Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Mary Jo Montenegro
Very very impressive speaker. Even though I work with the CPS school district it was interesting to sit and listen to an overview of some of the other schools and servicies they have to offer or the wide range of choices that are available to parents. These options pose a challenge to them given their various family dynamics. I gained more insight to the major barriers which the eduacators and adminstrators face, some of which are the limited resources in terms of communication between the schools and the families. Most of these families have a limited English proficiency and it is costly and difficult to find an iterpreter for most languages. However, there is a welcome center that helps parents navigate this process. What surprised me the most was that due to the hiring freeze CPS was not going to hire more Ittinerant teachers to support the needs of the growing ELL population. I aso gained more understanding of the testing procedures of newcomers as well as ELL students with disabilites.
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While CPS, like every district, is being asked to do more with less, I do agree that what CPS is currently doing is really impressive. I cannot imagine how overwhelming it is for a principal and school staff to be faced with so many ELL students speaking so many different languages, but the programs at CPS are very exciting. They really make me wish that I had taken the time to truly learn another language when I was in school.
ReplyDeleteDespite the financial state of CPS, like other districts too, I was impressed with the amount of resources they currently have. One concern that I have is that with the growing population of students and not teachers and support staff, how will CPS ever keep up and how will this impact the student learning.
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