Latin American Holidays

Many of our ESOL students are Latino. Some celebrate holidays from their home countries as well as holidays in United States. Here are some holidays celebrated in Latin America countries:

Sept 15 ~ Independence Day (Guetemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica)
Sept. 16 ~ Independence Day (Mexico)
Nov. 1-2 ~ Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos)- A remembrance of lost loved ones
Dec. 12 ~ Day of Our Lady Guadelupe (Día de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) - Celebration honoring Mexico's patron saint.
Dec. 16 ~ Las Posadas - Las Posadas celebrates Joseph and Mary's search for shelter in Bethlehem with candlelight processions that end at various nativity scenes. Las Posadas continues through January 6.
Dec. 25 ~ Christmas (Navidad)
Jan. 1 ~ New Year (Año Nuevo)
Jan. 6 ~ Día de Los Santos Reyes- The day when Mexicans exchange Christmas presents in accordance with the arrival of the three gift-bearing wisemen to Jesus Christ. This day culminates the Christmastime festivities.
April ~ Semana Santa- Semana Santa is the holy week that ends the 40-day Lent period. This week includes Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
May 5 ~ Cinco de Mayo- Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican national holiday that honors the Mexican victory over the French army at Puebla de los Angeles in 1862.

Rosetta Stone comes to Compton!!!!!

In the next few weeks, our school will receive over 200 new computers. This is an enormous upgrade of the instructional technology at our school. Once the new computers are installed and brought online, several key computers used by our ESOL students will have Rosetta Stone installed on them.

Rosetta Stone is a language instructional program available in many languages. The program offers instruction in listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills. This is going to be an excellent addition to our ESOL program. I have used Rosetta Stone extensively while learning Spanish. I know how much of a benefit our students will get from using the Rosetta Stone program to improve their English proficiency.

Teacher Resource Center Opens

Our English Language Learners benefit greatly from their instruction by the ESOL teacher. However the academic and social experiences ESOL students receive in the regular classroom play a key role in their progress.

To further assist our teachers in working with their ESOL students, the Compton ESOL department has opened a teacher resource center (TRC). The TRC is located in the ESOL classroom. It has a large array of materials, with many new content area resource books.

Compton Elementary is one of the first schools in Cobb County to open a teacher resource center specifically for the classroom teachers who teach English Language Learners. We are very fortunate to have these new materials available for our teachers. But the real winners are our students.

Back to school!!

All of us here at Compton are ready to come back to school. Not only is there so much new to learn, everything is fresh and shiny. Our building (and ESOL classroom) got a facelift, with new paint throughout. Everything looks great.

Our ESOL program is getting better!!! We have just received lots of new materials for our students. In addition, rumor has it that we may even get new computers.

I am really looking forward to teaching and learning together with our students. Compton students are the best!!!