Calling All Speakers of Mandingo
Given the new Ann Arbor Public Schools initiative to start teaching Spanish in its elementary schools, The Chronicle was intrigued by a recent AAPS classified ad looking for ESL tutors.
Classified ad run by Ann Arbor Public Schools
Even more intriguing was the kind of language preferences the system sought for bilingual tutors – Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Arabic are all fairly predictable, but less so are Dutch, Hebrew, Portuguese, Turkish and Mandingo.
Mandingo? We had to call.
LeeAnn Dickinson-Kelley coordinates English-as-a-Second-Language services for the district, and had the answers. Because more refugee families are coming to this area from West Africa, there’s an increasing number of Mandingo speakers here, she says – roughly a dozen students throughout the district.
But here’s an even more surprising fact: 74 different languages are spoken by students and parents in the district.
In addition to providing tutoring support, the district also needs translation services for school events, parent-teacher meetings and such. They try to have a pool of tutors on hand to call when needed, and usually have between 20-30 people in that pool at any given time.
Clearly, those two dozen or so tutors don’t come close to covering all the languages spoken in the district, so there’s always a need for more tutors.
As part of its recruiting efforts, AAPS is holding an information session for tutors on Monday, Sept. 8 at 3:15 p.m. at 2555 S. State St. (Postings for these part-time tutoring jobs – up to 15 hours per week – are listed here. Your level of education, teaching certification and experience will determine pay rates.)
You’ll need to bring:
- your driver’s license
- a voided blank check (for direct deposit of paychecks)
- your social security card or green card and/or visa, if necessary
- your college transcript
- a teaching certificate, if you have one
- a resume (optional)
You’ll also be required to get a state-mandated background check and fingerprinting, for security purposes. It costs $67, and you’ll have to pick up the tab.
More information about ESL programs for students and adults is available on this AAPS website.
“Our world is so interrelated and interconnected,” Dickinson-Kelley says. And it’s important, she adds, “to appreciate that language is an absolute core piece of cultural understanding.”