1: 00:00

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to our podcast. Today's podcast is saying hello in 50 different languages. My name is Gianna Smith, and I went to Clark High School.

2: 00:11

My name is Nicolette. I went to Massapequa High School.

3: 00:14

My name is Ruby. I went to North Babylon High School.

4: 00:17

My name is Caitlin, and I went to Mineola High School.

2: 00:21

So in Massapequa High School, I feel like there was not much diversity, so that was very limiting to having different multilingual experiences, which I didn't really get to experience till I was in college and the summer before college where I worked at an Italian restaurant with a lot of people who came here from Venezuela and didn't really speak English. So I went from being in a place where English was where everyone spoke, and then all of a sudden I was in a place where I was the only person who fluently spoke English. So in high school, there was a lot of different like, we would see different videos and see different things of people being able to communicate, which whether they were bilingual, trilingual, but no one really was like that where I was. So it was very cool to see. So say if we saw 2 people in our town, like, speaking Spanish or speaking Chinese or speaking any other kind of language, Everyone was always very infatuated by the fact that they could do that and then also turn around and have a conversation with us in English.

2: 01:35

And as a music ed major now, I feel like being able to sing in a different language or play a piece that was written in Germany or whatnot, it brings that culture into something that we never really got to experience at all in high school. So that's what it was like in Massapequa.

3: 02:03

So in North Babylon High School, it was actually really diverse. I remember in one of my classes that, topic would come up a lot, and we would talk about, how, it's much more, inclusive and just a bunch of different ethnicities in the town. My school also, has a bunch of students from West Babylon and, I think Babylon 2, who go to the North Babylon High School. So that, like, also stretches things out for like diversity. I knew, a bunch of people who could speak different languages so it was pretty cool to just like have people, of so many different ethnic backgrounds and, like, the same class.

3: 02:53

And, it would expand things for, like, hearing, like, different vocabulary from, like, how different students would express themselves, like, people from, like, Hispanic backgrounds, like, hearing how they would have, like, a different way of saying something that somebody from, like, maybe an Asian background or just, like, somebody who's white would say something. So having, like, all of that, in any classroom, honestly, whether it's math or music, anything social studies is a really cool thing.

1: 03:27

For me at Clark, it was pretty diverse at some point. While being in 9th grade, it wasn't so diverse as it was when I went into 12th grade, because my school had expanded their surroundings and also included kids from a different town, like, a town over. So coming from that town, there was a decent amount of Spanish speaking students who did come to my high school. And watching them be able to speak and also learn the same as I did in my class was really important to me because they felt the most comfortable that they could. And they also were able to take different languages if they wanted to try to learn different languages, which was really amazing that my high school opened it to everyone.

1: 04:24

So I do know that some of my friends also did speak Italian. So it was really amazing to see that people could also speak Italian as well. I am from an Italian background, and I liked knowing that people next to me could also speak so easily in a different language fluently. And that goes for Spanish as well because it was so important to have in in a classroom setting, and the teachers being an important aspect, allowing all of these students to be able to express themselves was the most important part to it all.

4: 05:09

So at Miniella High School, we had a lot of different background campaigns, mostly, going along with, like, Portuguese families. Mineo is known to have a lot of Portuguese people or Spanish people. So growing up, I was always around a lot of different types of families, and it was really good for me as a child because I got to, like, be around a lot of Spanish speaking families. And I'm in a white household who doesn't really get much different language backgrounds other than Irish and German, which is very unique in its way, but it's also very hard as a student learning English, around a bunch of other students who speak Spanish, so we were all kind of in the same boat. And at Mineola, we have programs that bring students abroad, and we have opportunities to give students the chances to go to different countries and learn about their cultures.

4: 06:04

And a lot of our classes are culture based, So it's very helpful to be able to learn about all the different cultures around the world in class and how it was always impacting us as a community. We will always have, like, community nights where there would be, like, multicultural night, and then we would have talent shows where different groups of, like, dancers and singers would come to the schools, and they would sing and dance in their native languages and dance. And it was very, like, eye opening for me as a student to see all these people just come out and do what they love and be part of their culture and have that diverse background. And I always like to see the students being involved in all these activities because you would see, like, some of your friends that you go to class with, and you'd see, like, oh, look. I just saw Emily doing this salsa on, like, at multicultural night, and it was just really, like, amazing to see and get to know everyone's backgrounds as, like, other students and, like, your classmates.

