Learning From My Students
How Hayley’s Teaching Experience Provided New Perspectives
By Hayley Ross hayley@weavetales.org
Edited by Seyeon Hwang & Kayla Byrd
Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Hayley is pursuing a degree in Secondary English Education and a minor in Teaching English as a Second Language at the University of North Florida. Hayley brings her passion for refugees and teaching English as a second language to the New American Speaker's Program. She hopes to teach middle or high-school-level English and inspire students just like herself. Her dedication to education has been a huge encouragement for her students to share their stories of migration.
How It All Began
In April 2020, I was struggling with unexpected changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My study abroad had just been canceled. All my summer and fall classes moved online. The year 2020 did not turn out how I anticipated it at all.
I was in a huge time of transition, moving out, and looking for something to fill my newfound time with.
Then, I heard from Dr. Kaplan, a professor in my honors college at the University of North Florida (UNF), at the end of the spring semester.
“Check out these summer opportunities”
Initially, the position I was applying for within WeaveTales was as a research assistant. However, when I met with Seyeon, the Co-Founder and COO of WeaveTales, for my interview, the opportunity became so much more.
We began discussing all the projects that WeaveTales had in the works, one of them being the hopes of developing a training course that would give newcomers an opportunity to build their skills in public speaking to better share their stories of migration. Naturally, I shared my experiences during my studies at UNF as a Secondary English Education major with a minor in Teaching English as a Second Language. I also shared my desire to help immigrants become better communicators.
From Ms. Franklin to Becoming a Teacher
Growing up, I loved my teachers and experiences in school. I was so inspired that I became passionate about becoming a teacher.
I have always loved to write, read, create art, and wanted to work with and help children, so the career merged all these aspects together. As a future teacher, I aspire to be a support system for my students and to make English fun and relevant.
I want to be a teacher like Ms. Franklin.
In high school, I was lucky enough to have Ms. Franklin for sophomore and junior year English at Eastside high school in Gainesville, FL. She was the teacher that built my confidence not only as a person but as a writer as well.
Ms. Franklin incorporated creative projects and ways of expressing ourselves, such as through having us perform poetry, create video projects, and creating book posters. Hanging on my bedroom wall, I have a letter from her which reads,
“Dearest Hayley, your poem was amazing. It was honest, raw, and lyrical, and emotional. It and you are beautiful. I hope that you never stop writing 100%”.
The things parents and teachers tell us carry a lot of weight, particularly in our perception of ourselves and our skills. Luckily, I have had many amazing English teachers that have inspired me to want to become an English teacher and better myself as a writer.
Ms. Franklin wasn’t the only one. I think back to Mrs. Blakeslee, my 8th grade English/Language Arts teacher, who used to give me extensions on my poetry assignments because my words were “sweet and slow like molasses.” I think back to Dr. Ewert, my senior year English teacher, who wrote “like Mary Poppins, perfectly perfect in every way” on my essay. Without their feedback and support, I would’ve given up on writing.
I carry all their lessons, feedback, and words with me always. I hope one day to share those same words with my own students and be one of the reasons they think they are smart and good enough.
They believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself and before I had developed my voice. I used to be a very shy student and person, shaking whenever I had to present in front of the class.
Yet, here I am now in college studying to become a teacher where every day I will stand in front of a group of students and talk about writing and literature. Here, I am now creating a public speaking course when it used to be one of my biggest fears.
Teachers do not know it when they say and write these things, but these are the things that people carry with them into adulthood and into their own professions and relationships. I do not think Ms. Franklin knew it then, but high school and growing up was really rough for me and I think that it was teachers like her that kept me going. They are the reason I am here today.
Ms. Franklin, thank you all for giving me a voice and believing in me when no one else did.
I hope to give as much to my students as my teachers like Ms. Franklin has given me.
Through her, I learned the important roles that teachers play in a student’s life, beyond just school — they set you up for success and skills beyond the classroom.
