Public Education Matters

Various student voices 0:08
Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters.

Jeff Wensing 0:14
This is Public Education Matters, brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 0:26
Thanks for joining us for this edition of Public Education Matters. I'm your host, Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and its nearly 120,000 members across the state. All of these public educators are dedicated to the mission of creating safe, welcoming learning environments where all students can learn, grow and thrive. Public school educators work tirelessly to help all students reach their full potential, no exceptions. That means helping them become stronger, critical thinkers, more curious and compassionate individuals and better global citizens, so they can succeed in our interconnected world and society, and one of the big ways we can do that is by making sure they have access to world languages in our schools, Spanish, French, German and so many other world language classes help students gain so much more than just language skills, and as our guest on this episode of the podcast tells us, we should never take that for granted.

Haylee Ziegler 1:40
Hi, my name is Haylee Ziegler. I teach high school Spanish one at taste Valley High School in Pickaway County, and I am also the Vice President of the Teays Valley Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 1:53
Haylee, thank you so much for sitting down with us. I'm so excited to talk to you today, because I know you're so passionate about this topic. Why is it so important to have global languages as an opportunity for our students?

Haylee Ziegler 2:07
I think it's some of the most important things that we can offer students. I think right now, more than ever, we need students that have a highly developed intercultural competence. They also need to develop empathy, curiosity, have respect for diversity. They need to be able to understand and connect with other cultures. And I believe that sometimes my classroom is one of the first times that, you know they're they're open and exploring those topics, and so I wholeheartedly believe that we should be starting this journey with them as early as possible. I teach, I, you know, I said I teach high school Spanish, but I'm very passionate about having but just having World Languages in a public school setting, as early as kindergarten can be life changing for students. It opens up so many different pathways for them.

Katie Olmsted 3:15
And as young as kindergarten, your brain is much more able to learn languages, right? I will say I am Duolingo-ing right now, and it is taking me forever to recap Spanish that I learned in high school because my brain is mush. It's Swiss cheese at this point, but when I was a kid, I really did do okay with picking up languages.

Haylee Ziegler 3:35
Yeah, so, and that's because your brain has elasticity, so when your brain is young, it has more elasticity. It's geared towards learning a language. It's in its prime element. The earlier you start, the better. Being bilingual has shown to boost memory with problem solving and critical thinking. The earlier you start. I mean, your brain is a sponge. They are soaking it up, and it's research driven that, you know, the earlier you start, the more likely the language is actually going to stick in your brain.

Katie Olmsted 4:14
I want to go back to two things, actually, that you mentioned already. One is that it's more important right now more than ever to have this offering. Why is that?

Haylee Ziegler 4:25
I mean, education is under attack in general, but right now, I don't feel like in education, we have lawmakers that are really promoting diversity. In fact, we're not supposed to promote diversity.

Katie Olmsted 4:43
You're not allowed to say that word, right?

Haylee Ziegler 4:45
Yeah, no, yeah, diversity, equity and inclusion, we're not really supposed to say those words right now, I wholeheartedly feel like we are under attack. Um, another thing too is at where I graduated, Bowling Green State University just cut the world language education program. Um, that. Yeah, that. So they were, I think, one of four remaining public universities that had a world language education degree. And what's really upsetting is that they could save it. They and this is all from Senate Bill one, which is attacking higher which attacked higher education, all from Senate Bill one. And so what's really disheartening is that now, just because of that program being cut, there are elementary schools all across Wood County and Lucas County who were receiving free, completely free education for their elementary students by those pre service teachers going in and conducting lessons. So at there were, I believe, there one of the schools in Bowling Green. They would, every year they would have a variety from Chinese to German to Spanish to Arabic. I mean, and, and Bowling Green was one of the only ones that offered, I think, eight languages that you could, um, specialize in for World Language Education. I know down at Miami University, there's actually closed because their professor passed away. She had cancer, and she died back in the spring, and they decided to discontinue the program. So, I mean, and the list just goes on and on. I mean, it's we're just constantly under attack. It's really disheartening to see Bowling Green. They've released several statements in the news recently that are false, and the professor who I love, Dr. Bridget Burke, is fighting for it. She, I feel like she and the rest of my colleagues in this profession are, are fighting to keep it alive. Because we are, we are constantly fighting to prove that this is so valuable. It is so incredibly valuable to not only their education, but to their future world language opens up doors to kids every single year. One of my favorite stories to tell is that my I had a student come up to me during state testing last year. I hadn't had the student in a year. I taught the student in Spanish one and two, and she came up to me and said, "Senora, your two classes are the most useful classes I have ever taken in high school, because at my job, working at raising cane", she said, "I speak Spanish all the time. I get to help people order. I get to tell them the price, like all of these things that we've done. And she's like, it's the most useful class. It's everything that I actually use it in the real world". And I mean that to me, just says, you know, if I can help her connect with, you know, individuals who speak Spanish as their first language, or, you know, other teachers are able to do this. I mean, I don't know why we don't continue to fight for it.

