Episode 155 - How to use AI to Personalize Learning, Boost Engagement and Assess Multilingual Learners (Part 2)

Have you ever made an assumption about a person before truly getting to know them? As teachers, whether we like it or not, we tend to operate on a lot of assumptions which come from our education, practice, and experience. What I found though is that most of the time, many and any assumptions stem from lack of information. And sometimes it's difficult to get it, but I know I can work with this one. In today's episode, I wanted to tackle the topic of assumptions we might hold about English lea...

14 Tammi 16min

Teaching EL newcomers is by far one of the most popular subjects among all teachers at the beginning of the school year, middle of the school year, end of the school year, all the time. So much so that I have created quite a few episodes on what to teach them and how to help them in the regular education classroom. In today's episode, I am revisiting teaching EL newcomers again and diving into the critical importance of the first day with your EL students that are newcomers. My goal is to equ...

7 Tammi 15min

The holiday season can be hectic both at home and at school. Besides you being tired and over it, the students are tired and over it. And it shows. No matter the age group you teach, it can be an added stressor trying to figure out how to teach and manage everything around you. But just like we can restart a computer when it is glitching and somehow that seems to do the trick, we can restart and reset our classroom. And, of course, New Year is a great opportunity to do that because a) we all ...

31 Joulu 202417min

As I'm looking back on 2024, there were challenges and opportunities as well as a lot of growth. And as we know, it doesn't happen in a calm and peaceful environment when everyone is content. It happens through storms and sometimes chaos and most of the time through pain, whether big or small. The good thing is, I wouldn't change any of it. Well, maybe except one thing. And I believe I learned valuable lessons. So today's episode is going to be a lot more personal and maybe even raw in some p...

17 Joulu 202413min

What is social-emotional learning? And why it is crucial to address it daily with your students, including, if not especially, English learners. SEL or social-emotional learning is the buzzword nowadays, but it is very near and dear to my heart. As an educator, I, and I'm sure many of you, see firsthand how important it is for students to learn not only the content taught at school, but also how to discover and master certain life skills that will help them tackle life's challenges and, of co...

10 Joulu 202422min

Helping English learners access the curriculum of the Language Arts class, which is geared towards native speakers, is one of the challenges many teachers face. There are many linguistic demands that are not easy even for students for whom English is the mother tongue. And for English learners, those demands add extra layers, which require the teachers to, A) have at least the basic background knowledge of language acquisition, and B) understand how to adjust the material to the student's pro...

3 Joulu 202418min

In order to learn something, we need tools that address the way we learn as people as well as help us develop ways of thinking. In recent years, terms like neuroscience and neuroplasticity have become very popular in all fields, including education. What do these terms mean exactly? Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, including the brain and the neurons, and neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt throughout life. Sounds simple enough. Right? And whe...

26 Marras 202428min

Over the past several weeks, I have been sharing with you three simple accommodations every classroom teacher can make to reach ELs, even newcomers. We talked about why using visuals is essential when working with ELs, as well as what types of visuals to include. We dove into simplifying our language for directions, lesson delivery, and feedback, and why it actually promotes higher order thinking and expression in English. You can listen to those episodes by clicking the links underneath this...

19 Marras 202414min