Teaching the English Language
What interested me in English as a Second Language (ESL) education was my experiences in the UNF course called “Colloquium” with Dr. Kaplan. The course explored our own family histories and the stories of recent immigrants to Jacksonville. The lectures consisted of different professors, in different content areas such as biology, history, or crime, and how migration was related within those topics. After the lectures, we would break into groups for our service project. The service-learning project connected students with some local immigrant communities, and each group researched the background of their chosen immigrant group and presented it to the rest of the class. My chosen service project was to be a mentor to a local refugee family.
I was paired to be a mentor to a local refugee through World Relief Jacksonville (WRJ). The student I had the pleasure of mentoring was a high school girl who had just come to America from Afghanistan.
Every time we met, I saw the struggles she faced at home: from trying to support her family, understanding the language and content at school, dealing with the emotional stress of adjusting to living here, and the struggles most teenage girls face.
This hands-on experience each week opened my eyes and made me feel as though I had stepped into the shoes of a refugee from Afghanistan.
As a mentor, I assisted with homework, helped with communication between WRJ and teachers, provided emotional support to the family, and assisted in practical situations including securing an insurance card, completing job applications, and acquiring a phone.
One of the things that really stood out to me was how her textbook was covered in translations in Arabic.
It is incredibly difficult not to be taught in your first language and to have a language barrier between teachers.
Many of her teachers were frustrated with her and were not willing to help explain further the concepts. She was very frustrated coming from the Middle East and had to face scrutiny from her classmates. People were calling her a “terrorist”, questioning her citizenship, and refusing to work with her because of her language barrier. She had many challenges that were enhanced by her racial identity.
It is heartbreaking to have someone you care about, torn down by stereotypes and apathetic teachers. Because of these first-hand experiences, my journey of becoming interculturally competent has been motivated by my increased empathy for refugees.
Now that I realize just how subconsciously race plays a role in people’s experiences, I plan to be more conscious of this and ensure that there is no place for inequality in my future classroom; let alone, in the way I treat people in my personal or professional life. I also hope to be an advocate for students in my classroom when they face injustices outside the walls of the class.
During our last visit with our mentee, we asked whether this experience was beneficial for her and if she liked us coming to mentor each week.
She expressed to us how much she enjoyed us coming and how big of help we had been in her life and school work.
Part of being a teacher and a mentor, especially to ESL students, is that you also have to be a friend and resource to the community. You connect them to their new lives and could be the difference between them feeling included or falling through the cracks.
Despite an occasional language barrier, there was immense gratitude. English Language Learner (ELL) students are the most motivated and passionate students I have ever worked with! Every time we visited, her mother greeted us with dinner and tea. Just knowing that we were there to help meant the world to them. Even when we couldn’t communicate, our actions spoke as loud as words.
Strong Communicators Through Public Speaking
During my interview for the position at WeaveTales, we began discussing the oral history work and public speaking needs of refugees and immigrants. Within my education courses, we had to develop our “personal practice theories’’ (PPTs) as a teacher, which are our disposition and rules as a teacher. I mentioned one of my PPTs to Seyeon,
“to have my classroom create communicators in the verbal and written form.” From there, we discussed how well it fit with telling immigrant and refugee stories.
By the end of the interview, she said, “I think there may be another project I have in mind for you to work on,” which led to the creation of our speaking program.
In the few short months between May and August, I assisted Seyeon in developing the training course that would be called the New American Speaker’s Program (NASP).
The NASP is a public speaker’s program designed to encourage and empower refugees and immigrants (“newcomers”) to share their personal stories with the public. This program includes a training course that focuses on developing skills in public speaking, writing, and storytelling in order to help them master their own stories and narratives.
The goal of the program is to prepare non-native English speakers as future public speakers who could deliver their stories effectively and contribute to correcting misconceptions surrounding refugees and immigrants. Upon successful completion of the course, students are officially listed in our public speaker’s directory and enrolled in our exclusive email list for potential speaking engagements and referrals to event organizers.
