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D MAY 23, 2013 MORGAN COUNTY CITIZEN

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Seventh grade MCMS reading and science teacher Ashley Potter (far left) guides Esperanza Montez (second from left) through the Tell Me More English language tutorial program.

A group of teachers at MCMS have taken it upon themselves to give non-English speaking parents some

WordstoLiveBy O cho, nueve, diez. Maria Victoria whispers the numbers in English. Eight, nine, ten. She stares intently at the small netbook in front of her. She has come a long way to this small work table in the Morgan County Middle School library on a rainy Sunday. Maria, and nearly 20 other adult English language learners, are wearing headphones and whispering softly in accented English as thunder rolls outside.

“I lived [in America] for 15 years, no English. My American friend, she say, ‘Oooh, Maria, you lazy woman, no English!’ and I say, ‘I promise! I learning!’”

Maria came to America after her first marriage fell apart. She married a man in Mexico when she was 16 or 17 and had two children: Greg and Judith. Her husband was unfaithful, and they separated, leaving her to take care of their children. “I worked, 7 in the morning, to 12 midnight, two works, two jobs. My first job, tacos, the second, posoles, tamales. In Mexico, there’s so little money.” Eventually she was able to move her family to California, where she met her second husband, Manuel.

Several years ago, she moved with Manuel and their children to Morgan County, where Greg was enrolled in Sharon McCullough’s class at Morgan County Middle School. When Sharon found out that Manuel, a horse trainer, was struggling with the written portion of the U.S. citizenship test, she decided to help.

“I would go to the barn and work with him, every day, for a couple of months,” she said. Manuel studied diligently, and with McCullough’s tutoring, he obtained his U.S. citizenship. roughout the years, McCullough, and fellow MCMS teachers Katherine Edwards, Luisa Guerra, Ashley Potter and Heather Jackson, have met several families like the Victorias, struggling to assimilate to life in America, despite an English language barrier. Many of the children from these families qualified for the English Language Learners (ELL) program. According to Debra White, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning at the Morgan County School System, there are 54 ELL students in the system this year. In 2012, there were 60 students. Most of the system’s ELL students are native Spanish speakers, though there are a few that speak other languages.

“Katherine and I had some of the same ELL students. We knew that their parents don’t speak English very well, most of them, and we would have parent conferences, and Luisa would have to come and translate.

And we thought, the parents might be more comfortable if they knew a little bit more English,” said McCullough. After several years of wanting to do something to help these families, the solution came during a ELL standards training session. e teachers approached MCMS Principal Lydia Norburg and asked if they could offer English classes for the parents of ELL students. Norburg suggested they apply for a federal Charter Schools Innovation Grant.

“We had 24 hours, maybe, to write the grant. We kind of wrote it right there, then Katherine took it home and tweaked it with her husband,” McCullough said. e hastily

By Katie Walker | Photos by Jesse Walker

Know English, No Problem.

How would you fare in these common situations that English Language Learner parents encounter? See how it goes with this flow chart.

Take him to the doctor yourself, and home someone there can translate.

A nurse speaks your language, and is able to answer your questions.

His fever is still high.

You have to take him to the E.R. or a clinic.

No employees speak your language, and you can’t understand what the doctor says about the prescription.

Try to care for him at home.

Your child is sick.

Do you:

Luisa Guerra helps Miguel Martinez work through the Tell Me More program.

written, but long-dreamed-of, grant requested funds to purchase Rosetta Stone, a popular language software system, and to pay the teachers for two hours of work every Sunday for six weeks. e total grant award was $10,637, which included $5,450 originally budgeted to purchase Rosetta Stone and $5,187 in stipend money for the teachers. However, using a different educational grant, the board purchased Tell Me More, a program similar to Rosetta Stone, for language education in the schools. Incidentally, Tell Me More worked quite well for the ELL parent program, saving the budding venture more than half of its funds. Part of the savings have been used to purchase headsets. Any other money not spent on supplies at the end of this grant term will carry over to next year for the program.

Since January of this year, the MCMS teachers have completed two six-week sessions with the parents, but the classes have turned out to be much more than just language acquisition.

“Her first mouse click was in this class,” Ashley Potter said, pointing to a woman working intently at a netbook, surrounded by her three young daughters. “ A lot of the parents, they’re learning how to use the computers, because they don’t know how. at’s probably our biggest problem in the beginning, to get them rolling on that,” said Guerra. “ey don’t know how to click, nothing.” e difficulty in teaching the parents how to use technology is often compounded by the language barrier. “e internet is an American thing, you know – it was invented here, a lot of the words don’t translate, like ‘click,’” Guerra said.

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Call a bilingual friend to accompany you.

The employer gets frustrated trying to communicate, and tells you she’s not hiring now.

You don’t know how to tell your employer that you must pick up your child after school.