4: 07:04

So that was always something that Mineola did that was really fun and, like, eye opening, especially to students that don't really get to see these types of backgrounds. And when we were discussing about how we can, like, imply these to, like, our future classrooms and, like, our school buildings. I think this would be, like, one of the better ways to help students be more involved in different cultures to have, like, a night to do different kinds of cultural activities, get to learn about some things that they might have never seen before.

2: 07:39

So now in regards to what we're gonna do when we have our own classrooms, I think it's important that we notice what we had that was beneficial and work when we were in high school and what we could do to make the experiences for anyone really that's in the classroom a safe space and just let them feel like everyone here, like, belongs in the class. So I think in my classroom, what I really liked about Masekela was there was always, like, just the sense of, like, home where we all were comfortable enough to talk about, like, differences within, like, our neighborhood or differences within, like, the communities around us or different sports communities or, like, like, theater or anything where you can have these other experiences that aren't just in the classroom. So I think in regards to music, when I eventually have a music classroom, I think it is important to have songs of different languages, which I really like that some of my old, like, chorus teachers would do or even holiday music. I know that some people don't really like when, If you're in a room full of, like, people who celebrate Christmas and you don't, but also having something else to go along with it.

2: 09:14

So you're not just making it all about one thing. But I think if you have an equal balance in the room, then it doesn't just single one student out or a whole group of students out and leave one out. So it also really just depends on who's in the classroom.

3: 09:34

I agree with, like, it depending on who's in the classroom. Like, when I was in high school, my, orchestra teacher was, she's a white woman, but she would always make sure to represent, every, every ethnicity that she could based on, like, who we had. I remember, she did, like, an African song, and she tries to make it very authentic. She brought in percussion, to help out to add to the music, even though it was an orchestra classroom. There were times where she did, Latin music like salsa, things like that.

3: 10:16

And, I really liked the amount of ground that she covered when it came to, like, ethnic music for her students. And, I just like the point that you made about, like, making it feel like home. I think, it is very important to do that for your students. Like, people were very comfortable in the orchestra classroom when it came to, my school. Our teacher made it very, very comfortable to be in.

3: 10:47

She would, like, let us go there to, like, leave our things if we didn't have anywhere else to put them. And she would just, like, allow us to take some time and be there if we're, like, stressed out or anything and, like, needed a moment to be away from, like, a different class. And she, like, completely, supported us and had our backs. And I think that's a very, like, important thing to give to your students, and I wanna do that for mine when I when I'm a teacher.

1: 11:14

I also agree with you, with the part about the music and how important it is to explain and show different ethnicities with that. Although I'm not a music ed major, taking a class in taking a class like music in middle school and high school really allowed me, and even elementary, really allowed me to understand different types of cultures. All my music teachers have always showed different languages in our music, and I think that that's a really important part of children's learning experiences. I would also like to incorporate in my classroom, because it is not going to be a music ed classroom, Just maybe posters around the room that say hello in different languages, say say certain phrases that we all say basically every day just in different languages. So if there is a student in my classroom that is fluent in another language, they don't feel like the only language they have to speak is English.

1: 12:29

It's really important to let the children express themselves how they would like, and if they feel the most comfortable by saying something in a different language, then that's how they feel, and that's how they should feel, and they should feel welcome by being able to say that.

4: 12:49

I agree with that. I would also like to have posters in my classroom with, like, different languages and maybe even, like, different people because my classroom is gonna be more science ed based because I'm a bio major, and I would like to have posters of, like, different scientists from different backgrounds, maybe saying, like, what they discovered and where they discovered it. Then that would be, like, interesting and, like, more diverse for kids to see, like, how these people from different places, like, invented and were able to, like, overcome diverse challenges and be able to discover and have new life and new discoveries for their time and their people. And it would be so interesting to see kids reactions to these different types of things around the room.

1: 13:36

Thank you everybody for listening to our podcast for today. We'll see you next week.