On this edition of our Look for the Helpers series, we bring in Valentina Gonzalez to discuss the best ways to share resources and information with fellow educators during school closures. We also talk about the value of constantly pivoting as things change so quickly and embracing our vulnerability as we are forced to try new ideas.

If you'd like to join us on the Look for the Helpers series to share your story with fellow educators, go to bit.ly/ELLHelper. You can find all of the resources we mention in this episode and others on our Look for the Helpers short video series. 

Valentina is an educational consultant working with educators across the nation to support English learners. She works with schools and districts to provide professional learning experiences that are tailored to meet the needs of the participants. Valentina specializes in creating presentations that are engaging and interactive.

Valentina started her journey as an educator in 1997 as a third grade language arts teacher in Katy, Texas. She has served as an educator in many capacities since then including teaching second, third, and fourth grades. After leaving the classroom, she worked as an ESL Instructional Support Specialty Teacher on her campus serving and co-teaching in first-fifth grade classrooms. As a district leader, she has served as a facilitator for campuses and as a professional development specialist.

Currently, Valentina shares her time a delivering professional development and writing.

On this episode of our Look for the Helpers series, we talk with Elizabeth Leone about what she is doing through her school and community to ensure her most vulnerable students and their families have access to critical educational services. We also discuss why access to technology at home is so important to maintain educational equity, particularly for the newcomers who Elizabeth serves. 

If you'd like to join us on our Look for the Helpers series to share your story with fellow educators, go to bit.ly/ELLHelper.  You can find all of the resources we mention in the episode on our Look for the Helpers short video series.

Elizabeth Leone is an ESL teacher and Project-based Learning (PBL) coach in Manchester, New Hampshire. She teaches in a sheltered instructional settings for newcomers from all over the world. She completed her Masters in TESOL and her undergraduate studies in Elementary Education. Elizabeth is passionate about making learning more equitable and attainable for all students, especially those with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE). She uses project-based learning as a way to meet learners where they are with their language skills and rapidly streamline their education to get them into mainstream classes. Using PBL strategies, she is able to simultaneously work on language acquisition, content education, and 21st century skills in a way that keeps them motivated to learn. 

On this episode of our Look for the Helpers series, we talk with Carol Salva and Tan Huynh about how educators can access high quality professional development from wherever they are while schools remain closed. We highlight VirtuEL, a free annual online conference for teachers of language learners featuring live breakout sessions, panels and keynote speakers. Carol and Tan have facilitated VirtuEL for the last three years and make all content available to anyone interested in using it. 

During our interview, Carol and Tan also announce this year's VirtuEL date and keynote speaker!

If you'd like to join us on our Look for the Helpers series to provide information or stories to fellow educators, go to bit.ly/ELLHelper.  You can find all of the resources we mention in the episode on our Look for the Helpers short video series.

We catch up with Ellevation's cofounders Jordan Meranus and Teddy Rice to talk about the challenges they are seeing, how Ellevation is adapting to best serve English learners, and what long-term school closures mean for educational equity. If you'd like to share your story on Highest Apirations, go to bit.ly/ELLHelper.

You can find more resources on our Look for the Helpers short video series. 

How might we provide equitable instructional resources and services to English learners and their families? What can we do to support families who may not have internet access or adequate devices? What are some tools that teachers can use to keep English learners engaged? We discuss these questions and more with Katie Frances.

Katie is a certified EL teacher in Fayette County, KY. She spent her first 8 years as a mainstream classroom teacher working with diverse groups of students. She currently teaches at Northern Elementary School where she and her teammate Jamie Combs service over 150 English Language Learners. 

Follow Katie on Twitter here.

How do we ensure that English learners and their families in rural communities have access to services that schools normally provide? What are educators doing to overcome the challenge of providing students with food when transportation is a challenge? How are schools addressing equity issues in areas where internet and device access is not widely available?

We discuss these questions and more in our conversation with Kelly Aldinger. Kelly is a K-3 English as a New Language teacher in a small, rural district called Elba Central Schools, halfway between Rochester and Buffalo, NY.  She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching ESOL from Clarkson University  Kelly is a a passionate advocate for educational equity and inclusion and would love to connect with others who are similarly motivated!  Find her on Twitter!

