As my tenure as CATE president ends, I become reflective of my term as well as to the writing that I have done for California English. A strange dichotomy of emotions encompasses the creative process as I attempt one last time to juxtaposition the focus for this edition with my original platform statement and goals as CATE president. I must admit that one part of me imagines secretly celebrating at Fouquet’s on the Champs-Elysées, and another part laments the old adage, “so little time” in an attempt to accomplish fetes that might not be entirely possible. I have spent the last hour reading my other perspectives and asked myself the following questions as part of the reflective process: Have I been an authentic voice for California teachers and our students? Have I taken control of my own professional discourse and encouraged others to do the same? Have I “become vivid on the page?” Have I shown and not just told? Have I encouraged taking risks and taken risks myself? Have I consistently made members and non-members aware of the benefits of belonging to a professional organization? Have I made a difference? As part of the CATE board, all I can say is that I have certainly tried, and I leave this office all the better for the experience. My perspective has definitely been influenced, and I will continue to evolve as a person and as a professional. This is not the first time I took a detour from my comfort zone and as a result my perspective influenced in a positive way…

ELL students are sometimes stereotyped and the resulting connotations can impact them in a negative way. It is not rare for society to see them one way, and people who see them as individuals in another. It is not rare for ELL students to fear taking risks in the academic arena; and therefore, their progression in language acquisition can be slow and sometimes unsteady. As someone who spent six weeks in a Spanish immersion program in Costa Rica in 1998, I understand their fear. I know how frustrating it can be to be judged for your verb tense, pronunciation, diction, fluency, and cultural differences. It impacts every waking moment and exacerbates the culture shock one feels when you are judged as somehow different from the majority. In Costa Rica, I went to the colegio hoping that I wouldn’t make too much of a fool out of myself, and left each day with a headache from concentrating so hard on my listening and speaking skills. I’d get home to speak with my “mother,” who didn’t speak any English; however, at least she didn’t judge me, and our conversations became more and more fluent as we laughed at the inaccuracy of a small machine’s translations and learned more about each other’s lives. I went out each night with the other teacher-students, but in the wee hours I spent a lot of time transcribing and translating the tape recorded lectures that I didn’t understand completely during the day. I came to Costa Rica self-assured and ready for a challenge with five years of Spanish classes where I was taught to read and write but not really speak, a month in Spain on vacation, and years of travel in Mexico under my belt. I thought that I was totally fluent, but I soon realized that my fluency was social with a travel vocabulary mentality and a lot of Spanglish sprinkled in--my academic Spanish was sorely lacking. The seventeen Spanish teachers I traveled with reminded me of this everyday. They actually thought that I didn’t understand when they made fun of my pronunciation or intonation. It’s true that I didn’t understand every single word, but I certainly understood the tone and winced at the laughter. I imagine our ELL students feel the same way on a daily basis. I yearned to speak English with somebody, anybody. I yearned to be judged as an individual, and not by the way I spoke or by my blonde hair. I was determined to improve, and that determination was based on my own historical success in an academic arena. In Costa Rica, I learned incredible lessons about language acquisition that I had never learned in any classroom. My six-week experience colors the way I affectively instruct students who continuously struggle through the extensive time period necessary to obtain cognitive acquisition. In scaffolding our students’ successes we help them develop their own determination, and just like every other student, the affective and cognitive domains work hand-in-hand to build a holistic success inside and outside of the classroom. Of course, there are a myriad of strategies, research, and theories for ELL students that I also use, but I am sure that you will be reading some wonderful examples of these in this issue. Let me conclude my perspective on ELL by simply stating that I tell my students what a great accomplishment it is to be able to communicate and think in more than one language. I tell them not to let anyone stereotype them, or make them think that they are not intelligent. I encourage them to take risks and in this way they positively move towards language acquisition, they find their authentic voice, they pass tests, and they won’t allow the stereotypes to define them.

In closing, I would like to congratulate JoAnne Mitchell, 2006 convention chair, and her committee for a fabulous convention in Anaheim last February. As I mentioned in my first perspective, I joined CATE as a student teacher and was taken to my first convention the same year. This has made all the difference in my professional life and in my classroom. My experience with the CATE and UCIWP communities and all of their affiliates have empowered and given me the enthusiasm and energy I need to boldly walk into my classroom every day. I would also like to thank the 2004-2006 CATE Board for their commitment to our profession and for the cooperation and collaboration that has anchored CATE and my presidency. Finally, I would like to thank all of the members who have been so supportive of me, and I know that CATE will be in good hands with President-Elect, Michelle Berry, at the helm. I encourage you to continue to support CATE and benefit from CATE by getting involved, communicating through and with CATE, taking risks, researching your classroom practices, asking questions, sharing your expertise, reflecting upon what works and doesn’t work, and by being an authentic voice for California teachers and all of our students. I vow to do the same.