prompt 5

If I were the teacher in the classroom I tutor in, the language barrier between the parents and myself would be a big challenge.  The majority of the students in the classroom have difficulty speaking English, which is an indicator that the parents probably speak very little English if any at all.  I believe collaboration between teachers and parents is very important and furthers the students’ success in school.  In order to demonstrate respect for the families' culture and language, I would have an interpreter present during meetings and send letters home in the parents' language, but these are only temporary fixes for this dilemma.  To try to overcome this challenge long term as a teacher, I would attempt to learn the language as best as possible.  This can be done by taking classes or participating in or organizing an in-service.  For example, when I was a director for a school-age daycare, the majority of our families were Spanish-speaking.  My position required a great deal of collaborating with the parents, including tuition collection and a source of communication between the school and parents.  My colleagues and I took a class at CCRI that was organized just for my organization.  It was a five-week program to teach us business and daycare oriented Spanish.  Instead of the proper and grammatical aspects, this class focused on language we could actually put into practice, such as common phrases used to describe a student's performance and so on.  Participating in something like this would be very beneficial for teachers who don't speak Spanish and it could aide in collaborating with parents.