This episode is part of the Highest Aspirations "Look for the Helpers" series. If you'd like to share your story, go to bit.ly/ELLHelper.

You can access all the resources that Kelly mentioned on out Look for the Helpers channel.

How can teachers and tech staff continue to collaborate to support English learners while schools are closed? Why might this be a good time for teacher professional development and how might schools implement systems to support it? What are some key resources that educators can use right now to help support their English learners?

We discuss these questions and more with Dr. Yolanda Rios and Gretta Rogne of New Caney ISD in Texas. Dr. Rios has over 14 years experience in bilingual education and currently serves the New Caney ISD community as the Director of Multilingual by providing services for students and families of English Learners and Immigrants/Migrant students. This role has allowed her to provide educational access to students who are learning English by providing resources and training teachers on strategies to help their students succeed. 

Gretta Rogne is the Director of Digital Learning. Over the course of her 13 year career, she has worked as a classroom teacher as well other educational roles. Her role is critical to support teachers and students as they transition to remote learning environments.

This episode is part of the Highest Aspirations "Look for the Helpers" series. If you'd like to share your story, go to bit.ly/ELLHelper.

What can we learn about online learning from EL educators who have been doing it for over 8 weeks now? Why is backwards planning so important when designing online lessons? How might we go about striking the appropriate balance between synchronous and asynchronous strategies to ensure equitable access to instruction? 

We discuss these questions and much more with Tan Huynh. Tan (@TanELLclassroom) is a career teacher specializing in language acquisition.  Tan has taught students from fifth to twelfth grade in public schools, private boarding schools, and charter schools.  Internationally, Tan has taught in schools in China, Laos, and Vietnam. He shares teaching strategies on his blog, Empowering ELLs, and has provided professional development training in places such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Italy, and Canada. Tan’s goal is to support all teachers who are committed to empowering English learners whether it be in a tweet, a blog post, a book, a training, a course, or over coffee. 

Tan appeared on the podcast to discus collaboration with content teachers in Season 2 - you can find that episode here.

This episode is part of our "Look for the Helpers" series. If you'd like to share your story, take 2 minutes to fill out this form. 

What are some strategies and resources teachers can use right now to help reach English learners while schools are closed? How might we sustain communication with teachers, families, and other stakeholders? Are there any silver linings to this very difficult situation? We discuss these questions and much more with Vanessa Colón, EL Coordinator at International Leadership Texas.

Over the course of her 16 years in education, Vanessa has served English Learners as a bilingual teacher, district ELL specialist, campus administrator, and district EL coordinator. As life-long learner, she is currently pursuing a doctoral degree from Texas A & M – Commerce in Supervision, Curriculum & Instruction with an emphasis in Bilingual Education. As an EL advocate, she has presented at numerous local and state conferences, such as BEAM and TexTESOL. Vanessa Colón is also a contributing author in the Handbook of Research on Pedagogies and Cultural Considerations for Young English Language Learners. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling with her two children & husband and spending quality time with family, friends & a good book or podcast!

During our 18 minute conversation, Vanessa shared some great resources. You can access all the links and see them in action on this 4 minute video.

This is the first episode of our “Look for the Helpers” series on the impact of coronavirus related school closures on English learners. During this challenging time, we believe it is more important than ever to amplify educators’ voices. For that reason, we are inviting anyone who works with English learners to share their stories on Highest Aspirations. Whether you have tips on keeping students and their families engaged, minimizing the social or academic impacts of social distancing, providing food and other necessities to vulnerable populations, or anything else, we want to hear from you.

To participate, just go to bit.ly/ELLHelper, take 2 minutes to fill out the form, and we’ll get back to you to set up a time to talk.

On our first episode of “Look for the Helpers”, we talk with Laurie Johnson and Andrea Barnett from Helen Tyson Middle School in Springdale, Arkansas. Springdale has a large ELL population and serves mostly Spanish and Marshallese-speaking ELL families.  With Marshallese being a language that does not have much in the way of translation support, Springdale’s English Language Development teachers, Instructional Facilitators, and Specialists are going above and beyond to help students and families who may be severely affected by social distancing.

Feel free to contact Andrea and/or Laurie by email if you would like to learn more about what they are doing...

[email protected]

[email protected]