My WPS Story - Jessica Mow
Jessica Mow is the lead teacher for the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Newcomer program for students new to this country at Curtis Middle School. She has worked in the district for 19 years.
This is her My WPS Story.
I grew up in Mulvane, Kansas, and attended school there.
Growing up, I had amazing teachers and really wanted to become a teacher and help kids.
I went to Butler Community College for two years and finished my teaching degree at Wichita State University. At the time, WSU had a program where they wanted students to be out in the field as much as possible to get real-world experience. I did several rotations in different areas of education and that’s how I was introduced to the ESOL program.
I was placed at Marshall Middle School where I fell in love with the ESOL program in Wendy Lowmaster’s classroom. I had never heard of the program and quickly decided that was what I wanted to teach. After growing up speaking English in Mulvane, experiencing the ESOL and Newcomers programs was eye-opening.
I started getting my ESOL endorsement and as I completed that, Wendy had decided to move on from Marshall, and she advocated for me to replace her. The principal at the time was Leroy Parks and I got the job.
I began my career as an ESOL newcomer teacher at Marshall Middle School for two years and then moved to lead the ESOL department at Mead for the next two years. The remainder of my career I have been at Curtis Middle School in a couple different capacities. I have served as an instructional coach for five years and as then as an ESOL Newcomer Teacher/ESOL Lead.
My favorite thing about being an ESOL/Newcomer teacher is seeing the amount of growth many of my students make in just one year. Many of these kids have never been to school and are new to our country and aren’t able to communicate with us. At the end of the year, you can have a conversation with them and read what they’re writing. It’s just a super amount of progress and they’re super proud of themselves.
In the Newcomer program, students are taught reading, writing, speaking, and listening through core content such as math, social studies, English and science. In our first English unit, we focus on greetings, giving information about themselves, and survival skills such as how to ask for help. There’s a lot of vocabulary building and lots of conversation with peers. Students are paired with a student who speaks their language so they always have someone who understands them.
Right now, there are approximately 15 different languages spoken by students in our program. The majority are speaking Swahili, Spanish and Pashto, a language predominately spoken in Afghanistan.
Many people might not realize that Wichita has a pretty large population of newcomers since the International Refugee Center has a hub here. Curtis Middle School has approximately 100 students in our newcomer program.
Students who don’t speak English are given the Kansas English Language Proficiency Assessment (KELPA) and that determines what type of services they will need. Some students begin in a newcomer classroom while other are closer to proficiency and begin in mainstreamed classes with native speakers.
I absolutely love my job. I know this is what I was called to do.
I’ve had several success stories. One student that had been in my class graduated high school last year and told me that she was going to Butler Community College. Just like me, she got a vocal music scholarship, and she’s doing great. She came to Curtis as an African refugee student and now she’s excelling in college.
These students are a great example of resiliency. They are the most motivated students; they have a real desire to learn English and excel.