Katie Olmsted 8:20
And it's not just about having conversations in Spanish. It's about, as you mentioned, connecting with people, people who are not the same as us, and that helps us build our our world around us in a much bigger way than whatever is just in our backyard. The other thing you mentioned was that sometimes Spanish one is the first time your students are exposed to world languages. For people who aren't familiar with Teays Valley, tell us a little bit about what what your community is like.

Haylee Ziegler 8:50
So we're in a rural, we're a rural population. We have, we have seven schools. We are the largest employer in Pickaway County, which we are very proud of, and our students. It's kind of interesting, because really, you could say we're rural, but we are also becoming very suburban as well. We are, I believe, the one of the only growing districts in our county, and we are seeing a lot of population, lots of housing developments are coming up. We're also seeing additional factories and businesses come down here, which is fan, you know, it's great, but our students, really, they are. It's working class is what I can say, and just really hard working families down here. So it would be great to be able to, you know, it, to add that in the future, to add, you know, you know, an elementary Spanish program, even a middle school program. This is the first year I actually have an eighth grader that comes over and takes Spanish in the morning. At the high school, and then goes back to middle school for the rest of the day.

Katie Olmsted 10:04
At the end of the day, one of the goals is to have students who can think and speak in a different language than English.

Haylee Ziegler 10:14
Yes.

Katie Olmsted 10:15
Why?

Haylee Ziegler 10:15
Because the people around them are not always speaking English. I mean, just in our community in general. I mean, we have migrant workers on farms. We have refugees and immigrants moving in to the district. Our ELL program is, you know, exploding, which is, in my opinion, it's fantastic. I love seeing that growth, and I love seeing the services and things that we're able to do to provide them with not only just an education, but they're getting multilingual education, right? And then when they go out say, you know, even up into Columbus, it's a 30 minute drive, and I live in Grandview. I mean, it's just a completely different world. 30 minutes north is a completely different world. And so for my students to be able to go up into, you know, the big city, and, you know, be able to obviously communicate, but I just think, develop and be able to express compassion and respect to those who might not look like them is the ultimate goal of mine. I just I want them to be well rounded human beings. I want them to be respectful, to have compassion, that inner cultural competence of you know, if you hear someone speaking a different language, it doesn't mean that they're not intelligent. It doesn't mean that they aren't as much of a human being and as a person as you and I think we that is something that has to be taught. It's not always an innate, you know, internal, intrinsic thing that you're born with, you have to be taught that. So just to continue to foster that in my students is, is just why I keep doing what I do.

Katie Olmsted 12:11
I'm not sure you actually have to be taught to care about other humans, but I think a lot of us are taught not to care about other humans. I think, yeah, you have to unlearn that.

Haylee Ziegler 12:20
We have to unlearn, yes. And I also want to say, I mean, we, yes. I want to make sure that my students know how to act when the best, but you know, like, how you know, what do you do in those situations? What do you when, when somebody doesn't know how to communicate? You know? How do you treat them? What does that look like?

Katie Olmsted 12:44
I think it's you just talk louder, right? That's the answer?

Haylee Ziegler 12:49
No, it is not.

Katie Olmsted 12:50
An audio only podcast, but you can't, you can't see Haylee's face, right now. That's not the answer.

Haylee Ziegler 12:53
No, no, that's not the answer. Yeah. So it's.

