difference in their futures.

Of course, we don't believe in all work and no play. So we'll celebrate with a party after school today. Candy canes and eggnog and gingerbread houses, oh my...

Holiday party

We will be having a holiday party after school in our room on Wednesday, December 19. Students and school staff are invited to come!

Mock interviews

Every Monday for the past four weeks, we've held a workshop on the job search process. Students have been writing their resumes, filling out job applications, and learning about interview skills. Yesterday, we had the culminating workshop, and it was a great experience for all.

The intention of the workshop was to have students practice the skills they've learned in a simulated job interview and receive feedback. Amanda and Michelle came down from the office to conduct the interviews, while Amy coordinate students. Students were asked questions about their goals, experiences, strengths, and weaknesses and were then critiqued on their performance.

This was not the first time we've held this workshop. Last spring, we held a career exploration series with a group of students. One benefit of part of an outside organization is that our colleagues there can lend us their expertise. Students had the opportunity to practice with someone they did not know well, which probably made the mock interviews more realistic.

One difference we observed in the workshops we held in the spring and this month: last time, we had about half a dozen students, all of whom were girls from one country. This time, we had about the same number of students, but they came from five other countries and three continents, and most of them were boys. This goes to show how universal the need for these skills are; after all, all of these students will eventually be in an interview situation, if they haven't already.

This workshop concluded our fall job skills series. We'll continue to help students with finding and getting jobs as they come to us.

Destination: Gettysburg

On Wednesday, I visited Gettysburg, PA for the first time. As a history major, I had an idea of the town's role in the Civil War and enjoy seeing places with past significance. This time, however, I was not there as a tourist, but as a chaperone.

Our high school's college counselor had arranged a campus visit to the college in the town of Gettysburg. I knew all of the students who were going, so I went along as well. It was a small liberal arts college that did fairly well in the national rankings. It had also just become SAT-optional.

It started as a cold, crisp day. As we drove down Interstate 76, we started to see flurries: the first snow of the year. By the time we drove past the town's cemeteries and historically preserved buildings, a layer of white already covered the ground.

At the college, we visited the admissions office and its multicultural student center. We also spoke to students and a professor, ate in the dining hall, and took a campus tour. A snowball or two was also thrown. Life there was very different from anything in our own city. I think some of our own students' eyes were opened, and I know mine were as well.

While I've spent much of my post-graduate life at schools and colleges, I have not been a prospective student anywhere in a long time. Thinking back to my own experience applying to college seven years ago, I only considered a limited number of schools. I definitely did not even think of applying to anyplace this rural or this far west. I'm not sure I had even heard of this college. Things worked out, more or less, but there remains the big "what if."

Knowing everything I know now, if I were a teenager again, would I have made the same choices? It is an impossible question, of course. For the sake of the students I work with now, the ones who will have to face those decisions very soon, I hope they make the right ones.

Our trip to the University of Pennsylvania

On Sunday, we took our second trip of the year to the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Amy and I, along with a dozen of our students, were there to attend a celebration sponsored by a local Arabic arts organization.

We saw performances of Arabic percussion, singing, and dancing. Before the show, there were also demonstrations of henna, calligraphy, and drumming. Some students were familiar with the songs, while others knew little about Arabic culture.

After the celebration, we took some students on a tour of the Penn campus. Amy is a student there, and she had come up with an itinerary for us. Though it was cold, wet, and dark outside, we still got to see many different parts of the university: a library, a dining hall, classrooms, a dorm, and the bookstore.

All in all, this was a nice way to see students outside the school and experience new things. We are hoping to have more trips soon, perhaps on upcoming weekends, during the evenings, or on Fridays.

Like night and day

There are times when it is quiet in Room 217B. Students and mentors are in classes, the school is calm, and there are no disruptions. Moments like these are good opportunities to check e-mail, read a journal article, catch up on education news, or have some lunch.

