I wish someone had told me how hard it was going to be since I don’t speak Spanish…

As a principal of a dual language school, not speaking the target language has limited my efficiency and caused me to create work arounds to support my emerging linguistic skills.  I had to make adjustments to how I observed and evaluated teachers, communicated with parents and provided professional development for my staff.  My naive initial thought was I would just learn Spanish.  How hard could it be?  There were students in the school learning to be bilingual everyday.  I enrolled in a language school in my community and started at level 1.  What a humbling experience.  I could even say the alphabet correctly.  We would listen to radio announcements from a Spanish station and I couldn’t process the message or call back number.  I was a hot mess.  I learned what it was like to be a second language student and only for a few hours each week.  I had a whole new appreciation for the students, parents and staff when trying to communicate in their second language.  I learned to laugh at myself more and appreciate the grace others provided as I struggled to say hello and how are you.  I sounded terrible, but students, parents and staff were so patient and helpful.  I continued to take language classes for several years.  It built my confidence in receptive language and gave me confidence when observing in class.  While I was learning, I did the following things to help me.

In teacher observations and evaluations, I initially videotaped lessons I observed.  When I completed the pre observation conference, I reviewed the lesson plans and resources the teacher used.  I felt like I was preparing to teach the lesson.  Most teachers provided copies of the lesson in English even though their lesson plans were in Spanish.  I used a lot of clinical supervision strategies to collect data about questions, student engagement, management, etc.  I shared the raw data and video with teachers ahead of time with some guiding questions.  During the class, I had google translate open on my computer so I could translate a word I may not know.  I would also refer to the lesson plan so I could follow what was happening.  As teachers read through the raw data, they could clarify any misunderstandings I had based on my receptive language skills.  During the post observation conference, I asked a lot of questions and listened more.  This guided how I provided feedback.  I drafted the NCEES forms and made adjustments during our conference.  Having the video and raw data available supported our conversation about instruction.  If I had concerns about a teacher’s performance, I asked for help from the central office, coaches and lead teachers, who were all happy to observe with me and could scaffold any language challenges I experienced.  The process took longer than classes I observed in English but with the additional time and some slight shifts in processes, I feel like I was able to provide meaningful feedback for the teachers who taught in the target language.  

Parent communication was another challenging area for me.  I couldn’t just pick up the phone or send an email or text.  I had to have help.  As I hired front office staff, I ensured that over time, each of the roles was filled with someone bilingual who understood that part of their responsibility was supporting their monolingual principal with communication.  I learned to say greetings- “Hello, this is principal Bivins and I am calling today about____.  Señora ____ is going to help me in talking with you” before handing the phone over to my office staff so parents knew I was trying in my communication.  I know I sounded so bad that my office staff commonly rephrased what I attempted to say in my greeting and then proceeded to get to the purpose of the call.  I also learned to say thank you for your time and good-bye so I could again attempt to say what I was capable of saying.  When parents came in person to meet with me, I learned simple phrases in Spanish of “I really want to hear what you have to say today but I will need help.  Just a moment, let me get someone who can translate for me”.  I also learned to slow down and chunk information, providing details in writing (like with discipline or sharing assessment results) so the translator would have additional context.  When parents left messages on the phone, if I could not understand the message, I had a set time when I would check them and have a Spanish speaking staff member help me so I got the correct message.  Parents usually would contact a Spanish speaking staff directly but I did not want parents to think they could not come to me directly just because I lacked the Spanish language skills.  I weekly messages the school sent out, I created a system with the district translator to have our weekly message completed by a certain day of the week, she’d translate the written message and I would arrange for a Spanish speaker in the school to record the message in Spanish.  I also made a hard and fast rule early on that no messages went out from the school if they could not go out at the same time in both languages.  The PTA and community resources made adjustments and understood why we had to communicate so everyone got the same message at the same time.  I made it a point to greet students and families in the car rider line in the morning and afternoon so saying hello, good morning, have a good day/weekend in Spanish became routine to me.  At school events, I intentionally greeted Spanish speaking families and may not have fully understood the conversation after, but I was trying.  I also solicited input and feedback throughout the year and at the end of the year in Spanish speaking focus groups so I ensured the input from all families was received.  I remember one parent saying to me that she was embarrassed to speak English in front of me (similar to the way I was embarrassed to speak Spanish in front of her) so it was hard for her to try.  We laughed and agreed we would practice with each other.  Learning to smile and laugh goes a long way in bridging the linguistic divide with families, but establishing routines and procedures for communication along with asking for help when needed are critical.