Katie Olmsted 13:00
How do you, I mean, let's, let's put this on the table. How should you act if you're having trouble communicating with somebody?

Haylee Ziegler 13:07
Well, I mean, I think there's a couple different things. So ultimately, you know, first of all, you don't run away. That's always something, you know, you don't run away. You don't back, back away from it. I always try to for me, obviously, if it's Spanish, I can communicate. But say it's a, you know, a different language, I will try to point and use just some visuals around me. Maybe we're at, like a restaurant, and I'm, you know, they're trying to order something or communicate with a restaurant worker, just being able to use visuals in the best way possible. While most language teachers would not love this, you do have a phone. Most people have phones. There is a translation app, and sometimes you have to use that, I mean, and that's okay to if that's what they need to do using Google Translate or another translation app is fine, but you just want to be patient. You have to you have to show patience. You have to show compassion, because your patience and the care that you give that individual at that time is going to mean the world to them. Because if you think you feel stressed out helping them, imagine how they feel needing the help, they're the ones saying, oh, oh my gosh, like, you know, they're thinking in their head, how am I going to get out of this situation? And so we have to treat them like we would any other person who deserves empathy, respect and patience.

Katie Olmsted 14:42
And one of the things that that having World Languages in schools does is also treating people with genuine curiosity,

Katie Olmsted & Haylee Ziegler 14:50
With. Yes. Being excited to meet new people.

Katie Olmsted 14:54
And learn new things. And so the World Languages classes are not just about the language, it's about the culture. Sure it's about the novelty. How do you incorporate that?

Haylee Ziegler 15:05
So I mean, there's so many different things that you can do. So one of the more like, I guess, off the wall, things that we do is we actually travel with our students. So I was able to take students abroad. So it would have been in 2024 and June of 2024 so we took students to France and Spain at Teays Valley, we do offer French and Spanish, so we were able to take those students and go and just be immersed for 10 days in both languages. So it was incredible. So those are that's one of the ways. And not everyone can go do that. So we do try to have some immersive experiences. We're really proud of our we do a Day of the Dead celebration every year. We're in the process of kind of revamping that this year and just we love celebrating Day of the Dead and teaching about that tradition and that culture. Another thing that we do is we read a lot of adopted news articles, so we learn about what's actually happening right now in Spanish speaking countries. And then I always try to bring in realia. So I've been on several trips outside of the United States to Spanish speaking countries, and so I will try to incorporate, you know, real life materials. We call them realia, or authentic resources. So just showing them that, yes, there are materials in here in my classroom that are made for Spanish learners. But I also, you know, try to incorporate things that real Spanish speakers are seeing and interacting with on their day to day lives. Also, music is a huge thing that we do in March we do a school wide, or, I guess, like a world language department wide music like March Madness bracket. So they have to listen to songs from different countries, and they do bracket voting all throughout the month of March. And ultimately, they across all four levels of the language. And then even our French department, we try to vote and get an overall song winner. So, I mean, there I could go on and on. I mean, I'm just even looking around my classroom, and there's just so many things that we that we incorporate. And food is another one. We'll have food days bringing in authentic recipes. So yeah, I mean, it the list goes on and on.

Katie Olmsted 17:40
Yeah, the fastest way to, I think most people's hearts, is right through their stomachs. So.

Haylee Ziegler 17:44
Absolutely.

Katie Olmsted 17:45
Give me some food to try, and I'll be yours, right?

Haylee Ziegler 17:49
Yes, absolutely.

Katie Olmsted 17:50
Taking it back to full circle, it's more important now than ever. You mentioned it. These things are under attack. I think they're declaring English as the official language of the United States and and there's a big push to remove language from schools. Oh, yeah, one of the central Ohio ones, their school board just joined one of those, like school board associations that says English only education in our schools is the most important thing.