You pick up a newspaper and ask your friend to help you read the job listings.

Your child misses a review for a big chapter test. The school sends home a note inquiring about your child’s absence.

Your friend doesn’t get off work until the doctor’s office is closed.

Your friend can go, but doesn’t have a sitter and has to bring her toddler.

The employer doesn’t speak your language, but it seems to go well. You think she said to start on Monday.

You have a hard time negotiating your pay. You leave, not sure of your salary.

Nearly all the listings require speaking English.

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Drop in after school, and hope the teacher will be available.

Go to the interview yourself and try to wing it.

A friend tells you about a job opening.

You could really use the extra income.

How do you follow up on her tip?

You get the job, and through your child, negotiate a good hourly rate.

Ask your child to schedule a conference with his teacher.

You are worried about your child’s troublesome new friends. you would like to meet with his teacher. Do you:

He feels much better after rest and home remedies.

Keep your child out of school so she can translate at your interview.

He keeps conveniently ‘forgetting’ to do it.

You are able to meet.

Through a translator, the teacher tells you that your child’s grades have been slipping.

She offers an extracredit assignment to bring them up.

The teacher is on duty – she asks if you can come back when a fellow teacher can translate.

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D2 Education

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>> From Page D1 EL PARADISO Despite a little drizzle, the Uncle Remus Regional Library is quite busy on Sunday, April 14. Several trucks, minivans filled with toys, and vehicles bearing “Educator” tags fill the parking lot. e atrium is filled with the white noise of a shared space, murmurs of quiet conversation, the staccato clicks of computer mice, and the occasional peal of laughter from the children’s section. Volunteer babysitters, often students, or the children of MCMS teachers or ELL parents, keep them occupied while the adults study.

Guerra, McCullough and Edwards flit about the library like mother hens, answering questions, troubleshooting computers and helping the ELL parents sign up for library cards. It is the second class of the six-week language program, and perhaps one of the most important.

Today, many of these students will take the first, practical step toward learning skills critical to life in America, and as empowered parents to school-age children.

Lavonne Doty, the Student Information Data Specialist at the school system’s central office, moves quietly between computers, and with a few clicks, creates a login for each new ELL parent to the Morgan County Infinite Campus web system. ere, the parents can monitor their children’s grades, attendance and assignments.

“I think that when they first access Infinite Campus and they realize [its capabilities]… they were like…,” begins Katherine Edwards. “Oooh!

You’re going to be in so much trouble!” interjects Luisa Guerra. “at was a mind-

www.MORGANCOUNTYCITIZEN.com MAY 23, 2013 blowing experience for them; they didn’t even know they could have access to that.”

A steady stream of people drift toward the kiosk to check out books, or apply for their first library card. An crowd steps forward, together – two young parents, toddlers and a few preteens. A middle school-aged boy, with a striking black mohawk, waits patiently in line, his black hoodie dotted with April’s light shower. Librarian Mary Farris counts out forms for them. e family moves to a large, round study table, crowding around it with their forms and pencils.

Farris and fellow librarian Penny West are kept busy, and by the end of the hour, the counter is blanketed in library card forms. “ere’s probably 13 or 14 new applications. at’s just this week,” Farris said.

With a library card, the ELL families have access to all the books in the PINES catalog, the Learning Express Library, which offers GED preparation (even en Español), job searches and workplace skills, a pathway to U.S. citizenship, and learning centers for elementary through college students. If they don’t have a computer at home, they can come to the library for these resources, check their children’s progress on Infinite Campus and continue their English studies on Tell Me More.

On the library’s west wall, near Mary Leslie’s mural depicting the Morgan County courthouse and cows lowing in a pasture, is a quote from the Argentine poet and essayist, Jorge Luis Borges. “I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.”

For ELL parents, the opportunities offered by the library and school system are invaluable. “ank you for

America, much better my life, than Mexico. I love America,” Maria Victoria said. “Right now, I’m so happy, I’m learning. I’m so happy.”

A SCHOOL TO WATCH On July 26, Edwards and McCullough will travel to Washington, D.C. to represent Morgan County Middle School as a National Lighthouse School to Watch. ey will present their experience developing the ELL parent program to teachers from schools across the country.

“I think it has given us some recognition in the system, that other schools have seen what my teachers are doing here,” Principal Norburg said. “I look forward to the summer opportunity to share it nationally.

You like to be on the cutting edge, to be doing innovative things, and to share those ideas.”

It is possible that other schools in Georgia, and across the nation, will model parent outreach programs on the one started here in Morgan County.

According to the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, Georgia’s ELL student population has grown from 44,393 in 1999-2000, to 86,755 in 2009-2010. Nationally, the NCELA estimates there are 4.7 million ELL students, or 10 percent of the entire K-12 student population.