Developing an Online Course
Given the pandemic and growing need for an online program to reach millions of refugees worldwide, we created the course 100% online to run for 15 weeks (3.5 months).
We built the course onto an online platform called Teachable so that anyone wanting to take the course could enroll at any time from anywhere in the world.
Originally, I did not think online learning would be as effective as in-person, but I have found that there will always be a connection between students as long as the teacher makes a continued effort. This experience, during the digital age of COVID-19, has led me to develop my skills in computers, video editing, social media, and online learning.
Each week our students work on a specific topic through a pre-recorded lecture, reading assignment, quiz, and Learn From series, to create their own video assignment.
Learn From Series
To make our course unique, we reached out to professional storytellers, politicians, authors, and influencers across the country to ask for their input.
Thanks to the generous support from seasoned speakers such as Mayor Wilmot Collins, Carrie Sue Ayvar, Debbie Almontaser, Michael J. Tougias, and many more, we were able to incorporate their advice and knowledge into the curriculum as the “Learn From” series.
Many of these professionals continued to give their support beyond the learn from videos, such as by attending our Storytelling Nights as guest speakers.
Storytelling Nights
Through the curriculum, we also wanted to give our students an opportunity to practice public speaking by telling their stories to the public. We incorporated a series of virtual workshops and events to provide speaking engagements for our students.
First, we began with a workshop for students to practice. At the workshop, our students went around and told a story that they had prepared through the program.
Then, we held a Storytelling Night to create a safe space for students to share their stories and gain experience speaking in front of a live audience. They applied the skills they learned in the course like writing, audience awareness, organizing ideas, projecting their voice, and engaging the audience . Especially in the digital learning environment, it was important to have a space where the students could all gather together as a cohort “face to face”.
Student Diversity: 8 Countries and 10+ Languages
The NASP is the first class I have ever had the privilege of leading!
While I have taught in the Duval County Public School system as an intern, as well as taught and mentored through Refugee Alliance Assistance and World Relief Jacksonville through my coursework, this was the first time I have had a whole classroom and curriculum to myself.
In August, we rolled out a call for applications for the inaugural, fully-funded cohort in the program. Among more than 30 applications, the entire WeaveTales team worked to narrow down the applications and ended up having a video interview with about half the applicants. We wanted to pull from a diverse group of students that properly represented the many different faces of refugees and immigrants in America.
Connection in a Time of Social Distance
We designed the course to keep in contact with the students through videos, comments, zoom calls, email, and a Facebook group. At the beginning of the semester, we sent welcome packages to students with notes and materials that may help them.
Initially, I was really afraid to teach this program.
When speaking with Dr. Kaplan, who is now my faculty mentor at UNF for this project, she put into words that I was feeling imposter syndrome.
Here I am, just turned 20 years old, and my first experience of solo teaching is this amazing opportunity, yet all I could focus on was how young I am. I felt like I did not have enough experience, however, I was fortunate enough to have a company and students who believed in me.
Initially, I was focused on how vastly different I was from my students, thinking that I was not good enough. Yet, despite all our differences in age, religion, and culture, I have found that we have a lot more in common than we all could have imagined. This touches on a greater narrative as a teacher that my identity, as well as a lot of Americans, involves so many shared experiences to those who I may perceive as different from me.
I am a white U.S. citizen teaching diverse students. I strive to empathize with and understand each of their stories and background because I have not been in some of the situations they have been in. My students have taught me so much about acceptance and diversity, issues that have been of heightened discussion during this election period.
My students also reintroduced me to hobbies and the inner self I had set aside in college.
l have had inspiration from Sarmad’s beautiful art, Dima’s piano playing, and Nareeman’s poetry. Thanks to Hanan and Liya’s cultural culinary work combined with their amazing stories, I have had the desire to cook again. Seeing the confidence in Faisal and Deyar made me realize that I can also conquer my own battles because they have overcome so much and still encourage those around them with their positive attitudes. Michael and Jumoke’s vulnerability is admirable and inspiring every time. And Mamadou, our youngest student and newest to America, taught me that the power of stories transcends ages.
