As many of you know, Santiago is a very diverse school, with students that come from many ethnicity and languages. Although this is a great thing, there are some serious problems that the school has to overcome to help everyone. There are numerous students that have come to Santiago that do not speak English and one major problem that I have witnessed firsthand is that English Learners are not getting provided enough support from the school. For example, throughout the day I’ve had to step in and translate for students during classes or even when they need to have a conversation with a teacher because there is no one else to help or translate for the students. And although they do offer classes for students to learn and practice their English, is that really enough?

I spoke with a current student at Santiago named Aleida about her experiences and struggles she has had at Santiago and asked a few questions (these questions have been translated from Spanish to English) :

Question 1: How long have you been speaking English?

Aleida: “Not long at all, I actually bearly speak English but am learning”

Question 2: What are some challenges you have faced at school?

Aleida: “It has been hard to understand my classes and homework by myself”

Question 3: Was it hard to adapt to the school? Why or why not?

Aleida: “In the beginning, it was because I had no idea where to find the classrooms and I couldn’t communicate with the other students.”

Question 4:  How has your experience been at this school so far?

Aleida: “It has been good meeting people that speak the same language as me and I can relax more”

Question 5: What do you think the school can do differently to help the students that do not speak English:

Aleida: ” They could help students that don’t speak English by getting a helper/translater to walk them around the campus more and help them get to class and help them learn English more one on one”

Question 6: Do you think the school offers enough support for English learners? why or why not?

Aleida: “Yes and no, although they do offer support,  it would be better to have people to speak both languages and help them around instead of having us learn ourselves the first days so that we as students don’t feel unmotivated to go to school.”

After speaking with Aleida it made me think of ways that the school could help the students at school. Some ways that the school could help the students are by providing them with student aid for at least their first week to help them get around at school or any other problems/questions they have. After that, they could attend continue taking English learning classes to improve, and they should try to offer extra weekly time to catch up or ask questions about their homework or anything that is hard for them to translate. And lastly, some simple ways that you can help out students at school is to offer some help if you notice kids struggling to understand something and help them out if they need a place to sit at lunch. I hope that soon students are completely at ease at school and feel 100% supported by the school, until then we must keep pushing for change.