“To look at the larger picture, as the world becomes more global, communities need to become more open to their multicultural aspects,” Potter said. “We’re making that step, [we want to] help these parents to be what they need to be for the community.”

Norburg sees the ELL parent program as a good investment for the school. “Helping the parents, so they can help

us help their children, reflects well on our school. Certainly, we’re all about helping all of our students do the very best they can.” As any teacher will attest, parental involvement is critical for most students to succeed. e language and technology skills the ELL parents learn in their Sunday sessions opens up lines of communication between parents, teachers and students. ough she speaks English quite well, Lupe Hernandez has attended nearly all the classes in both sessions of the ELL parent program. Frequently, she brings her sister or friends, too.

“For me, it’s a huge, huge help. I just missed one class, I was not feeling well that day,” she said. “I have computer in my house, so when I can, I enjoy to help my sister or somebody.” Hernandez has found the program very helpful to practice speaking and writing in English.

“My son… he tells me all the time, he says, ‘Mom, for real, it’s very great you understand. Sometimes we have problems because you understand the bad words, too.’ All the time, he say, ‘Mom, it’s amazing how you improved your English.’”

While Hernandez uses Tell Me More to cultivate her English spelling and writing skills, her children use the same program to develop their Spanish literacy.

“My daughters have in the school, the same program for Spanish class. It’s wonderful, because we have different options. If you make mistakes, you can do it again, and you can learn easy,” she said.

LIVING TWO LIVES On the Sunday of the final class, the parents are shuffled to a computer lab, instead of the MCMS library. e Book Fair is in town, and has taken

over their usual space. As they get settled, McCullough goes over the day’s schedule. From 4 to 4:50 p.m., they will work on the computer, then they will do a short conversational activity in small groups before breaking for awards and a party.

“One more thing – Feliz Cinco de Mayo! But no cerveza qui!” Her Spanglish announcement makes the class chuckle.

Laura Cruz reads a book while her husband, Pifas, practices his conversational skills with the Tell Me More program. Laura speaks English very well, having learned a bit while she was in Mexico, and later, under the tutelage of Dora the Explorer. She is reading Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul.

“It helps me to understand my teenagers,” she smiles. e Cruz family has lived in Madison for 14 years, and their children have grown up here.

“My son came here when he was 2. His first language was English, no Spanish,” she said. “I’m worried about my children losing their native tongue.” Her daughter, a nursing student at Athens Tech, is bilingual, and her son is literate in Spanish, but “needs to practice.”

“We need to keep our language in our family, and for our kids,” she said. To do so, they speak Spanish at home.

“One language is just one life – two languages are two lives.”

McCullough agrees. “at’s one thing I stress to those [ELL] students, and when we have parent conferences, I stress to the parents: Keep your Spanish. Don’t just throw it out and only do English. You gotta keep your Spanish – because what a great gift. You can use it, and you’ll be so valuable on the job.” is fact is exemplified by

Guerra, whose parents are Cuban. “I’m so glad my parents spoke Spanish to me when I was little,” she said. e Spanish she learned as a child has paid off with translating jobs, and in her current position as a Spanish teacher at MCMS. With each click of the mouse, or notation made in a vocabulary folder, the ELL parents seem intent on living these two lives.

“Even the new students come with pen and paper,” said Edwards, “ready to learn.

We’re not used to that!”

As the session wraps up, the class heads two doors down to Edwards’ class for the party. Two tables and a couple of student desks are laden with hot wings, fresh cut watermelon, plantain cornbread, chicken salad with corn and peppers, tamales, chips, fresh guacamole and queso, a colorful congealed salad, taquitos with guacamole sauce, and McCullough’s almond brownies.

Each ELL parent is presented with a certificate and raucous applause from their classmates, the teachers and Norburg.

Hernandez appears with a small box of beautiful cacti, in orange, yellow, and pink.

She gives one to each of the teachers.

“I can speak for everybody, my friends, we really appreciate what they do here. Really, really,” she says, a wide smile crossing her face.

It is Cinco de Mayo. e holiday is commonly thought of in America as “Mexican Independence Day” – but the holiday actually commemorates the Mexican victory over the powerful French army at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Even though this victory was short-lived, as the French captured Mexico City and installed Emperor Maximillian I as ruler one year later, some historians view it as critical to the history of the United States.

If the outnumbered Mexicans had succumbed to the French in 1862, Napoleon III may have established supply lines to the Confederate South. e next three years could have played out very differently for the United States. With this interpretation, the Mexicans’ bravery in standing up for themselves very well might have kept the U.S. from being ripped apart permanently.

It might be a bit hyperbolic to suggest that the Mexican immigrants, and Americans of Mexican heritage, who gathered to learn English at MCMS on the very same day of the Battle of Puebla, 151 years later, are doing something similar. “ey want to become contributing citizens,” said Edwards. “We’re all in it together.”