ABSTRACT
Ms. Slavcheva, a mathematics teacher of Eastern European descent, received her mathematics education in Europe. Four years after moving to the United States, she met the requirements to become a high school mathematics teacher. Ms. Slavcheva, an English language learner, was hired to teach mathematics in an urban high school with a diverse student population that was very different from her own schooling experiences. Not only did she have challenges associated with her own usage of the English language, but she also had to meet the needs of a diverse student body that included English language learners, students with special needs, and students from diverse cultural backgrounds. She had to address issues such as the following: “How do I ensure that I am understood by students?”, “How do I teach students who speak other languages—Spanish, Portuguese, and sign—that I don't know?”, “How do I address the various mathematics needs of students?”, and “How do I manage a large class of students with diverse backgrounds and experiences?”
