Equipping ELLs

Are you feeling overwhelmed and on the brink of burnout?

We understand the challenges you face, and that's why we've brought in the amazing Jamie Sears, author and educator, to address the pressing issue of preventing teacher burnout in this episode of the Equipping ELLs podcast.

Are you struggling to understand and connect with your ELLs in the content classroom?

As teachers, we understand the importance of connecting with our students and fostering meaningful relationships. We also recognize the challenges that come with it.

We welcome to the show special guest, author Emily Francis. Emily Francis is a nationally recognized ESL teacher, serving students in 9th-12th grade with various English proficiency levels. She is a native Spanish-speaker who is originally from Guatemala and came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor. Her experience as an ELL inspired her to become an ESL teacher and affords her a deep understanding of the challenges her students must overcome to find success. We highly commend Francis' book If You Only Knew: Letters from an Immigrant Teacher. In her book, Francis shares her captivating life story through a series of letters she writes to eight immigrant students in whom she sees pieces of herself.

This inspiring conversation with Emily Francis will deepen your understanding and encourage you to make a positive impact in the lives of your students.

* Leave a review of the episode for your chance to win a free copy of If You Only Knew: Letters from an Immigrant Teacher by Emily Francis! *

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As Summer approaches for both students and educators, it's time to reflect on our journey of equipping ELLs for success. Join us as we celebrate the valuable topics covered in the past months and focus on the small steps that make a big difference. We'll guide you through the "Three, Two, One" method of reflection—acknowledging growth, addressing frustrations, and setting a single action step for the summer break. Let's empower ourselves to become better educators for our ELLs and taking small steps that make a big impact!

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Writing is one of the biggest challenges for ELLs and teachers of ELLs. Too often, writing is viewed as a product, when it should be viewed as a process. A foundational step in the process is understanding and mastering syntax, or sentence structure.

Do you find the following statistics alarming? A recent study by the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that only 27% of U.S. eighth-graders were proficient in writing. In the same year, a survey by the National Center for Education Statistics found that only 24% of high school seniors were proficient in writing.

Writing can be difficult and often frustrating, even in a person's native language. Writing is often one of the biggest challenges for our ELL students.

In our final episode in this mini series breaking down the 4 domains of language, Beth shares thoughtful insight into how our students learn writing and valuable, practical strategies to use in your classroom today.

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Do you want to know why our episodes centered on reading seem to get the most downloads? Because teaching reading to ELLs is HARD!

We've been taking a deeper dive into each of the 4 domains of language. In this episode, we break down the reading domain. Being hooked on phonics may not be the best approach with your ELLs. We hope you'll listen in to research-based support on how to best implement the reading domain into your classroom and how these 4 domains of language work together in the language acquisition process.

Remember: If you like the show, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! If Beth reads your review on-air, you'll win a free month subscription to Equipping ELLs resources!

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Over the course of 4 weeks, we are breaking down the 4 language domains: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.

In today's episode, we'll discuss the 4 stages of development in the speaking domain. You'll learn practical strategies to get your students speaking. We'll share tips for your lesson planning so that you purposefully carve out time for speaking. And you'll leave with a list of student listening expectations for each language stage.

Remember: If you like the show, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! If Beth reads your review on-air, you'll win a free month subscription to Equipping ELLs resources!

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It is important to be aware of each of the different areas of the brain that are activated as your students learn English. We need to help our students view their brains as a muscle they are strengthening!

Over the next few weeks, we will be breaking down the 4 language domains: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. In my opinion, the listening domain is the most important domain to focus on in the language learning journey. However, it's the most commonly overlooked of the 4 domains!

In today's episode, we will discuss what makes the listening domain so critical, how the brain learns a language, and what to expect of your students' listening at each language stage.

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At Equipping ELLs, we pride ourselves on giving practical strategies to our listeners in every episode. Along with this, we want to make sure our listeners have the foundational understanding for why these strategies work and how our students learn. In this episode, we go deeper into understanding language theory.

The key terms for today are language acquisition and comprehensible input. If you're a teacher of ELLs, you won't want to skip this one.

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Does the term longterm language learner apply to any of the students in your classroom? What can we do to keep our ELLs moving forward?

I am my own humble inspiration for today's episode, simply because I am a longterm Spanish language learner. Having studied Spanish for 10 years, and now having lived in a Spanish-speaking country for 10 more, why am I not fluent?!

Listen in for 5 things you can do to keep your ELLs moving forward!

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Differentiate instruction. Every teacher has heard these familiar words given a million times.  We strive to accomplish this goal both for the success of our diverse learners and also for the evaluation that follows a dreaded classroom observation. In this episode, you'll learn numerous strategies you can use to make differentiation easy! And you'll leave with a fantastic freebie that you'll want to download, print, and put to use in your classroom immediately!

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Sometimes it comes as second-nature. Other times, we wrack our brains: “How do I make this particular content unit accessible to my ELLs?” or “How do I meet the needs of the majority, while still giving adequate attention to the newcomer?” The fact is, you probably don’t have the time to plan OR teach a separate lesson to each of your students.

In this guest episode, I interview two ELL teachers, working within the same school district in Virginia. Betsy Conyers is a K-5 ELL teacher, and Hannah Simmons teaches ELL in grades 6-12. Listen in as they share how they modify on the fly.

