On the first day of school, Juyeon sat in my second grade classroom crying. Her arms were locked around the back of her chair. I tried to comfort her but it didn't work. She looked at me but didn't understand a word I was saying. As the rest of my class met on the rug for the first time so we could go over the calendar, rules, and read a book, she sat sobbing because she was scared. How couldn't she be? Two weeks before the beginning of school she moved to the U.S. from Seoul, Korea.

As a second grade teacher, I had very little experience with non-English speaking students, and our English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher was only in the building twice a week, and she wasn't there on the first day of school. Juyeon and I spent a lot of time together in between those moments when she received services.

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