As ESL teachers, we are especially aware of how important it is for our ELL students to feel welcome, respected, and safe. Because of this, creating a culturally competent school environment is so important. Our guest today, Jocelynn Hubbard, is sharing how all teachers, admin, and staff play a huge role in creating this culturally competent environment for our students.

Creating a culturally responsive environment takes effort from all staff members to not only learn new things, but to unlearn some biases they may unknowingly have. Knowing how to transform our school environment into one that is respectful and welcoming to all cultures can seem intimidating. Luckily Jocelynn is here to help us begin this process!

In this episode, Jocelynn is sharing her experience in education and how she is helping schools now, what culturally responsive teaching is and why it is so important, how to develop cultural competency as a school, and actionable ways we can begin to transform our schools to be more culturally competent.

Jocelynn Hubbard helps teachers spark joy during the learning experience by creating an inclusive and welcoming classroom environment for ALL their students. She is the founder and managing director of Custom Teaching Solutions, LLC and host of The Culture-Centered Classroom podcast. She has 16+ years of experience in education as an educator, speaker, professional development creator and facilitator. Driven by a passion to see the diverse people of our world feel welcomed, affirmed, and celebrated, she provides training on becoming and remaining culturally competent. As a wife and mother of five, her goals include squeezing in time for exercise, finding moments of joy each day, and parenting each of her children as unique individuals.

Related Resources:

• Grab your FREE “5 Ways to Create an Inclusive Classroom” guide
• Kickstart Your Culturally Responsive Teaching Course
• The Culture Centered Teacher Training Workshops for Schools
• Join the Equipping ELLs Membership
• Check out the ELL Strategy Academy
• Download the ESL Teacher Toolkit 
• Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs
• 
  

For all links and resources, check out the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/culturally-competent-school

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Have you been asked to provide training to the staff on supporting ELLs but have no idea what you could present on? I see people asking all the time what they can do to provide training or PD to their school staff on supporting ELLs. If you’ve been there, I’ve got you! I am sharing 12 ideas for PD training you can feel confident sharing with teachers.

You may be thinking that you are still trying to figure out how to best support your ELLs so there is no way you could train others. Remember, YOU are the expert! We want to inspire and encourage staff to see how easy it is for them to support their ELLs and who better to do that than you?

In this episode, we are diving into different topics you can steal for a presentation, training, or PD mini series. We are covering 12 topics that can help teachers just beginning to support ELLs through the advanced level teacher, ideas for how to present on these topics, and three ways you can support homeroom teachers without having to give a presentation.

Related Resources:

• Grab your presentation template
• Join the Equipping ELLs Membership
• Check out the ELL Strategy Academy
• Download the ESL Teacher Toolkit 
• Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs
• 
  

For all links and resources, check out the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/pd-topics

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Do you ever feel like you are solely responsible for supporting your English language learners? That responsibility is NOT just yours. We are continuing our Small Steps to Success series by looking at what role administrators play in supporting ELLs. Today we are joined by Maria Montroni-Currais who is sharing her insights on how administrators can impact English language learners.

In this episode, we are looking at how ELL teachers and administrators can work collaboratively to support their ELLs. Maria is sharing her expertise in her role as an administrator, how she as an administrator advocates for ELLs, why knowing the bilingual code in your state is so important, how to approach administrators when advocating for ELLs, and what success looks like for multilingual learners.

Related Resources:

• Join the Equipping ELLs Membership
• Check out the ELL Strategy Academy
• Download the ESL Teacher Toolkit 
• Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs
• 
  

For all links and resources, check out the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/administrators-can-impact-ells

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Have you ever stopped to really think about what success looks like for your ELL students? Are you only gauging the success of your students based on if they are proficient in English or not? Defining what success looks like for your students is critical to ensuring your students experience successes and feel confident throughout their English language journey, not just when they are proficient or test out of language support services.

Learning a new language is tiring and can be super frustrating. If we are limiting our students’ opportunities for success, they may want to give up when things get difficult. Today, we are diving into the question, “How do you define success for your ELL students?” We are looking at why it is so important to define success, how to determine milestones that can be used to mark success, why it’s crucial to have appropriate expectations, why you should set up pathways to success, and examples of milestones for these pathways.

Related Resources:

• Join the Equipping ELLs Membership
• Check out the ELL Strategy Academy
• Download the ESL Teacher Toolkit 
• Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs
• 
  

For all links and resources, check out the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/change-how-you-teach-ells

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Coming back from winter break is the perfect time to restart and refresh things in order to make the most of the second half of the year. I know this year, and the past few years, have been incredibly stressful and exhausting and the thought of doing a refresh may be overwhelming. I totally get that! I want to help you finish the year strong so I am sharing five easy things for you to restart to make the most of the second half of the school year.

At this point in the school year, you’re likely tired, burnt out, and just want to make it to the end of the school year. But I want you to think about how happy you’ll be in June if you try some of these things now and the rest of the school year goes smoother because of it. When you return from break, I challenge you to restart your mindset, classroom management, attitude, lesson planning routine, and confidence in order to make the most of the year from now until June.