Haylee Ziegler 18:19
Yes, that's actually a district above us, yeah, so it's that's one of the things that just really grinds my gears, because, first of all, you're the United States. I remember being in like, third or fourth grade when I learned the term, or learned the analogy that the United States is a melting pot, okay? And I remember being really fascinated with that idea. And I also remember that our teacher had us draw what we thought that that meant, like, what does the melting pot look like? And I remember, you know, we sat there and we drew pictures and we wrote different words that we knew from other languages, and how we're a melting pot, and that's what makes us really special. And I don't know what happened and what really I mean. I guess I could say I do know what happened, but now it seems that we don't want to be a melting pot, and we don't want to celebrate that we are. We have different cultures and different things that make us different, and they're beautiful. Yes, it is beautiful. They're so I mean, I've learned, even from my own students that celebrate, you know, who are a part of different religions and different cultures, what they do to do celebrations, or my favorite, is when they bring like, when they bring me food from their home, you know, from their families, or come back from a trip. And say, "Oh, this is what I did. And I visited my family here from a different country". And this, you know, this is how we celebrate, or learning how my Hispanic students celebrate Day of the Dead at their home. That's that's so important. It is so important to celebrate that, and it feels like nobody wants to celebrate that anymore. And it's really sad. Trying to take that out of school, trying to take languages out of school, is absolutely just, you're not preparing them for the real world. The real world is not English only. I mean, I just, I can't even say enough how critical it is for their future career. I mean, even I, my husband, works in IT. He's also done some work in public health. I can't count how many times he said, Hey, can you translate this for me? My own dad. My dad is an electrical engineer. He was working with a company in, I want to say, in Mexico or and some somewhere down south, and they sent him blueprints that were in Spanish. And he said, "Can you help me?" "Sure. Sure, I'll help you". I've had, I almost had an opportunity to go to Puerto Rico with a cousin of mine. He was in medical sales. He really needed a translator. And unfortunately, that was also the same year of the hurricane that hit Puerto Rico. So it was, it was unfortunately canceled. But, I mean, I'm not to put, you know, I don't want to put translators out of business because they're, you know, they're definitely needed all the time. But imagine if we could just communicate with those individuals that would, that would go so far. Bilingual employees are in demand in healthcare, education, business, law enforcement, national security. I mean, and internet, there's international opportunities. I mean, think about, I mean, I might have students in, you know, in my classroom who they want to work abroad, or they want to work and move to, you know, a different part of the United States where learning another language is going to get them, give them a leg up in their career, whether it's in construction, you know, maybe they don't want to go into, you know, go to college, but if they do want to go to college, most college degrees are going to require a language requirement at some point. And so if we're able to have them take language in high school, take four years of a language in high school, they might be able to test out of that requirement in college, it can save them money. Um, and then we also, in the state of Ohio, we have the seal of biliteracy, so students can actually take a test after the third, I want to say, yeah, it's after, after the third year of that language, they are able to take a test, and if they get, I believe it's an intermediate, mid on our like the proficiency scale, they earn a graduation seal. So it also helps them meet Ohio graduation requirements. But it's very hard to get an intermediate mid after only four years in high school. We're seeing more students who have it earlier, or maybe can get five or six years of a language, have a much higher chance of getting that seal of biliteracy. I actually think up in Toledo, there's quite a few that are able to offer that to to their students, and I just think the more we can offer them, the better.

Katie Olmsted 23:49
So at the end of the day, we're we're trying to help our students reach their full potential. We're trying to make sure they have the opportunities to be the best they can be, and that starts with truly just even offering that opportunity in the first place, making sure that world languages are an offering in our schools.

Haylee Ziegler 24:07
Yes, it absolutely needs to be an offering, offer as many languages as you can, even if you're doing you know, exploratory programs where students are sampling multiple different languages. I think that that's great too. I think anything that we can do to encourage multilingual learning is better than nothing.

Katie Olmsted 24:31
Well Haylee, danke schön, gracias. Todah Rabah. Domo arigato? That's the extent of the ones I've got. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your time and for helping us understand the importance of making sure our students have these opportunities.

Haylee Ziegler 24:50
Okay, well, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and being able to come on and share a lot about what I'm so passionate about.

Katie Olmsted 25:03
Our sincere thanks to Haylee Ziegler for sharing her perspective on this podcast. We want to hear from you too. Email me at educationmatters@ohea.org, if you have a topic you want to talk about on a future episode. New episodes drop every Thursday this school year, and we have a lot of great episodes ahead, bargaining topics, gifted education issues, technology in classrooms. We have you covered with those and so much more as this season of the podcast continues, because in Ohio, public education matters.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai