Translator?

I was hired as a Spanish teacher to work with students in grades 3-5. Along with teaching comes a lot of other responsibilities such as lunch duty, curriculum redesign, communicate with coworkers, etc. I was not hired as a translator even though there are a number of Spanish-only speaking families in my district. The ELL teacher was hired to do that. This hasn't bothered me too much because honestly, speaking with native speakers really does make me nervous. I am very confident in my language skills and can get along with the best of them but I do not consider myself fluent. I have not immersed myself enough to confidently say that I am fluent. I do admit that I am a very advanced speaker. Even though most of my time is spent teaching basic level Spanish, I still converse with some of my co-workers in Spanish and have helped out potential adopters in their native language at the animal shelter where I volunteer. I do wish that I had more opportunities to use my Spanish on a broader basis and maintain (or improve) my speaking skills. Any ideas out there?


Anyway, last week was parent-teacher conferences and the ELL teacher was running around translating but was double booked for one hour and couldn't make it to one conference. The social worker came and found me and I was more than happy to do the job. At the last minute, the ELL teacher showed up but then another conference had the potential need for a translator. Again, I happily went. I was actually disappointed to find out that the parent could speak pretty good English (don't get me wrong... I'm happy for him just disappointed to not use my skills) and I did not need to translate at all. I was excited (but also very nervous) to offer my skills that not many other people at my school possess! Needless to say, I moved on from the disappointment and focused on the teaching again. However, this afternoon my skills were needed and I was a huge help! A new student needs to register with my school but the whole process is very confusing and since the ELL teacher is only 50% and works mornings not afternoons, I got to help out. While some parts were very difficult for me to translate (for example... you need to have a notarized affidavit signed by the person with whom you are living and not paying rent to... I can barely understand this sentence in English, let alone translate it to Spanish!) overall I believe that I was very helpful. It made me feel really good to help out. I would like to find a way to incorporate more of this into my current, or future, jobs. Not only will it help me maintain my language level, but it will also allow me to help and communicate with others. And that is why I believe so strongly in language education. Our world is growing smaller and smaller but not everyone speaks the same language. Only by learning the language of our neighbors will we truly be able to create an inviting community. Even if you are only able to speak a few words of another language, it will make that person feel so much more comfortable. Besides, learning about new cultures comes hand in hand with learning new languages and it's so much fun to discover new facts about the world!