You may have seen examples of ESL Teachers who either taught school abroad or taught online. Have you ever seen an ESL Teacher working in the American school system?
Personally, I met a group of them only one time at a teaching convention.
The sad reality is that the majority of the ESL Teachers I see are working online or abroad. Due to this representation, I find that I don’t always have the same problems as those other teachers.
As a traveling public school ESL teacher in the USA, my routine is REALLY different. It’s different than the teachers you see online and the teachers that you see in school.
Since the beginning of my school year is starting next week, I thought I would document myself getting ready for the new school year.
Read along as I formulate the “must have things” you need to have as an ESL teacher that has to travel from school to school.
A Backpack
In my first year of of being an ESL teacher, I had to be split between five schools. In my second year, it went down to three since a second a person was hired.
This school year, it looks like I’ll be split between three to four schools.
Unlike regular teachers that work for a single school, I usually have to hunt down a classroom. Sometimes, I get lucky to have a classroom to myself. Majority of the time, either I have to share a room or just don’t have a room at all.
This happens at all the schools that I have to travel to. So, I usually try to pack light and carry all my needed things in a backpack.
What about using a rolling cart?
I could use a rolling cart. I just don’t like the hassle of getting it upstairs or being close to running over people’s feet when walking.
Also, this gives excuse for some people to have me carry paperwork with me when I don’t have anywhere to physically leave it without the possibility of tampering.
What about a messenger bag?
In my experience, messenger bags are best when you’re only responsible for your things and maybe a few papers. I could see this if you are only going between middle and high school.
If you ever plan on going to elementary schools, you may need to bring props with you. Props help keep the younger kids attention during lessons. You don’t always want the kids to see what you’re carrying. You want to do it as a surprise. So, you put them in a backpack.
It was also in my experience that if you carry things with weight and only use a messenger bag or a purse, you may encourage problems such as tennis elbow or discomfort with your neck.
Comfy Clothes
This is a given. Anyone in school would choose to wear comfortable clothes.
Some may just wear straight comfortable clothes while others choose to wear fashionable comfy clothes. Whatever style of comfort you choose, it’s supposed to be acceptable for what role you play.
While students here do have a dress code, many wear colored jackets or graphic hoodies along with some Crocs or tennis shoes. Regular teachers, on the other hand, have to meet whatever code the district AND their school has in place.
As an ESL teacher that doesn’t have only one school to report to, I just have to follow the district’s rules.
While this sounds good, just remember that you have have to wear what’s appropriate and make sure that it signals to everyone that you’re an adult.
My Experience with Uniforms
As a young looking teacher, I have been mistaken as a student multiple times despite following dress code. Even parents and students would confuse me for a student.
The way I had to go around this was making a uniform for myself that I was comfortable with.
While my self-imposed uniform is not what I normally wear in public, it’s what gives me the desired first expression in school. If you’re curious as to what my uniform looks like, I’ll make a different post.
Just know that when I did wear it in public, my friends joked that I looked like I was part of a cult, despite not even being religious.
A Flashdrive
One of my objectives as an ESL teacher is to ensure that all my English Learners can read and write on their own. Obviously, depending on what level my student comes to me, we start off with learning vocabulary words and basic sentence structures.
In many of the modern classrooms, the rooms may have technology, such as an electronic board, school laptops, or at least an overhead projector, ready to be used. The regular teachers are free to leave their classroom’s necessary supplies in their room, such as paper, pencils, scissors, markers, etc.
In my case, I am not always lucky.
Some of my students in one school will be allowed to have a school computer with them all the time while my other students in a different school can only use their computers in their computer classes. For my younger elementary students, it doesn’t make sense for them to have constant access to school laptop.
In my classroom, I always run on the possibility that I don’t have what I need in my room. With that mindset, I always store all of my reading and writing materials on a flash drive.
Why a flash drive?
It’s safer and easier this way. I can just go to a school and print out my needed materials.
