Meet Ms. Hamm
By Julmira Ie
Ms. LaSchell Hamm is the new ESOL students' counselor.
Mrs. Hamm enjoys working with ESOL students very much. "I like the fact
everybody comes from different cultures and everybody speaks different languages," she
said. "It makes it interesting and exciting and it is really good to see
how hard the students try."
Communication with some of the ESOL students is one problem she has. "I
speak English and a little bit of Spanish, but no French," she said. "Because
I don't speak a lot different languages, I know exactly how they feel
when they hear me speak English and they don't know what I am saying.
They may speak French back to me and I don't know what they are saying."
"I can speak a little Spanish to get them to understand what I am saying,
so their little bit of English and my little bit of Spanish works out. If they
don't have any English skills, then there are a lot of different aides
in the counseling office and some counselors who speak Spanish and French and
they will come to help. Oftentimes students come with their family members who
speak English, so I can tell the family member what I want to say to the students
and the family members translate to them.
Ms. Hamm knows that the students try really hard with schoolwork. "It
is very amazing that you meet somebody and when they come on the first day of
school they don't speak any English. But they may come back a couple of
weeks later and have some phrases and are starting to learn," she said. "They
start to try to pick up more English and that really makes me feel good."
© Copyright Silver International Newspaper, Montgomery Blair H.S. 2004
(This page was created by Mohammed
Kayati and Sarah Bucknor)