The Meaning of Home and Belonging
“I am from there. I am from here. I am not there and I am not here.
I have two names, which meet and part,
and I have two languages.
I forget which of them I dream in.”-Mahmoud Darwish (Poem as referenced in Nareeman’s story, “Belonging”)
The stories of migrants are very intertwined with ours today. Our personal experiences are similar, even though they may be in different locations.
At my current age, I am perfectly split between living in Illinois and Florida. The first ten years of my life I was constantly moving because of my parents’ jobs. A lot of what I remember from my childhood in Illinois is traveling by train every other weekend to visit my father who lived (and still lives) in Chicago and walking around the city with him. I was in a new school almost every year of grade school. My mother, step-father, and I moved to Florida when I started middle school.
Illinois and Florida were completely different. Migration by states is different from migration by country, but it has shaped a lot of who I am now.
Similarly, I had to adjust to new friendships, new homes, being far away from all of my family, and cultural differences between the North and South United States. This constant search for home and belonging is not a refugee issue or an American issue, but a human issue.
In my junior year of high school, I had a house fire and lost everything. I never came to terms with this because I felt so alone and like no one knew what this felt like until I connected with these students. Many of them have also had many homes they have had to leave behind, which was devastating for some of them.
One of my students, Sarmad, grapples with this as well.
“ There are many questions that are repeated in my mind. Are there multiple forms of the homeland? Is homeland just a word?
Is the real homeland being inside the human being? What is the meaning of the word homeland?These questions do not concern me alone, but rather every immigrant and refugee. Why does a person migrate from one place to another? What is the meaning of the word homeland? The homeland has many meanings: life, love, safety, stability, etc. Homeland is a word that changes its meaning from one person to another…”-Sarmad Al Musawi
Through high school, I was able to develop an art theme for IB (international baccalaureate) art. My theme was “Shelter” where I explored home, family, poverty, war, personal stories, and the meaning of belonging and security through art.
What has always been consistent for me throughout my life is school and all of my teachers’ support.
This is the reason I am studying to be a teacher now.
I want to be a consistent presence for students when their home life and family may be very scattered. I want to build their confidence and tell them how their voice matters when there are others trying to bring them down. I learned through my experiences that home is not always a structure or location, but it is the people you meet and the memories we carry with us. I think writing, art, and storytelling are how we preserve our home and our experiences.
More Like a Family Than a Cohort
In the midst of a horrible pandemic and physical isolation, I feel so connected to my students scattered all over the country. We have connected through online discussions and virtual events where we have shared some of our most personal experiences and thoughts. I have been able to find great comfort and solidarity through all of them.
Even before starting the program, the students were already very motivated and had strengths in writing and speaking. I hope that we give them the feeling of community and the space to heal and share to develop these skills even further. I have seen the confidence and abilities of my students increase from week one to now.
Just recently, they presented at their first Storytelling Night, which was a live-streamed event where students got the chance to apply what they have learned into a real public speaking engagement.
By the words of my student Faisal, “we are not a cohort, we are a family.”
And while none of us have ever met, I have never felt closer to any of the students I have ever taught. I think this shows the validity and impact that online learning can have.
This cohort highlights the importance of ESL programs and providing a space for refugees and immigrants to share their stories. This teaching experience has taught me a lot about the profession and world around me. I have become a better teacher and citizen. I cannot wait to see what these students have in store and I am honored to have the opportunity to be a part of this program and family.
Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of WeaveTales and its employees.
Hayley teaches the Fall 2020 cohort in the New American Speakers Program. To learn more about the work of her students, visit our YouTube channel.
Want to tell your story?
Join our Speakers Program or email our Editorial Associate at kayla@weavetales.org.
This program is supported by Emgage, MASA Foundation, Reyes Legal PLLC, GlobalJax, and USAHello.