Then we have lunch and after school. Like this afternoon, for instance. I spent it splitting my attention among at least half a dozen students while doing a dozen different things: editing an essay, giving suggestions on filling out a college application, reviewing a thesis statement, spelling words, giving out trip permission slips, distributing reminder notices, demonstrating the public library's Web site, explaining how to double-space, making introductions, admiring student artwork, etc. I did not stop the entire time. Mary and Steve and Amanda were all similarly occupied.

17 students signed in after school today. Lunch is even busier.

We are growing, and learning. Lately, we are learning how to balance increasing numbers of student requests with helping every student with whatever they need. We also strive to build relationships with new students while deepening our relationships with the ones we know best. It is hard to believe that only a few years ago, we were just a tiny volunteer program that spent several hours a week at the school. What will we be like in a few years' time?

Students: What are your opinions?

Last Monday, students received their report cards. On Wednesday, we decided to ask students to give us their report card on us.

During lunch, we invited any students who came in to join us in a group discussion about how they felt about Project Bridging Cultures. The conversation was centered around three questions:

What do you like about our program?
How can our program help you better?
What are your ideas for our program?

They could either tell us what their opinions were or write them down in an anonymous survey. I'll highlight some of them in a future post. We plan to review all the responses we got and use them to help guide the direction of our program as it evolves in the upcoming months.

Job workshops

As we continue to work with many students in applying to jobs, we have started our new job workshop series. Many students are currently working or looking for jobs, so we decided to focus on skills that are necessary to apply for and get a job.

Yesterday, we held a session on writing resumes. Ten students, including several who were new to Bridging Cultures, came to the computer lab after school to learn about the different parts of the resume. We will also be holding these afterschool workshops on the following Mondays in Room 217A:

November 26: Job Applications
December 3: Interviews
December 10: More Interview Skills

English Other Languages for Speakers of Other Languages

Among the many languages we hear in the Bridging Cultures classroom, English is by far the most common. This makes sense, since 1) we try to encourage students to speak English, 2) many students are themselves eager to practice, and 3) English is the only language everyone has in common, so 4) students who come from different linguistic backgrounds use English to communicate.

Lately, however, I've noticed some interesting moments. Like a Haitian student showing off some new greetings a Vietnamese friend taught him. Or a student looking up words in an online Indonesian-Spanish dictionary. Or an emergent English learner hanging on eagerly to Steve's explanation of the pun in the title of the German band Rammstein's song "Du Hast."

So we might start seeing this more and more: students learning not only English, but their friends' languages as well. Students teaching each other their languages using the lingua franca of English. English speakers becoming bilingual, bilingual students becoming polyglots. Common languages can be the best bridges of all.

Some statistics on Project Bridging Cultures

In addition to working with students, one of our major responsibilities is keeping accurate records of the program's activities. We use this information both to work more effectively with students and to explain what we do to anyone who is interested. Therefore, part of what I do each day is make sure we have the data that we need, such as student intake forms and an attendance log.

After an initial analysis, we've uncovered some interesting information about our students. The 130 students we have intake information on so far come from all grades and backgrounds. They include students who have been in the United States for a month and students who have lived in this city their entire lives. While most students live nearby, a significant number travel from neighborhoods across the city. And after seeing increasing numbers of students in our classroom, it is not unusual to have close to 100 student sign-ins per day.

That said, most of my time is spent in our classroom, while mentors spend much of their time in classes, averaging a dozen periods a day in all. One of our core principles is that we reach students wherever they are. By going into students' classes, we see many of those students who might not otherwise come into our center and provide extra support to everyone.

Fun with words

I am a big fan of language, so when I visit Bridging Cultures, we often end up talking about words.

For example, in Pete’s English conversation group we discussed the word thwarted. Pete had prepared a “conversational Tic-Tac-Toe” game in which the participants could practice their English by answering questions. If they were able to answer correctly, using a complete sentence, their team was allowed to put an X or an O on the Tic-Tac-Toe board.

We were surprised when one team put their energy into blocking the other team’s victory, rather than trying to win themselves. This is what made me think of the word thwarted. We wrote it on the chalkboard and discussed the meaning. No one had heard of it before. Afterwards, I polled five native English speakers (adults) and only one of them had heard of the word. That surprised me.

