My Love/Hate Relationship with TESOL

Just like some of our favorite politicians, I am totally flip-flopping. My feelings towards the ESL pull-out model sway from one end of the proverbial spectrum to the other on a weekly basis.

On the one hand, I love that I can give English Language Learners special attention! A lot of the time, they would just sink in a classroom setting. Unfortunately, due to narrow minds and negative attitudes towards multilingualism, English Language Learners are far less likely to ask for help in a classroom out of fear of being outed as a non-native English Speaker. So, thanks to the pull-out model, I experience far more visible breakthrough moments than I would every be able to see in an overcrowded classroom.

HOWEVER, I am experiencing major classroom withdraw. I fell in love with teaching last year. I loved creating lessons plans, materials from scratch, implementing inquiry methods, genre studies, and a variety of management incentives. I miss designing “performances of understanding” rather than using crappy mandated curriculum worksheets and humdrum assignments.

This year, I am finding being an ESL teachers in the pull-out model, I am far less involved in planning units, themes, and assignments. When working with students, we mostly focus on work assigned by their classroom teacher. It’s not that I don’t necessarily find these assignments interesting or beneficial to the students. I am just finding it difficult to be less involved in the planning of the assignments. As a classroom outsider, it is hard to see the links and themes. I only see individual assignments. Since I work with the students so closely, I know their learning style and specific struggles really well. So I find it really frustrating that I can’t design them custom assignments. I don't know....perhaps I am just being a control freak!