The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘Above and Beyond’
From tutoring to bringing groceries, CT teacher honored for work with English learner students
WASHINGTON — When Shepaug Valley High School Spanish teacher Mike Nolan was in his early 20s, he was a social worker, teaching English to children of migrant workers with the Mid-Hudson Migrant Education Outreach Program.
“I was kind of like the conduit between the schools and the families of migrant workers,” said Nolan, who is now 43. “I was officially assigned to a caseload of migrant worker children, mostly from Puebla and Oaxaca — the poorer parts of Mexico. I would tutor the kids, help them with their English, and help them with their homework in their homes in the evenings.”
When Nolan began teaching at Shepaug 20 years ago, he said he naturally stepped into the role of helping English as a second language students. In addition to his responsibilities as a Spanish teacher, Nolan helps English learners in all areas — both in and out of the classroom.
Nolan recently earned a statewide award through his teacher's union — the Connecticut Education Association — called “Above and Beyond the Call of Duty,” for his “extraordinary efforts to assist English learners and their families” — the award said.
Liaison
At Shepaug, Nolan serves as a liaison between the school and families of ESL students.
While an ESL teacher at Shepaug handles classroom responsibilities such as teaching English and academics, “I plug in for the non-academic support," said Nolan, a Sharon resident and married father of two.
Over the years, Nolan has helped students and their families who came from countries such as Mexico, Ecuador, Spain, Chile and Argentina.
He said his role changes
from year to year and even, week to week — depending on students' needs.
“When families first show up, typically the guidance counselor will come to me and I'll help with enrollment in bringing the family into the school and interpreting for them,” he said.
He remains with the family throughout the entire enrollment process, translating school forms and documents and also serving as a translator with educators.
“The guidance counselors — they're not necessarily trained to look at a transcript from a school system in Ecuador. They have different names for courses and different standards, so I help figure out what grade a kid should be in,” he said.
Additionally, he administers standardized testing in Spanish to the students.
He also does after-school tutoring to students who are struggling with the language, typically in subjects such as history and science, he said.
During the pandemic, he delivered donated groceries to the home of an ESL student and his family.
When an ESL student is absent, Nolan calls their home to ask if everything was OK.
Recently, a child was sick and the father was worried it might be COVID-19, so Nolan brought the student into the nurse and helped to interpret.
“The nurse didn't think it was COVID. But she gave a couple of COVID tests to send home because the dad didn't have them. So I explained to the kid what to do,” he said.
The father didn't have transportation and the student had to go home early.
So, after getting permission from the school and parent, he drove the student home during his planning period.
Last fall, he took a parent of an ESL student to Town Hall to get a form notarized.
He has also helped in tough situations, such as if a child is being bullied.
“I sit in and interpret for the parents,” he said.
He has taken students to the military recruitment office in Torrington to take a proficiency exam.
He still keeps in touch with a family from Barcelona, Spain whom he helped several years ago.
“After their second son graduated from Shepaug, they flew in to come to the graduation and then we went out to dinner to meet them,” he said, adding he has a standing invitation to visit them.
Service trips
Nolan said he was strongly influenced to give back by his former teacher — Maryellen Holden, who taught Spanish at Chase Collegiate school in Waterbury, which has since closed.
“Aside from teaching Spanish, she would take us on field trips to the soup kitchen and so she taught us that service was important,” he said. “So, typically during the holidays, I have my homerooms make sandwiches and we deliver them to Loaves & Fishes (Hospitality House charity) in New Milford.”
He has also taken volunteer service groups to Mexico.
“I've done it about five times through the years,” Nolan said. “We go to an orphanage through a local (nonprofit) Connecticut organization called Simply Smiles.”
He has taken five groups of Shepaug students to the Casa Hogar Orphanage in Mexico.
“We go down for a week in the summer. The kids do painting and light construction work,” Nolan said. “Additionally, there's about 30 kids that live at the orphanage and the Shepaug kids will help them with their homework, read to them or play with them — so they get to practice their Spanish as well.”
While Simply Smiles' volunteer operations have not reopened since prior to the pandemic, Nolan is now trying to organize a trip there for the summer of 2023.
While the number of ESL students in the area is typically very small, he said ESL students have an opportunity to thrive in a smaller school district.
“Whether it's Shepaug or Housatonic or Wamogo or Litchfield, the schools in our area typically don't have a robust ESL population. Yet, the districts go above and beyond by providing ESL services when there's only a handful of kids,” he said. "Everybody knows everybody's name and you get to know people and it's just easier to make sure that kids don't fall through the cracks, whether they're Spanish speaking, immigrant families or just the regular population.”
Nolan has a master's degree in education and is in the process of applying to get a second master's degree in TESOL — to be able to teach English to speakers of other languages.
He said he gets a great sense of satisfaction from his job.
“When I became a Spanish teacher, I kept my social worker hat on, and when they would ask me to help these families, the only other option was to sit there and watch them flounder. So of course, I was going to help them, and then I actually got to be friends with some of the families. I have some good friends to this day because I helped them with their kids,” Nolan said. "Through my job, I get the gratification and the satisfaction of helping kids in need.”