Dominican Republic

Graduation Day

/ Julie Nariman / 2 Comments

Delivering their speeches, the class of 2022 shined particularly bright at this year’s graduation. 

Elira,* the class president from Albania, talked about “The breakfast club,” when her math teacher would open the classroom early and chat with the students over school muffins and yogurt. 

Adam from Yemen joked about meeting “my first bald teacher,” who was demanding yet caring in pushing his students to write. 

Christina, our valedictorian from Dominican Republic, reflected on the challenges of Calculus. 

Oumou from Senegal was still glowing over getting a piece published in the New York Times, a Modern Love Story, “Sprinting in Senior Spring.” 

On the day of our graduation, the Supreme Court was overturning Roe vs. Wade.

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In my school we sat on benches

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Student portrait, art class at High School of Language and Innovation 

As a school for newcomer immigrant English Language Learners, our students come from all over the world: Dominican Republic, Yemen, Bangladesh, several countries in Africa, Albania, China, Vietnam, to name a few.

However, we don’t know much about school in our students’ countries.  Recently, I decided to simply ask: what was learning like in your country?

I was prompted to do this because our school had visitors last week.  A group of new teachers were touring the school to learn best practices for supporting English Language Learners.

As part of the visit, I organized a student panel with two of my teachers.  The teachers choose five 9th and 10th graders and ensured they represented several countries:  Dominican Republic, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Albania.  The students had lived in the U.S. anywhere from 4 months to 2 years.  Continue reading →

From Albania to Dominican Republic

/ Julie Nariman / 2 Comments

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A student in traditional Albanian dress.

I am the principal of a truly multicultural school: almost all of the students in my school are newcomer immigrants from over 23 countries all over the world.

Three years ago, we started a tradition of having “cultural assemblies” in which students from each culture would lead a school-wide assembly sharing the history, music, dance, dress, and customs of their culture.

This year, we started with the Albanian assembly.  Our Albanian population is relatively small, and deeply proud of their culture.  My staff had always told me that the Albanian assembly was beautiful but at times, the most challenging to organize: the students are brilliant and dynamic.  However, the students also have strong opinions and disagreements about their history and traditions.  Continue reading →

Please (please!) translate for me.

/ Julie Nariman / 2 Comments

document translationLuciana is a 9th grader who arrived in the U.S. in 2016 from the Dominican Republic.  She wears a sparkly pink headband, has perfect attendance, and occasionally causes mischief.

I saw Luciana in her 9th grade English class.  The students were reading an article about bullying. When the teacher encouraged Luciana to answer a question about the article, Luciana immediately turned to several Spanish-speaking classmates with a panicked look that said, “Please translate!  Don’t leave me hanging here!”    

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I need this job at McDonald’s

/ Julie Nariman / 1 Comment

McDonalds photo by skhakirov“Miss, can I leave at 1:30 to go to a job interview at McDonald’s?”

We have 370 students, and while that is small for a school, I normally can’t spend a lot of time with a single student. However, there was something so compelling about Alonso’s deep, resolute desire to go to this job interview that reminded me of what teenagers crave most: independence and responsibility. Continue reading →

If you elect me, you can bring your cell phones to class

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immigrant students art photo“If you elect me, you can bring your cell phones to class.”

With that, the crowd erupted and I witnessed the power of political temptation in our student government elections. David, a quiet student from Guinea, was delivering his speech to be an Eleventh Grade Senator.

Why did David’s promise get such a big reaction? Because the administration collects students’ phones to minimize distraction.*

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