Another time, it was 5 p.m. and two students were lingering in our classroom. Although it was growing dark outside, they were entranced by the magnetic poetry. They giggled and snickered as they chose different words to make silly sentences. Jennifer and I were cleaning up and getting ready to leave, but the students did not want to go.

Finally, I walked over and made my own sentence: Jumping home now. They laughed at my verb choice. Later, I saw them in the subway. I made three small hops (like a frog) as I passed them, but I didn’t say anything.

November

The college fair trip was a success! We went to the convention center, talked to representatives from many colleges, and picked up their materials. Afterwards, we had ice cream. We'll plan more trips throughout the year.

November is heavy on evaluation. Many seniors just took the SAT this past Saturday. On Wednesday and Thursday, there will be subject benchmark tests, and report cards for the first marking period will be distributed in a couple of weeks. It can be a stressful time for students, so we try to lighten the mood in different ways, such as making beads during Art Club, hosting student parties, and putting magnetic poetry on the walls.

Mary on helping students learn

"One of the most rewarding parts of this program is working with students over the weeks and getting to observe them grasp the material they are being taught. Subjects like World History and Physical Science contain concepts and vocabulary that are difficult for even native English speakers. It is easy for ESOL students to fall behind or skim through information without fully understanding it.

Sometimes it is a simple picture or the use of a different word that makes all of the difference. After one on one or group assistance, it is satisfying to recognize when a student makes the connection between the words they are writing and the ideas behind them. This is part of why Bridging Cultures is so important.

An example of this can be seen when I work one on one with a particular student in a science class. This student is an emerging English speaker and has trouble speaking and writing. He also is very tired and falls asleep in class due to his heavy work schedule outside of school. Over the past couple of weeks I have sat beside him in class, going through assignments and review worksheets.

By illustrating the information and giving simpler examples I am beginning to see the student acknowledging and processing the information being taught. It is just a matter of modifying the delivery of information in a way that benefits the individual student. "

College, college, college

Last Friday, I visited the College Board's annual conference in New York to find out more about national trends in college access. It was heartening to learn about the various ways in which higher education institutions were working to reach underserved populations.

We continue to help students with college, standardized testing, and scholarship applications. Given that paying for college is a major concern for many students, we will be having a workshop on financial aid on Monday, November 5.

We will also be going to the Philadelphia National College Fair on Sunday at the PA Convention Center. We went last year and it was fun. This year, many students have already signed up. We look forward to getting lots of information and having a good time.

Universal languages

Steve and I were talking today about how cool it would be if there were a written language that everyone could understand. All the words would correspond to words in each of the world's languages. Any two people could communicate through writing, even if they could not understand each other through speaking.

Our universal language right now is Uno. We've seen the game conducted in at least four languages: English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Indonesian. Yet given a basic understanding of the rules, anyone can play regardless of which languages they speak. In the room, there have been Uno players who don't speak more than a few words of English, and players who speak only English. They would have little trouble enjoying a game together around the coffee table.

The latest hit in the room has been chess. A surprising number of students have taken to the game. They are not the usual suspects either. Even more interestingly, students who may not talk or even encounter each other otherwise are sitting together at the chess board, often in silence and full concentration.

One more thing these students have in common: we have trouble getting them to go to class when the bell rings.

Pete on the English conversation group

Pete has been running his lunchtime English conversation group for the past three weeks. Here is what he wrote about how it started:

"There are many new students this year who do not speak English. I observed that many of these students need intense conversation practice, so I decided to create an English conversation group during our busiest lunch period. I went to the teachers to build support for the idea and the teachers were very receptive. Most of them announced the conversation group during advisory (homeroom) period.

Although the teachers were very supportive of the idea, finding an available room proved very difficult. Because our Bridging Cultures room is very busy during this time, I needed to find another room, and I spent a great deal of time consulting with the ESL Program Director and with many teachers before finding one teacher whose room was available.

