Sarah Brady | April 25, 2018
Anne Tomalin, an ESL teacher from Chapel Hill High School, has been named a Fund for Teachers Fellow. She will receive a grant to cover the cost of the World View Global Study Visit Program to China in June and will travel to Beijing, Xi’an, Guilin, Yangshuo and Shanghai with the rest of the World View cohort. Tomalin hopes to learn about China’s educational practices, its culture and its languages, as well as discover new ways to support her Asian refugee students. Though she has been in the classroom for over twenty years, she cites the changing demographics as a reason for her to adapt how and what she teaches.
“I believe one missing piece of the puzzle [of low scores of English learners on end-of-course exams] is that we don’t have sufficient knowledge of their cultural and educational background, and how that background influences the way they learn. Without this knowledge, we aren’t able to provide them with culturally responsive instruction. By observing a completely different educational setting, I hope to cultivate the ability to think outside of the box about how best to serve the needs of our district’s EL students,” Tomalin said.
Tomalin will be blogging about her experience here.
Read the rest of the article from Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools here.