Fun in the Sun!
Hi friends!
Our first issue was a great success! We thank you for your support and warm feedback.
This month we are back with a packed newsletter to keep you thinking, participating, advocating (http://gatesol.org/Advocacy-with-GATESOL), and acting in meaningful ways to support our students until next fall. We also want to call your attention to the upcoming deadline (May 17, 2021) to submit proposals to SETESOL, which will take place virtually from 10/13-16, 2021.
In this issue we celebrate accomplishments, honor retiring colleagues, share a summer reading list, and quietly sit for a moment with quotes of gratitude from our readership in completing this very challenging academic year. We also include a poem and a reflection piece from our readership, a video from our President, Jennifer Pendergrass, who this time chats with one of our GATESOL Board Members, Elizabeth Webb, and much, much more. Enjoy!
As a reminder, it is our goal to make our newsletter a place for dialogue and where we share, celebrate, and highlight the wonderful work we are all doing.
Interested contributors should follow these guidelines and contact our 2021-22 newsletter editor Lou Tolosa-Casadont at newsletter@gatesol.org.
We look forward to hearing from all of you!
The following poem also comes out of the Town Hall meetings and was written by Saurabh Anand (he/him), a current PhD. student in the Department of Language & Literacy Education in the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia.
Saurabh Anand
I ain't not right
Though I walked many paths, but when we strike,
you, my dear neofascist, proclaimed I ain’t right.
I presented every proof in challenges & dogfights,
But you kept your eyes shut and declared I ain’t right.
I might have more Melanin; hence, my skin is not so light.
Please erudite. Stop spreading hate mites, spieling I ain’t right.
You judge me for who I date, the god I preach, say my English ain’t precise.
Don't forget, "Out of many, one,' is not just a motto but also my right.
There are small little worlds within this world. To know them, you just need unbiased sight.
Why don't you try tonight? Because I might be different, but I ain't not right.
A look back... It looks like we made it!
This is my story.
Teaching is what I do. It’s my livelihood. Going to the little red schoolhouse each morning results in me having the things in life I need and want. All that’s great, but that’s not just what teaching is for me. Teaching has become a part of who I am.
My path to becoming an educator is deep and wide. Teaching was not one of my first jobs, although my life experiences carried me as my journey led me here. All roads lead somewhere and my road led me to the elementary classroom. So by the grace of God, here I am in the thick of what no one could have imagined. Possibly, a sci-fi movie could have depicted what teachers and students have experienced this past year. Although, unless you lived it, you might not understand. Certainly, we are not finished with this chapter, but we are far enough into and on the way out for me to pause for a moment to look back.
In order to finish reading Jill's work, please follow this link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JCHqU2txZqQ3Apm1C0Sr3q722mpFr-LLvTo-fiMPe7M/edit
A special thank you and congratulations to Brenda Fox from Floyd County on her retirement. Feel free to connect with Brenda to thank her for her many years of service (bfox@floydboe.net).
Her colleague, Alicia Payne, wrote: "Congratulations in your retirement! We'll miss you."
GATESOL Interest Sections
Ms. Happy Farber - Congratulations on your retirement!
In this edition we feature Ms. Happy Farber an ESOL teacher at Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School in Athens, GA, for her many contributions to the profession, her impactful work with children at OAES, and for the undying support she provided her colleagues, preservice teachers. Happy, we are going to miss you and are delighted to know that your impact will not stop with your retirement. Your seeds have been planted and, in a ripple-effect fashion, they will continue touching many lives in the future and positively leaving your indelible mark.
Happy Farber embodies her name. She exudes passion and lives largely and without excuses. Her impact in CCSD and the larger community has made her an icon in the Athens-Clarke County school community. A pre-service teacher who worked with her commented: “Happy Farber's shoes are too joyful for anyone else to fill. While I was a teacher candidate in her classroom, she gave me just the right amount of cheerleading and positive guidance. Her delight in the language learning process was contagious with her students meeting her energy with an eagerness to learn.” (Susan Lane).
Ms. Happy, as her students call her, started her teaching career in 1990 as a Special Education teacher. After a few years she transitioned into teaching Reading Recovery and shared her classroom with Marilyn Murphy, who recognizing the many attributes Happy brought to teaching recruited her to teach ESOL. Since then, Ms. Happy has been reaching, teaching, and impacting many lives in CCSD through her work as an ESOL teacher. The main highlight of her teaching career, she tells us, has been her students whom she absolutely loves. In our interview she shared how much she enjoys bumping into current and former students in the community and added with a satisfied smile on her face: It is always a great feeling to run into students when they are grown. I see previous student at their places of employment (my doctor’s office…) and out with their own children. One of the students I taught is now in my family! Her sister is married to my nephew. In her classroom Happy creates a safe space for all students. Children move freely in this space, lay on the floor to work, sit on bean chairs, and many choose to take their shoes off to be more comfortable. She turns up all the lights, she LOVES a well-lit room, and laughs wholeheartedly with her children while they learn, grow, and endeavor and learn to love learning, speak their new language, celebrate their uniqueness, and become more comfortable with the many identities they bring with them. Happy doesn’t talk about this but she is also a deeply impactful mentor. She worked with a number of ESOL preservice teacher candidates who will forever remember the many lessons she taught them.
Teaching during the pandemic taught Ms. Happy many important lessons, the first one is that she is capable of working with technology, something she had not considered closely and intentionally yet. She now feels confident using online tools like Zoom and other tools such as document cameras. Most importantly, however, is that Ms. Happy realized how crucial it has become in this virtual space of education to deeply connect with the learners. To her own amusement, she realized it is good practice to laugh at oneself when teaching, she said: I realized how silly I am. I would see myself dancing on the screen and making hand gestures while talking! I looked so funny…
At the conclusion of our interview, I asked Happy for a message to share with new and incoming ESOL teachers, and with a very kind smile she replied: The most important part of our job is to love our kids. Many times, the only place they feel comfortable enough to be themselves is in the ESOL classroom. Before they can learn, they have to feel like it is okay to try and make mistakes. You also have to be an advocate for your students. Sometimes other school staff do not understand that our students may not understand what is being said. Others think because the kid speaks to friends at recess that they understand everything. Never forget that it takes 5 to 7 years to become proficient in academic language. Finally, never give up on your kids!
Thank you, Happy Farber, for taking the time to chat with me and answer my questions. I’m honored to have known you and to have had the opportunity to see you do magic in your classroom. The TESOL profession is better for having had you among its ranks. Now go and continue transforming the world with your kind demeanor and your passion for life. We are eternally grateful for your contributions.
Newsletter editor call for contributions
We'd love to hear from you. Please email us at newsletter@gatesol.org
Wishing you a peaceful summer filled with special moments.