Related Resources:

• Lesson Planning Webinar
• Join the Equipping ELLs Membership
• Check out the ELL Strategy Academy
• Download the ESL Teacher Toolkit 
• Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs
• 
  

For all links and resources, check out the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/ways-to-restart-the-year

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We all want to support our ELLs as best as possible but some of the things we are doing could actually be inhibiting their growth. As teachers, we are doing our best to figure out what our students need in order to be successful. Unfortunately, some of our efforts could be an unnecessary waste of time.

If you’re confused about what ELLs actually need and what they don’t, you’re not alone! We want to be sure that what we are doing is helping our students and stop doing anything that isn’t helping (or even hindering) their English language learning. In this episode, I am sharing why you should stop translating everything into your students’ native languages, how to stop planning for every single group, and how to effectively scaffold for our ELLs because they don’t learn the same as native speakers.

Related Resources:

• Close Reading Passages
• Freebie: To Translate or Not Chart
• How to use a QR Code
• Canva
• Pixabay
• FREE Newcomer Welcome Kit
• Join the Equipping ELLs Membership
• Check out the ELL Strategy Academy
• Download the ESL Teacher Toolkit 
• Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs
• 
  

For all links and resources, check out the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/stop-doing-with-ells

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Are you trying everything you can think of and your ELLs still aren’t making progress? When I talk to teachers whose students aren’t making growth, there is one common thread across the board. Doubt. The good news is that doubt is a reflection of our mindset so if we can fix our mindset, we can help out ELLs make more growth.

If you’ve ever doubted that you are doing what’s best for your ELL students or if you flip flop your plans every week because you aren’t sure if what you’re doing is working, it might be beneficial to check where your mindset is at. In this episode, I am talking about 3 mindset shifts that are key to supporting your ELLs. We are looking at why self-efficacy is important, taking a look at how we approach our ELL students, and how to overcome overwhelm by keeping it simple.

Related Resources:

• Join the Equipping ELLs Membership
• Check out the ELL Strategy Academy
• Download the ESL Teacher Toolkit 
• Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs
• 
  

For all links and resources, check out the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/ells-arent-making-growth/

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Does the thought of being observed by your admin make you panic a little bit? I think it’s safe to say most teachers don’t love observations. They cause extra stress and nervousness no matter how amazing of a teacher you are. If you’re dreading an upcoming observation, don’t worry! I am sharing five tips to help your observation lesson run smoothly so you can showcase just how lucky your students are to have you!

Preparing for an observation doesn’t have to be stressful. In an observation, you are showing off how great of a teacher you are, so you’re likely already doing many things that will help you rock your observation. Still feeling nervous? I’m sharing five tips to help you prepare for your observation lesson including sticking with activities your students have done before, simplifying your lessons to avoid overdoing it, covering multiple domains in your lesson, incorporating sensory tools to engage students, and being clear on the purpose of your lesson.

Monthly Speaking and Writing Cards

Close Reading and Writing Passages

Check out the ELL Strategy Academy

Download the ESL Teacher Toolkit 

Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs

Join the Equipping ELLs Membership

To access all resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/observation-lessons

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What do you do when you have a love/hate relationship with technology but you know there are amazing tools that will help your ELLs learn? You find simple tech tools! I am sharing 5 of my favorite tech tools that provide students amazing support that will help them succeed and soar.

In this episode, we are covering really simple but powerful ways we can better support our ELL students through the use of technology. There are amazing tech tools out there that we can utilize without having to worry about the added stress of students getting locked out of sites or forgetting passwords! Today, I am sharing a Chrome extension that makes creating voice notes simple, two extension options that read the text aloud to students, a great podcast to help with listening comprehension, and 2 websites that help bring a visual component to learning vocabulary.

Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs

Join the Equipping ELLs Membership

To access all resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/new-tech-tools-to-try/

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Do you dread prepping your students for Access testing every year? I think it’s safe to say we all do. What if I told you there is a way to prep without taking precious time away from giving students the support they actually need? Toss the test prep packets because I am sharing 5 fun ways you can prepare for Access testing starting right now.

We want to prepare our students for Access testing in a way that is beneficial to them outside of just the test. How can we do that? We embed preparing for Access testing into our lessons and daily routines! In this episode, I am sharing the importance of giving students plenty of opportunities to talk, why you should model expectations for thinking through questions, how to consistently use academic vocabulary, why you should have students practice speaking into the computer, and the benefit of talking about goal setting all year long.

Speaking and Writing Cards

Test Prep Speaking Digital Cards

New Test Prep Resource

Download the ESL Teacher Toolkit

Check out the ELL Strategy Academy

Shop TpT resources that help with supporting your ELLs

Join the Equipping ELLs Membership

To access all resources mentioned in this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.inspiringyounglearners.com/prepare-for-access-testing

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