Each month, The Mighty Hawk Messenger profiles a Lucas staff member to help our community get to know him or her better. This month, we talked to ELL teacher Lydia Crowe.
The Mighty Hawk Messenger: How long have you worked at Lucas, and what did you do prior to joining us?
Ms. Crowe: I have worked at Lucas for 5 years. I started working here in January of 2014. Before that, I had just finsihed student teaching in Atenas de Alajuela, Costa Rica. Prior to student teaching, I worked at the University of Iowa Press, in the exciting world of copyright!
The Mighty Hawk Messenger: Can you describe your role as an ELL teacher?
Ms. Crowe: I work with all kinds of different students. What they all have in common is that they can speak two different languages -- or sometimes three or more! I teach small groups of students and we do lots of fun activities to practice our reading, writing, listening, and speaking in English. My students each have a unique set skills and knowledge because of their different backgrounds, so they also teach each other and teach me a lot about the world.
The Mighty Hawk Messenger: Describe a day in your work life. What kinds of activities do you and your students do?
Ms. Crowe: I see 10 different grade level groups of students for about 30 minutes at a time. The day moves fast! We study units centered around different science or social studies themes. For example, right now in fourth grade we are learning about the power of wind and water, and in fifth grade we are learning about what risks people have taken for justice. We learn vocabulary words that are important to the theme, and we read fiction and nonfiction stories to help us learn more about it. We also talk about the theme to practice various speaking skills, such as making an argument, and learn about grammar topics, like how to form the plural. There's a lot to do!
The Mighty Hawk Messenger: What are some of the language and cultural backgrounds from which your students come?
Ms. Crowe: There is a lot of linguistic and cultural diversity at Lucas. Some of the languages spoken by our students are Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Lao, Swahili, Arabic, French, Ewe, and Fulani. I have had families that came from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Congo, Tanzania, Togo, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia, North and South Sudan, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and more.
The Mighty Hawk Messenger: What are some of the interesting things you’ve learned as you’ve worked with kids and families from different cultures?
Ms. Crowe: I love it when students share some of their home traditions with me. One of my Vietnamese students a couple years back showed me mesmerizing videos on YouTube of lion-costumed dance performances at Tet (the new year). Other students have brought me food from home, like arepas from Colombia -- and I love learning through my stomach. I also enjoy learning from families about how different school looks from one country to the next, or even from one area to the next in the same country. There are so many different ways to "do" school, and many things that we take for granted here aren't necessarily part of school in other places.
The Mighty Hawk Messenger: Any plans for the summer?
Ms. Crowe: Well, I'm having my first baby in June! I'm told that will take up a lot of my free time, but I'm skeptical. Babies love rock concerts, right?
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