I don’t have my own printer because I have to go to school-to-school. Even if I did, I don’t want to carry THAT many papers with me across different schools. I would have to remind myself which paper belonged to who when traveling between schools on the same day. This would be easy if I only had 7-10 students that I have to see a day, but some days I have more than that.
I can scan and email papers through my work email for people to print out for me, but I’ll be waiting for it to be done and may be inconveniencing whoever is printing my documents.
Also, you wouldn’t want to let the school know or have access to your personal cloud storage would you?
Electronic Translator
When teaching ESL abroad, it is very common for those schools to tell the ESL teacher to ONLY communicate in English and not in the student’s mother tongue. It may also be common that those teachers only have to communicate with their student’s parents when necessary, such as messaging the parent or maybe in giving an announcement.
As a small town ESL teacher, I have to do that and more.
I am not only responsible for communicating with parents and giving certain announcements, but I am also unofficially responsible for helping families enroll their children to school and advocating for families during parent meetings.
While not all ESL teachers in the US have the same responsibilities as me, each US ESL teacher is responsible in translating any official communication between the school and the student’s family.
Sadly, I don’t know all the languages that my students’ families speak. More importantly, some of these families don’t have someone in their community who could translate for them.
This is when an electronic translator comes in handy. My personal favorite is Google Translate since not only do they translate what I want to say, but they can translate whole documents within the same format as the original.
Sometimes the translation isn’t perfect and that breathes room for miscommunication. Unless you’re willing to learn another language, you should always keep an electronic translator on hand.
A White Board with Markers
The most common thing that all teachers need is a board. Normally, it’ll just be white boards and markers.
These are so handy and convenient. You don’t need a big one, unless you’re teaching a room of at least 8 students.
As an ESL teacher, I want my instruction to be very visual for my beginner students. I can easily draw what I am talking about. I can also show the student how to correctly write the item.
Using a board also can also help you with emphasizing words or sentences. Just be sure you’re not spending too much time writing or you may loose the attention of your students.
A Microphone
A lot of the online ESL teachers that I see on Youtube or Tiktok talk about the importance of having an external microphone, but those usually emphasize the ESL teacher using them and not the student. Very rarely do I see videos of ESL teachers using an external microphone to get their young students to respond back to them, as if they’re part of Dora the Explorer.
Although this may be cringey, a microphone is essential for any in-person learning as an ESL teacher. Sure, you don’t have to use them often. However, it’s important that students get comfortable with the idea that they have to speak into a microphone.
ESL students in the USA have to take the English Language Proficiency Test (ELPT) every year, around March to April. The students are tested in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This test can last for two days or a single day.
It’s very common to have students not perform as well as they could on the speaking portion of the ELPT. I’ll have the most chatty and bubbly ESL student who I am confident would pass the ELPT. On the day of the ELPT, the moment they have the microphone and remembered that someone is listening to them, they would become a lot more timid.
To prevent that from happening, you would have to desensitize them by using a microphone and the idea of them being recorded.
A Lunchbox
In my district, teachers have to eat lunch at the same time as their students. For some of the schools, the teacher has to eat with all their students at a table. For other schools, the teacher goes to lunch but sits at whatever table with whomever they want to eat with.
We also have to pay for our lunch, if we want the cafeteria food.
One of the perks of being a traveling EL teacher is that I can pick up food on the way to another school.
While it may be nice to get to-go food at a restaurant or stopping by a grocery store pick up quick ready-to-eat meals, I don’t it. It’s not always quick or cheap.
To prevent myself from arriving late to a school and from having an empty wallet, I try to pack a lunch. This sounds practical and normal because it is just that. Practical and normal.
The only thing that isn’t normal is when I arrive to a school and try to have lunch. Sometimes I can eat at the cafeteria. Other times, it’s way past everyone else’s lunch and I have to eat in my car.
Being a traveling ESL teacher in the U.S. public school system comes with its own set of unique challenges. While teaching across multiple schools isn’t always easy – all my “must haves” are what helps me function as the ESL teacher. It’s hard, but definitely rewarding.
