Increased Numbers of Burmese Students at MISD

"They're coming in different age levels, all different ethnic backgrounds, as well.  All different languages.  You have to remember, we have 26 languages in midland, right now,"  said Joanna Rowley, Executive Director of English Language Learning at MISD.

MISD is no stranger to bilingual education and English as a second language services.  In recent years, the number of students requiring those services has increased.  Students are coming in from Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Russia and they're coming in all different age levels.  

But, the group seeing the largest increase is coming from Burma.  Joanna Rowley was a principal at San Jacinto Junior High, when the first Burmese family made it's way to Midland, six years ago.  "We were a newcomer academy, at San Jacinto, as they are now and we received our first families.  Since then, I have seen it grow at a progressive pace.  We have a little over 200 Burmese children, in Midland, now," she said.

There are a couple of questions, here, that beg to be answered.  Where are these people coming from and why are they coming to Midland?  
They're coming from Burma, through Malaysia, to the United States.  As to why?  As Rowley told us, the answer is, actually, pretty obvious, "We're losing a lot of our blue collar workers to work in the oil field.  That creates other blue collar jobs.  So, they're taking those jobs."

Tun Thai, known as Sung-Sung, is the parent liaison for the Burmese population at MISD.  She made her way from Burma to the U.S., for the same reason.  She was working for Walmart when she was hired to work for the district.  She knows, first hand, why her people are packing up and moving.

"In Burmana?  Oh.......we are a very poor people.  We are very, very poor people.  That's why we come to United States.  We need to work hard because we need to send them back money, for our parents and our relatives," she recall keeping in mind there are 26 languages are being spoken at MISD, I wanted to know what the top five foreign languages were.  Rowley answered, "Of course, English, then Spanish, then Vietnamese, then Chin-hakah, and once you get to the fifth language, it's pretty evenly matched with a lot of different languages. The Burmese population fits in the Hakah-chin language."

I was surprised to learn, another obstacle for teachers, in the Chin state of Burma, there are over 30 dialects.  That means, many of these students may not even understand each other, in their native language. Rowley isn't sure why, but here lately, especially this year, most of the children coming to the district, have an educational background from their home country.  In some cases, however, they are uneducated. That gives teachers a even bigger hurdle to get over.  

"We not only have to teach them English, we have to backtrack to the basics and teach them the basic academic skills and fundamentals to get them caught up.  So, how do we get the academics across to them, when they don't understand the language?"  Rowley asked.  

Teachers are using something called "sheltered instruction."  it uses posters, on the walls, to cue the student, in the learning process.  For example, a kindergarten student, just learning how to read.

According to Rowley, "You use a lot of pictures, a lot of prompting, sentence stems.  " I'm going to the blank."  you, kind of, get them started and they fill in the blank with very basic words." 

Rowley goes on to say the children are being "Americanized" very quickly.  But the learning doesn't come as easy at home.  Sung-sung explained why.

"It's very hard, especially because, the parents, most are uneducated people.  So, with homework, or something like that, they can't help them, their kids.  So, it's very, very hard," she said.

Burmese parents have trouble understanding the Texas Education requirements and the concept of the STAAR test.  According to Sung-Sung, "Burma educated and United States educated is very different.  So, we don't know nothing.  We don't know anything."

On a positive note, Rowley says the massive influx of, not only the Burmese population, but all non-English speaking races is helping and encouraging MISD to celebrate cultural diversity, "The cultural diversity is huge in midland and the campuses are embracing that."
 As you can imagine, MISD is in dire need of teachers, in all subject areas, with ESL certification.  If you would like to apply or want more information, contact Joanna Rowely at MISD.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/05/07/increased-numbers-of-burmese-students-at-misd/