I had the opportunity to observe in a few classrooms throughout my education journey. In this process, all of the teachers I got to sit with did not speak Spanish. Having come from an immigrant family and known the struggle of not being able to communicate with others I did my best to locate students who had a language barrier and introduce myself. I like to let students know that I speak Spanish because I know it is so important to students to be able to communicate with someone. I wanted to share a visual representation of this concept. After speaking to a high schooler who primarily spoke Spanish he showed me the painting below.
He asked me how to improve his painting as he was trying to paint leaves falling. In Spanish I gave him quick instructions on how to stipple with a fan brush and create the illusion of leaves falling, this combined with penciled-over drawings helped him create the effect he wanted. He went to his desk and create the center image below, he was so proud of himself afterward he brought the painting over to my desk. I was happy to see how excited he was although sad to see he had thrown the previous image away. I fished it out of the trash and kept it as a reminder of the importance of the work I am doing and how important it is to communicate with all students. Many students who do not primarily speak English feel cast out, I want all my students to know how important they are and how capable they are.
