Blog post # 11 (Field Notes) part 3

Memo Blog # 11
(Field Notes part 4)
Memo blog post for November 13th, 2018

This week we had more high school presentations. The assemblies are done during second period because we have a lot of students, who come late to school. This is a big issue we are struggling with throughout the District and schools Principals are getting together with teachers and staff to find ways to tackle this. We are speaking with families, making home visits as well as sending out messages, robocall to try to minimize the tardiness issue. Our school does the 8th assemblies take place during second period precisely because of students being late during first period. Also because our school is the only Middle School in the District that serves students grades 5th-8th. Our 5th grade group does not go up to their classroom until 8:20 A.m.

This week was Midterms elections week, so we have a 4-day school week and again we have another assembly Today during period 2. I was able to see my students in the classroom for about 10 minutes before heading to the cafeteria for dthe assemble. Once again, I did not get to see my study group. Tomorrow I will be able to interview 3 of the 4 students chosen for my study. One of them have been out of school. Today I found out that ANL moved to another District and that is why she was absent for many days.  A student I had in Spanish I last year was placed in the same period, so this student will replace the student I was using for my research becasue she left. 


Student JMR is a good student. The student believes that because we live in the US, we do not need to learn another language. His mother was born in Puerto Rico, but was raised in the Main land (US). His mother told him that she succeeded and did not needed to speak Spanish to be successful. The student refused and still refuses to participate in class discussions. When he is expected to work in group or peer activities he refuses to participate. He says he does not like Spanish and because his mother speaks to him in English, he believes there is no need for him to know Spanish.  

I briefly spoke to him yesterday regarding his veiws about beoing bilibgual. He told me that Becasue all his friends and family bspeak Engliosh he does not think he needs to learn another language. JMR sadly believes that Spanish is the language of servamts (my heart grieved). I told him that there are 21 Spanish Speaking Countries. Around 437 Million people speak Spanish  around the World and that Spanish is the second most spoken language in the World including the United States. We talked about the benefits of being bilingual or multilingual, but he does not believe he will be affected  due to the fact that he only Speaks English.  I will interview him now that I lost the other student. Hopefully I will be able to find out more about this student's negativity towards being bilingual and his negativity to participate in class and why.  

I will now start to look at the collected data. I will start to look for themes and patterns which will help me continue to shape the path of this research.

Last week, I was also able to send out the professional surveys. I received 4 responses so far. I am still waiting for more responses. I also had an informal conversation with two of my colleagues over the weekend. I asked them a few questions about how their Spanish heritage learners are performing in their classes and the responses I received from both professional and from the paraprofessional was worrisome to me. 

Their words voiced their concerns and showed that our concerns are deeply connected to one another. As a Latino educator whose goals is to promote and encourage students to continue to speak their home language and to stay connected to their heritage as much as they can, so that their culture and home language do not suffer a loss. 

I feel happy and excited because despite the fact that I haven't seen my 8th grade group a lot since the beginning of the year, and due to fact that I only see them twice per week, I continue to look at my field notes and now at the teachers and student’s surveys and I can see the connections and hopefully I will be able to extract themes from the data I’ve gathered so far. 

Getting to the bottom of this topic is important to me and those who I teach because as I am interested in exploring and investigating why students, specially my heritage learners interest in expanding diminishing more and more. They want to stay connected to their roots and want to continue to communicate in the home language, but embarrassment, afraid of being rejected, mocked and lack of self-awareness, is making them feel less confident in themselves and in how they view their heritage and their connection to their past generation(s). So, finding ways to support my students in the best way possible is my ultimate goal. Hopefully this classroom research project will help me deliver the much needed academic and social support.