Blog Post #1

          The context in which I hope to teach when I graduate from Illinois State is in a suburban setting. I want to be close to the city but not in the city. I want this because I want to be in a classroom where I will have immigrant students and be able to use my second language in the classroom but I do not want to have a full classroom of non-english speaking students. I want a diverse classroom with all kinds of backgrounds and cultures and languages in which I can assist my students to become the best that they can be. I feel that most of the time in inner-city schools you see a lot of segregation, not because the school sets it up that way but because of where the students in that district live. In Chicago I feel that there are areas of the city that are predominantly one race or another, but I feel in the suburbs you find more of a mix of students that come from different backgrounds and cultures. So, I want a diverse classroom where I can use my second language of Spanish but at the same time I want a lot of different ethnicities and challenges. I feel the city would always present me with the same challenges students of the same kinds of backgrounds.
          I feel it is very important to be knowledgable and conscious about TESOL issues because whether we realize it or not we are confronted with these issues everyday of our lives. There are so many immigrant students in this country and many of them are assessed wrong on a daily basis, and are struggling in our school systems because people are ignorant to what is going on around them and they don't know how to handle the situation at hand. I came into this major because I wanted to make a difference and make sure that every student had the opportunity to an education and making the most out of themselves. By becoming a TESOL and bilingual teacher I feel I will be making a difference everyday when I wake up and go to work. My goals as a language educator are as simple as making a difference in someones life everyday, whether they realize it or not, just to help future generations recieve a good education that they understand with minimal struggles.