Parent Phone Calls

[Bolboreta]

Ok, so I am such a counselor :-)

Yes, It could be interesting and funny! We can talk about this changing the languages, I write in english and you in spanish, and correct each other mistakes. We can do it in this thread or in another one, as you want -I'm new in the forum and don't know the customs-

We neither help teachers with pedagogy as much as we should. It's a pitty, because in Spain the pedagogical formation of the teachers is very, very poor, and psichological doesn't exist. But it's a kind of competition, many of them think (and say) "I don't have anything to learn about teaching!". And the same way, most of my colegues see themselves as "teachers of the teachers" and "judges of the good teaching" and we are not at all!. We only are there to give a hand when you have a concrete doubt about how to teach, because you have a difficult group of pupils, for example. Maybe you have worked all your career in a high-class zone whith well educated families, and you change to a poor suburb where the most of the families are inmigrants of non-spanish speaking countries and the tecniques you used aren't useful yet. Or maybe, you have a (ciego?) or a (sordo?) in your class and you don't know, we can help you in useful ways to help him to learn, or how to help him in the relation whith other pupils.

In spain, all the groups have a tutor, one of the teachers has helping functions with the group. If you are the tutora of a group, you have your algebra classes but every week you have a pair of hours to talk to your pupils about their lifes, problems, wishes...And so, you can find personal problems that are ??? (I mean: Que están afectando al proceso de aprendizaje). It's part of your work to help the pupil with it, and it's part of mine to advice you if you ask for my specialized help. But, I will not say: Ok, tell him to come to my office. I will not make a therapy, that's not my (función?). My (función? ) in this case is giving you the psychological tools you need when your human tools have failed. The only case you would send me the boy or girl and I would work directly with him or her is if you are almost sure that there is a pathology like anorexia, for example.

[Jessica]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Thanks, all! Simple terms is best - I don't want to sound like I know more spanish than I do ... or I'll get myself in trouble! By the way, Rusty - I know that "tardy" isn't a noun ... especially helpful to keep in mind when translating. But the schools have sort of "nounified" the word, so they are officially called "tardies" and we definitely hear the word used officially as a noun.....

Yes, our school uses "tardies" too, even though tardy isn't a noun

[poli]

Originally Posted by Bolboreta

I don't teach anything

I am what in Spain is called "orientadora educativa". I am a psycologist, but for doing this work you also can be a pedagogue. We are called "teachers", we must meet the same basic requirements that math, spanish or physics teachers do to work in public high schools. So we get the title "high school teachers", but in practice we don't teach. Our main work is advice (asesoramiento?). We help teachers with teaching metodologies, psychological and pedagogical aspects of their work. We advice teenagers about the things they may choose (going to the university, what to study next year...). And we help families with any problems they may have that can get in the way of their childrens' learning process.

Do you have any similar job in USA high schools? And how are they called?

Oh, I would love to learn teaching and education vocabulary. The most of the words I used in the paragraph above are from googletranslator. God knows what I said

Sirvió bien googletranslator. Hice unos pocos retoques. La palabra pedagogue es una palabra de alto registro y no se entiende mucho la gente de vocabulario limitado. Es mejor usar educator o teacher.

[CrOtALiTo]

You teach mathematics. I guess you are a person very smart than me. jijiijij

[laepelba]

I definitely want to come back to the Professional portion of this discussion ... will likely do so in a new thread... And I don't have time to start it right now. But, Bolboreta - I'll let you know in the next couple of days when I'm ready.

In the meantime ... I have just finished my parent phone calls and only one parent I spoke with was not able to converse with me in English. AND ... I was HORRIBLE in Spanish. She finally gave up on me and had me call her husband at work. (At least I could write down the phone number correctly!) Poor lady ... I feel bad and hope that I didn't confuse her. I tried using some of the words and phrases you gave me here (which she definitely understood), but it was the rest of what I attempted to say that was awful.

I have a LOT of work to do!!! I meet with my "conversation tutor" tomorrow. This is the FIRST thing we're going to talk about!

Thanks (though!) for all of your help!!! I WANT TO INCREASE MY FLUENCY WITH THE LANGUAGE!!!

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

In time, Lou Ann, in time. Serenidad y paciencia.

...and good luck!

[Bolboreta]

Hey, don't you be so hard with yourself (no seas tan dura contigo misma). Think that you are an inmigrant and cannot understand anybody around you. And the teacher of your son calls you and tries to speak to you in your own language. Maybe the conversation was confusing, but It's no as important as the effort you made for her

[laepelba]

Thanks, you guys. I know, I know ... it will come in time. One of the few phrases I know in Swahili: pole pole ... "slowly slowly" or "bit by bit" ... I was just hoping to be a bit more comfortable with the conversation. Your point is well taken, Bolboreta ... I do hope that she was more comfortable that I attempted to speak with her in her own language. They are new to this country and her son missed a week of school doing something really rather bad (can't share it with you ... but believe me, he ought to be grounded for a few years!)

Anyway - thanks for the encouragement. I'll keep trying. I got farther in my latest practice CD than I have so far on the way home from work this afternoon.

[poli]

My suggestion is that you set up a script for yourself in Spanish with the info you wish to convey. Introduce yourself indicating to the parent that
you are new to Spanish. Something like-Perdona mi español. Estoy en el
proceso de aprender el idioma.
There will be catch words that you will always use. Espressing yourself is
step one, but you can get your point across with a brief rehearsal. With a
check list you will communicate more easily.