Highest Aspirations

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. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/highest-aspirations/message

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.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/highest-aspirations/message

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.   --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/highest-aspirations/message

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 tha

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 rol

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 a

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 contributi

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 langu

If you'd like to share what you are doing to support English learners during this challenging time, take 2 minutes to fill out this form. You can find the blog post version of this episode along with great resource and a special message on our ELL Community.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/highest-aspirations/message

Why is reading culturally relevant books such an important part of language acquisition? What can educators do to make sure students have access to relevant and engaging reading materials - both at home and at school? How can providing access to books for immigrant families help promote educational equity?  We discuss these questions and much more with Hermenegildo Paulo, an inspirational educator and recent English Learner now working in Portland Public Schools in Maine. An educator and English Language Learner himself, Mr. Paulo cares deeply about overcoming inequities that impact the English Language Learner student population and their families. A native of Angola, Mr. Paulo is a passionate math educator who instructed students in kindergarten through college in classrooms of sometimes more than 80 students.  During his decade of math instructional experience in Angola, he strived to use best practice and initiate new programs to develop supportive relationships with his students and their famil

How can Newcomer Academies help immigrant students get off to a good start in on their academic journeys? Why is community and family engagement so important and how can educators implement strategies that work? How do we go about streamlining EL programs while also mitigating concerns around change management? We discuss these questions and in the first in a series of episodes featuring Ellevation Educators of the Month, an award program we kicked off on October of 2019 to recognize and celebrate educators who go above and beyond in supporting the needs of their multilingual students. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Geniene Delahunty of Boone County Schools in Kentucky. Geniene was nominated by her colleague Kathy Hammonds, who is also featured in this episode. Dr. Geniene Delahunty is the Director of Language Learners at Boone County Schools, KY. Geniene has been working in education for 18 years and is still as passionate about serving the needs of students as she was on day 1. Being born and raised in

This is a very special episode of Highest Aspirations, not only because of our well known and highly respected guest, but also because almost all of the questions come directly from our listeners. We’d like to thank everyone who contributed to this episode by submitting questions for Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of Enrique’s Journey and we’d love to keep the conversation going. You can use our voicemail feature to share your comments so we can share them in future episodes.  We also want to offer a special thanks and congratulations to Emily Golightly from Carteret County Schools in Morehead City, NC who is the winner of our drawing to win a copy of "Enrique’s Journey". During our conversation, Sonia and I discuss her inspiration for writing "Enrique’s Journey", how themes in the book connect directly with the students we work with, what we can do to help curb the cycle of violence that force so many to flee countries like Honduras, and much more. For those who may not be f

How does Exc-ELL help teachers better serve their English learners and Dual language learners? How do we go about coaching others when observing classrooms and how does using observation protocols help administrators understand what teaching vocabulary, reading comprehension, and other strategies look like? How might we create a culture of giving and receiving feedback? Plus, we come back to the Seal of Biliteracy to ask how all this work might help more students access it. For more information on Dr. Calderón's expansive work, check out the show notes on Part 1.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/highest-aspirations/message

On this episode of Highest Aspirations, we feature part 1 of a 2 part series with Dr. Margarita Calderón, former Professor Emerita and Senior Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University and author of several publications about multilingual education. During our conversation, we address the following questions: Why is it that many students are not receiving the Seal of Biliteracy after being on track for the recognition during their primary school years? How can we ensure that English learners and dual language learners are given the opportunity to engage in rigorous content area courses? Why is focusing on Tier 2 vocabulary, or connectors and transition words, so important to developing reading comprehension skills? How can a whole-school approach to professional development help content teachers infuse academic language into their lessons? Why are we still not seeing the progress we’d like in the areas of reading and writing for English learners and how can we to improve? For the past ten years Dr

