#003 - 5 Steps to Teaching a Mixed Proficiency Level ESL Class

I frequently receive questions from my content area teachers about how to help English learners in the classroom. And those questions frankly are the same every year from how to help a newcomer to more specific activity and engagement ideas. And I was wondering if there are any different questions that EL teachers get asked. So I posted this on Instagram and inside my Facebook group, and it appears that general education teachers ask the same questions across the board. What can we do, ...

12 Sep 202325min

The start of the new school year is typically extremely busy. There are new families registering students, students coming to their new schools, meeting their teachers and classmates. There's lots of screening, placement, scheduling, action, action, action. Multilingual learners join our communities all the time. But somehow, the deficit mindset, which assumes they don't understand anything and therefore are capable of only doing very little, is still very pervasive. That's why in...

5 Sep 202315min

The new school year is here. And as I'm looking ahead, I reflect about what worked and hasn't worked before and how I can encourage and empower my students even more this year. I work with teenagers, and there are a lot of nuances in their English learning, including one very important aspect: negative self-talk. It is sad to hear when a bright student says they're not good enough or that their English is bad and they won't participate in a conversation. I recorded this episode ar...

29 Aug 202312min

Many teachers either are starting their school year soon, or have already been at it for a couple of weeks. And this time of year, when everything is full of fresh new energy, is a good time to go back to icebreakers. Whether you have new students joining you or want to reconnect and have fun with the ones you already know, icebreaker activities will always make your classroom come alive. Today's episode was recorded a while ago, but I know it is going to be very useful to you. I ...

22 Aug 202311min

How do you build students' literacy and confidence from the ground up? My guest, Kyle Larson, and I talk about just that on this episode. How to help EL students with literacy, especially as they enter the US educational system in upper elementary grades or later, is an eternal question for all of us. There are so many nuances in this. I am excited to share our conversation with you, and I know it will be super valuable. And if you'd like to see us, you can watch the recording of this i...

8 Aug 202324min

Part of an EL teacher's job is to advocate for their students and educate and support their peers in language acquisition theories, teaching strategies and content delivery. This is where professional development comes into play. Frequently it is up to us to plan and deliver it in such a manner that it touches the most important aspects in a short amount of time. We've all sat in workshops that are irrelevant, or too long, or too complicated at one point or another in our teaching caree...

1 Aug 202310min

Navigating to a new grade level and collaborating with new colleagues can be quite a challenge when it comes to being an ESL teacher. In today's episode, I chat with Sarah, who is a member of the ESL Teaching Roadmap membership. It's been a while since I talked about ESL teacher coaching, and with summertime in full swing, I know a lot of teachers have more headspace and creative flow as they are preparing for the upcoming school year, regardless of whether it starts tomorrow or in a month.&n...

25 Juli 202349min

For some time now, I have been wanting to share a tool with you that has helped me navigate to the difficult times as an educator as well as to be even more empathetic in situations that seemed like they had no solution. I am talking about meditation. If you haven't tried it, I know there are a lot of assumptions about what meditation is and why it may not be for you. I also have learned that the benefits of sustained focus, inner calm, and sharper ability to problem solve are not just ...

11 Juli 202312min