With the help of the Bridging Cultures staff I continued to publicize the group. On Tuesday, a number of students came to the conversation group eager to practice speaking English, and many of them have expressed interest in coming regularly to the group. I look forward to helping these students work with each other to practice and improve their conversation skills."

More college workshops

The season for college applications is approaching. Naturally, students are concerned about many things: which schools to apply to, what they might want to study, and whether their GPA and SAT scores are high enough.

We talk to students about these topics as they come to us, and we also keep college guides, test preparation manuals, and other publications available to students. We also had a pair of SAT preparation workshops and a well-attended introduction to applying to college. We will be continuing these workshops with a session on writing college application essays this afternoon and one on financial aid in about two weeks.

Amy on working with students on school subjects

"The disparity between a student’s English ability and his intellectual capacity can sometimes make an otherwise simple concept extremely difficult. For example, ESOL students can take math, science and history classes, but although those classes do not specifically test English, they do require a certain amount of proficiency in it. As mentors, that’s one of the situations in which we can be of most help.

When one student came to me last week because he had trouble with his science homework, I was initially concerned that I wouldn’t be able to explain the concepts using very simple terms. However, it turned out that conceptually, he already grasped the topic and only needed help with understanding the textbook and his homework questions. By teaching him what some basic terms meant, I was able to show him how to find the given variables and the variable for which to solve within the questions, and he was able to find the right equations and calculate the answers by himself."

The Bridging Cultures community

I am the coordinator of Project Bridging Cultures. I started working as a mentor in the fall of 2006, and it has been a remarkable experience seeing this program grow and evolve during the past thirteen months.

While I have been writing the entries on this blog during the past several weeks, my perspective is just one among many. From our downtown offices, Amanda keeps watch over the program with great diligence and care. The mentors--Pete, Oumar, Steve, Mary, and Amy--are energetic and dedicated in working with students and connecting with them. Still other people have stopped by to visit or volunteer.

In the next few entries, I will be posting some of their experiences in their own words.

SAT season

This is a big week for college admissions tests. Today was the first of our SAT workshops. Fifteen juniors and seniors came to learn about how to do sentence completion questions from Mary and Amy. The school will also be giving the PSAT this week to juniors. In addition, students take many other exams, including the PSSA, subject benchmark exams, SAT subject tests, APs, the ACT, and the TOEFL, all of which have their own formats and serve different purposes. Testing can be a challenge for students, so we try to make sure they're prepared.

Senior projects

Today I was at a meeting about senior projects that all ESOL students were required to attend. Word had been buzzing among students about senior projects for weeks. Some of them had come up to us, concerned about what they had to do. We've been asked to help students with these projects.

The senior project is a graduation requirement for all high school students in the state. It is a yearlong effort that involves not just a paper, but also involves fieldwork, a portfolio, and a presentation in front of a panel of judges. Students can pick their own topic, but it must be one into which they can do serious research.

There were a variety of responses to the announcement of the project today. Some students were excited and knew what they wanted to do right away, while others felt a bit anxious about all that was involved. Many of the topics that students wanted to do were quite impressive: illegal immigration, organ transplants, foreign aid to dictators, and so forth. Other students did not know what they wanted to research yet, so they had a list to consult. Some of the topics were unfamiliar to them: "What is holistic medicine? Sweatshops? Outsourcing? Jihad? The right to die?" We discussed these together.

We anticipate seeing many more students coming in with senior project questions next week. I think it'll be exciting and fun.

English Conversation Group and Applying to College Workshop

We had our first lunchtime meeting of the English conversation group today. While students take classes in English, some of them may not necessarily have much of an opportunity to practice speaking with each other outside of class. We had some very engaged students participating today, and we hope to have some more.

We are also having a workshop for seniors this afternoon. The season for college applications is approaching, so today we'll discuss some of the basic things students need to know. We'll also have more specific workshops scheduled in the next few weeks.

First week of October

What an incredibly busy week it has been at Project Bridging Cultures. Mentors have been going into more classes than ever, more students are coming into our classroom than ever, and we are planning more and more activities.