Professional development had to shift.  I lead a school within a school and then a full magnet school.  When I first became principal, it was business as usual.  I did not allow for simple things like turn and talk to check for understanding or wait time or allow time for processing the learning in English.  I also did not always use non-linguistic representations, pre-teach critical vocabulary or any of the other SIOP strategies I would want teachers to use in the classrooms.  I remember being so frustrated with a teacher assistant about her implementation of PBIS.  When I talked to her about it, she said she understood what she was supposed to do and would make changes.  Little did I know that she did not fully understand the message or the cultural context for praising students with positive reinforcement.  I asked other Spanish speaking assistants what was going on and what we could do to help.  Along the journey, I learned that sometimes professional development needs to allow for small group work in the language most comfortable for the staff or the entire session should be in Spanish or coaching support in Spanish.  As we started doing more and more professional development in Spanish, I learned to let go of control as a leader, empower others to lead and support in a different way.  I was always present and there for learning but I often shared what my personal experiences were in having professional development delivered in my second language- how tired my brain was, how I needed to check in with someone to make sure I got it, how visual supports and things in writing always helped.  It was also good for my staff who were also monolingual English speakers to experience professional development in Spanish.  It eased the conversation of “no, we aren’t talking about you” to how challenging school is for our English learners everyday.  I also had to shift how professional development was handled culturally.  There had to be examples that brought cultural relevance either from experiences within the school or sharing from our staff.  Teachers also wanted time to talk and share with one another.  What I estimated could be taught in 30 minutes, always took an hour.  I had to pick and choose what was most critical in professional learning and be very targeted to ensure we had time for our staff’s learning.  Everyone in the school was a second learning of language and even adult learning had to make allowances for that.  

I also learned how to change processes and procedures.  Each morning began with a morning meeting in our gym.  When students were invited to recite the pledge of Allegiance, we always added that we would start in Spanish and then recite in English.  I used student leaders to lead this process since I knew my Spanish was not going to be a model.  During awards assemblies, we welcomed parents and explained that the awards assembly was going to be done in two languages but it would not be translated.  We encouraged parents to find a buddy who could help with the translation if needed.  When we read student awards, the teachers wrote 2-3 sentences about why students received an award.  We read the award in the child’s home language.  Teachers, the assistant principal or school counselor would help with award so the assembly could truly be in both languages.  When we had a potluck dinner before or after a student performance, the PTA always recruited both English and Spanish speaking parents to volunteer so real time messages were done in both languages.  To elevate Spanish in our predominant English world, we would also communicate in Spanish first, followed by the English translation when possible.  I learned to share with parents at Open House and other large events and in annual messages why we communicated in that way.  It helped to ease parent frustration with waiting on the translation.  

I knew I also needed to work on my own world view and experiences.  I was born and raised in North Carolina and had never traveled to a country where English was not the predominant language.  I rarely engaged in cultural experiences that challenged me linguistically.  I applied for a Fulbright administrator exchange with Argentina.  I remember my husband’s face when I told him we were having a principal from Argentina come stay with us for a month in October and I was going to Argentina for a month that summer.  He asked why I would want to do this (I had three young children at home and he knew how self-conscious I was about speaking Spanish).  I figured once I was accepted there was no turning back.  Teresita came in October and we had so much fun.  Her English skills were less developed than my Spanish skills.  We learned to laugh, cook together and have common experiences that developed both our language skills.  When I traveled to Argentina, I was terrified.  Teresita made me feel so welcome and proudly showed off her country and culture.  I practiced my Spanish and laughed a lot.  I spent the last few days in Buenos Aires alone.  No one spoke English.  I wrote down what I wanted to say in Spanish on index cards and showed it to the hotel reception, taxi drivers and shop clerks.  I almost got mugged on the subway.  What I learned from all of that was that I was brave enough and had the capacity to expand my horizons and learn about another culture to enrich my own world view.  Since that experience, I learned that when I travel, I want to know what the real people do day to day in their home countries, not just the tourist experience.

I also had an equity coach who helped me face the reality of my own fear.  He asked why I thought I was having such a hard time with the Latino population and outreach in the school and I was having success with outreach to white and black families.  I blamed it on language.  He told me that was an excuse and asked me to name what I did with my black families that helped bridge the cultural connection.  I named various events, home visits and critical parents and colleagues who supported me with my work with black students, parents and staff.  He asked when the last time I did something like with my Latino families or staff.  I said never.  I knew it was my own hang up and excuse of language barriers.  I sought out critical staff members that could help me think out loud or remind me when my whiteness took over processes.  I went on home visits with teachers to build relationships with Spanish speaking parents.  I remember being lost in the conversation and smiling a lot because I had no idea what they were talking about, but I learned to try new foods, laugh and build those relationships, even though I felt vulnerable and had no idea what I was doing.  I worked alongside moms who made tamales at the school for fundraisers monthly to help the PTA.  I had never even eaten a tamale but I learned how important working collaboratively is and language is only an excuse, not a true barrier.