Staff Spotlight: Matthew Willhoft
Matthew Willhoft is an EL teacher at Langford Elementary School who works with English language learners in grades 1 and 2. As he's teaching language acquisition, he's also making connections with his students and ensuring they have what they need to learn and grow.
“Mr. Willhoft is as a key member of our Langford instructional team. He works super hard to get to know all of his students. He supports not only their academic needs, their language acquisition needs and social/emotional well-being in all of our classes. He is key at making sure that his learners feel confident,” said Langford Principal Cynthia Callahan.
Willhoft works with small groups and delivers targeted instruction to students who need additional language support. He also assists students in their classroom offering translations to keep students engaged and involved in their learning.
“Mr. Willhoft stays very busy,” said Callahan. “He just brings energy, connection, the ongoing wanting to learn as many best practices as possible and strategies. We're really glad to have Mr. Willhoft as part of the Langford team.”
Learn more about Matthew Willhoft in the Q&A below.
What is your professional background that led you to your role at Langford?
Willhoft: I took Spanish classes ever since I was in kindergarten. I grew up in Manchester. Nathan Hale Elementary, at the time, was the only elementary school that offered Spanish in kindergarten through fifth grade. I continued Spanish classes in middle school, high school. I got my bachelor's in Spanish from UConn. I was able to study abroad, and I got a job working [at Langford] as a bilingual tutor seven years ago. And then when a teaching job opened up, I applied, and I've been working here for three years as the ESL teacher.
What does a typical work day look like for you?
Willhoft: It's mostly language acquisition. So I'll get here in the morning and I'll have breakfast groups. The kids grab their breakfast bag, they get off the bus, they come and sit in my classroom, conversational skills and social skills, vocabulary that we're working on. And then the other part of my day is definitely push in support. So I'm helping a lot of these classroom teachers translating things, working in small groups, reading skills, and then obviously the four domains of language: Speaking, listening, reading and writing.
What is it like to see your students’ language skills develop after working with you?
Willhoft: I think that's the best part is you can see the most growth in our identified EL students. So, you'll have a newcomer who will come here in September, you know, first time in the country. And then come October, November, they're putting together English phrases, they're advocating for themselves, they're making friendships and they're getting to know me and I'm getting to know them. It really is great to see that growth.
What are some of the challenges that come with your role?
Willhoft: When I studied abroad the first time, I was 19 years old, and it was hard for me to adjust to a new country of Spain when I was 19. And these kids come here when they're 5 years old, 8 years old, 10 years old, and it's hard to see them struggle. But knowing that I'm there to help them and they have friends and teachers that work really hard. It is hard to see them struggle in those moments when they can't communicate an idea, but I'm always there. Even if I don't speak a certain language that they might happen to speak, I speak Spanish, but if I have a student from Italy, I'm always quick to pull out Google Translate and say, “Do you want to tell me in Italian? Is there someone else you can you can talk to?”. And then we can kind of work together to solve the problem.
But those tiny moments of struggle, I think that's where they learn. They call it “stretch language” where they work really, really hard to maybe communicate an idea that they don't have the words for. But to see them do that is really admirable.
What do you think it is about you that makes you excel in this role?
Willhoft: Just the fact that I have lived in another country and I'm not a native speaker of Spanish, so I know what it's like to go to a new place and to try and adapt to a new culture and learn some new things. I can relate to the students in that way.
You discussed how great it is to see students’ growth. What else do you love about your job?
Willhoft: I think just the community building aspect of this school. Langford really does make a great team. These classroom teachers, the homeroom teachers, work so hard to work together and just make it easy for someone like me to go in and facilitate and help keep these kids on task and learn the language.