How do we move the needle from over-scaffolded, over-scripted dialogues to student-generated conversations that leverage academic language? What does a math-based conversation look like in a linguistically and culturally diverse classroom?  Why is it so important for teachers to come together to talk about communication in the classroom and how it fosters learning?  We discuss these questions and much more with Jeff Zwiers. Jeff is a senior researcher at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the director of professional development for Understanding Language, a research and professional learning effort focused on improving instruction and assessment of English learners and other diverse students. He consults for national and international teacher development projects that promote language, literacy, lesson design, and formative assessment practices. Jeff’s research focuses on developing classroom instruction that fosters high-quality oral language and constructive conversations across d

What does a language rich math classroom look and sound like? How do we get past simple repetition to reach a “harmony of concept and language” for English learners in math classes? How do we move from simply getting the right answer and move toward building metacognitive skills and why is this particularly important for English learners? We discuss these questions and more in part 2 of our 2 part series with Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta, authors of the book “Routines for Reasoning: Fostering the Mathematical Practices in All Students”.

How can building routines for reasoning help reduce cognitive load and anxiety for English learners in math classes? How can strategies like Ask-Yourself Questions, Annotation, Sentence Frames and Starters, and The Four Rs help provide equitable access to mathematical thinking? What are some effective ways of teaching students the academic vocabulary necessary to have a seat at the math table? We discuss these questions and more in part 1 of our 2 part series with Grace Kelemanik and Amy Lucenta, authors of the book “Routines for Reasoning: Fostering the Mathematical Practices in All Students”. Most recently, Amy Lucenta served as a secondary mathematics Clinical Teacher Educator for the Boston Teacher Residency Program. Her experience spans K-12, teaching both middle and high school, then extending into elementary as a math coach. Her passion for helping struggling learners focus on developing the standards for mathematical practice is evident in the book and in our conversation, where she continues to explo

In this episode, we bring you a conversation Ellevation co-founders Teddy Rice and Jordan Meranus.  Jordan and Teddy talk about how Ellevation’s origin story is directly connected to an EL teacher working to maximize impact on her students, how diversity and inclusion contribute to innovation, what organizations like ours need to do to stay connected with schools, and what you can expect from Ellevation in the near future. Plus, they provide a sneak peek into what's coming next from Ellevation! Stay connected with us by joining our ELL Community. There you can leave comments about this episode and others. You can also engage with great content like our Whiteboard Wednesday short video series, blog posts, and articles. Finally, please consider leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. This will help us continue bringing you the best topics and guests on Highest Aspirations. If you have ideas, email us at highestaspirations@ellevationeducation.com and we’ll do our best to turn your i

How do we ensure English learners experience equitable access to rigorous content in math classes? What can we do to bridge the gap between research and practice in dual language programs? How do we ensure all students learn the academic language necessary to succeed in content classes? What supports do English learners and undocumented students need along the route to college admission? We cover these questions and much more in Season 4 of Highest Aspirations, an education podcast, where we engage in important conversations about our country’s most rapidly growing student demographic - English Language Learners.  We kick off Season 4 with a unique episode featuring Ellevation co-founders Jordan Meranus and Teddy Rice to discuss the past present, and (most importantly) the future of Ellevation. Spoiler alert - you’ll hear an exciting announcement in this episode! Jordan and Teddy are passionate about their work and fun to listen to, so don’t miss that episode when it drops on Tuesday, January 14th. As always,

As you may know, Ellevation gives five $2,000 scholarships to deserving English learners every year. On this episode, we talk with Take the Pledge Scholarship winner Paola Martinez. Paola graduated from high school in Soledad, California and is currently studying business administration at the University of California Irvine. Like our other scholarship winners, Paola brings an important student perspective to Highest Aspirations. Listeners will appreciate her sincere reflection of her experience as an English learner, as well as the advice she offers for both students and teachers. Paola highlights her experience with Upward Bound, gives some great advice to EL students and teachers, and stresses the importance of reading in her educational journey. Stay connected with us by joining our EL Community. There you can leave comments about this episode and others. You can also engage with great content like our Whiteboard Wednesday short video series, blog posts, and articles. Finally, please consider leaving