Students have been hard at work studying for classes and registering for the SAT, so this afternoon, we will wind down with an origami session at Art Club with Steve. Next week, we will have a workshop called Applying to College for the seniors. On the horizon: SAT preparation, study skills, and an English conversation group...

Project Bridging Cultures in action

A couple of snapshots from a typical afternoon:

End of September

On our last day at the school in September, we held a workshop about war in a class, had a collage-making session in Art Club after school, and continued talking to many, many students.

In October, our schedule will be packed with activities for seniors, as they prepare to for life after high school. We are emphasizing college access, as we have scheduled an SAT registration party and SAT preparation workshops, in addition to workshops about applying to college we will offer in the next couple of months. Also in the works are a series of study skills workshops and a lunchtime conversation group. Keep posted for further details.

Yesterday after school

One of the busiest times of the day for us is the two-hour period after the school day ends. In the past, most students visited us during lunch, since they had to work after school. Nowadays, many of them also stay after their classes are over to do homework, get help, and hang out.

Yesterday, 3 o'clock rolled by and we were mobbed as usual. Students were working on English and physical science homework, filling out SAT registration forms, and using the computers. Five of us--three mentors, a volunteer, and I--went around the room and talked to students.

Usually, things calm down by 4, but not yesterday. During our second hour, students kept right on working. A game of Guess Who started in the corner, while two students had a discussion about Chinese and Spanish. All of us remained busy, busy, busy.

Our program closes at 5. At 4:55, many students were still hard at work. "Time to go home," we said. "We don't want to leave!" they said. "Can we stay here all the time?" But it was time to go for the day. We will see them again this afternoon.

Tour of the Bridging Cultures room

Here are some pictures of our classroom in a (rare!) quiet moment.


Students come to our room to study, do homework, and get answers for any questions they have about school, college, and jobs.



Students also come to our room to practice their English, read, chat, play games, relax, and have fun.



Students use the computers in the room to work on essays and projects, check their e-mail, browse the Internet, or even to learn how to type.



Thank you for visiting our classroom!

First meeting of Art Club

Yesterday was the first meeting of our newly launched Art Club. After school, Mary and a group of students gathered around a table to make personal logos. Their designs featured their first initials and symbols of their lives.

The club was a success! For over an hour, students created their own unique and colorful brands. The club will meet again the following Thursday, and we expect even more students to show up this time.

A vignette

Two Pakistanis, two Americans, a Vietnamese, and a mentor sitting around a coffee table playing Uno and laughing together at lunch.

We always like to see this kind of cooperative fun in our room.

Second week of school

On Monday, all of the mentors started going into classrooms to work with students. Each week, teachers can request that mentors visit their rooms, and right away, three teachers asked for mentors for a total of 22 periods this week.

We see many students in our own room, but when we go into other classrooms, we get a broader cross-section of the population. Many of them are new to the school, and after seeing us in their classes, they visit us when they are not in class as well. Many more students are coming to see us to chat or to get help with homework, especially after school.

Meanwhile, we continue to put our room in good shape. Our balloons and streamers from the party last week are still up, and we've been filling up our bulletin board with announcements, white boards for the students to write on, and a suggestion box. We've also gotten some new games in the room, like Uno and Scrabble. So far, Guess Who? is a big hit.

Our programming schedule starts tomorrow with Art Club.

Welcome back party

Yesterday, we kicked off the school year by throwing a big welcome back party in our classroom after school. We put fliers up in the hallway, hung balloons and streamers around the room, and got plenty of refreshments, including a delicious buttercream cake from Melrose Diner.

We had a great time. A few dozen students, teachers and school staff came, and we all ate and chatted and had fun. What a way to hold our first event and end the first week of school. We have some more plans in the works...

First day of school

Today was the first day for the students at the high school. We had been preparing to relaunch our program for the last several weeks, so it was a delight to get started with the school year.

We spent the day busy with various tasks: talking to students and teachers, preparing our bulletin board, distributing flyers for our Welcome Back party this Wednesday, and generally getting everything in order. Seeing all the familiar faces of our students after two months of summer vacation was the best part.

This is going to be a terrific school year.