Posted by Cecilia Cooper, School Psychologist
When selected as last week’s Bulldog Buck
classroom winners, Dalkiry and Vanessa did not hesitate for one second to
select “Help out Mrs. Doyle’s 1st grade class” from their classroom
menu of prizes. Dalkiry and Vanessa are 5th grade students in Mrs.
Mezquita’s 5/6 Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) classroom. A SEI classroom
provides instruction in all content areas to students learning English as a
second language. Dalkiry and Vanessa were born in Dominican Republic, their
first language is Spanish, and they have only been in the United States for 1-2
years.
During an interview, the girls were
asked for examples of why they were given Bulldog Bucks last week. Dalkiry
stated, “I was Safe. Walking in the hall. No running.” Vanessa stated, “I was respectful. Doing what
they tell me to do in computers”. When asked why they picked to help in a
classroom over other items on the menu such as ‘no homework pass’, ‘listening
to music’, and ‘pencil with special eraser’, the girls stated, “Because we can
help the little kids”. Upon entering the 1st grade classroom,
Dalkiry and Vanessa were greeted with smiles by Mrs. Doyle (1st
Grade SEI teacher) and the students. The children were seated at their desks
editing their non-fiction writing pieces. Dalkiry and Vanessa walked around the
room and offered their assistance, which every student asked for. Dalkiry
reminded a student to put a period at the end of his sentence. Vanessa used an
alphabet line to show a student how the letter “k” looks like. Both girls
helped the students edit their writing pieces by checking their spelling and
punctuation. There were also instances of direct translation happening, given
that many of the 1st grade students’ first language is Spanish as
well.
Thanks to the new school-wide PBIS program
at the CGS, our upper school students and lower school students are connecting more and working together to demonstrate their BEST!