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Are you currently co-teaching, preparing for co-teaching, or maybe just hoping some day your school will adopt this effective model for reaching ELLs? In this episode, Beth interviews guest, Leslie Tomanovich. Leslie is an ENL (English as a New Language) teacher in New York. After years of teaching with the pull-out method, the state of New York changed their ENL laws and required instruction for ENL students to be co-taught. Leslie shares about her experience transitioning to co-teaching. She also contrasts different program methods, and she shares great practical advice for any teacher of ELLs!

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You've learned the pros and cons of a variety of program models, but which is the most effective for reaching your ELLs? While one school may have students in a full immersion program, other schools are using the pull-out approach. It is important to know the different methods available when teaching ELLs, and you may have more power than you realize when it comes to choosing an instructional model for your English language learners.

In this episode, I will break down 5 common instructional program models. After highlighting the pros and cons of each, I'll give my insights as to which model I believe to be most effective for helping our ELLs succeed. And, as always, you'll leave today's episode with practical tips for your teacher toolbox!

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Are you a paraprofessional, wondering how best to support your ELLs? Or are you a classroom teacher that knows you are underutilizing the paraprofessionals in your building? We are right in the middle of a series called Small Steps to Success for ELLs! Throughout this series, we are encouraging every person in our schools, from the front office to the cafeteria, to take vital steps to help support our English language learners. We know when each person does this, you will see positive change!

Today we are talking about the role of paraprofessionals. We believe paraprofessionals are a vital piece of the school and a huge key to helping our ELLs find success. In this episode, I am sharing how I got my start in education as a paraprofessional and how my experience was invaluable to my continued career in educating ELLs. I'll share with you 5 ways paraprofessionals can support ELLs, hoping to give you concrete steps you can take this week with your students!

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If you’re a homeroom teacher, the thought of figuring out how to support ELL students in your classroom may be completely overwhelming. I know this because I’ve been there. When I was a homeroom teacher, I didn’t support my English language learners very well. As we are working on taking small steps to make a big impact on our ELL students, I want to share four shifts that homeroom teachers can make to ensure our ELLs are being set up to thrive in our classrooms.

Most homeroom teachers want to help their ELL students be successful but don’t know where to start. I want to equip homeroom teachers with easy shifts they can make to help the English language learners in the classroom. I am sharing why it is crucial to see the ELL students in your classroom as your own students, how to use the ESL teacher as a coach, why starting with clear benchmarks and milestones is so important, and how learning new scaffolds is beneficial for all your students.

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There are so many important positions in every school but sometimes it can be challenging to understand just what each person does and does not do. As ESL teachers, we may have come across some misconceptions that other staff members have about us and our role. We all want to work together as best as possible so that we can help our ELL students be successful. In order to do that, we may need to help other staff members understand what it is that we do and how we help our students.

It is so important that ESL teachers and homeroom teachers are on the same page when it comes to helping our ELL students. There may be assumptions made from both sides simply because there isn’t a clear understanding of each teacher’s position. If we can address these assumptions, we can work better together to provide a high quality learning experience for our students which is everyone’s goal!

In this episode, I am sharing five reminders to help in building a relationship between ESL and homeroom teachers, where these misconceptions may come from, and how to move past them to best serve ELL students.

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We know how important it is for us to make our new ELLs feel welcome and comfortable but how can we help their families feel supported? There can be so much confusion for families as they are adjusting to living in a new country, learning a new school system, and understanding different offerings and options that are available. Our guest, Janna Adams, is sharing ways that we can help our ELL families overcome some of these hindrances.

In today’s episode, we are chatting with Janna about some things she has implemented that have made a huge impact on getting ELL families more involved in school and the community. She is sharing her teaching experience and how she became an ESL teacher, why it is so important to engage ELL families in the school setting, ways ESL teachers can help connect these families to the school and community, and the difference she has seen with engagement after implementing these things.

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Understanding where our students come from and who they are is so important to ensuring we are providing them with an environment where they feel welcome and respected. This may mean dismantling some assumptions we have about different countries and really trying to understand the countries they are coming from and the specific areas they are coming from. Margarita Pearce is joining us today to share her unique perspective and provide some insight and tips for ESL teachers.

In this episode, Margarita is sharing what it was like growing up in Panama and her experience working with the U.S. Embassy in Panama and the Fullbright Program. We are diving into ways teachers can ensure that newcomers feel comfortable in their new school, why you should consider the challenges their families face and find ways to support them in understanding the school system, and tips for how teachers can create an environment that fosters success.

Margarita Pearce was born and raised at the crossroads of the world, the Republic of Panama.  My education includes a Master in Business Administration and a Bachelors Degree in Biology both from universities in the U.S.A.  I also have TESOL certificate and I am completing my TEFL certification.  My teaching experience includes in-person and online ESL tutoring.  My background also includes counseling, student recruitment, and program management for universities in the U.S.A.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

Thanksgiving in the U.S. is right around the corner which means it’s the perfect time to look at why we should be thankful that we get the privilege to teach our English language learners. At this point in the year, you may be feeling tired and overwhelmed so I want to remind you why we are so fortunate to be able to work with amazing ELL students.

Teaching is not easy and there are so many things that are put on teachers, especially these past few years, that make some days really hard. If we can pause and remember why we got into teaching and why we love working with ELLs, it can help us get through those hard days. In this episode, I am sharing five reasons we are so fortunate to teach ELLs including getting to teach a global community right in our classroom, how we are impacting more than just our students’ lives, why our ELL students are especially resilient, how lucky we are that we get to learn about new cultures all the time, and how amazing it is to see our students grow so much.

Have you heard about the new, hot topic, translanguaging? If not, don’t worry! Today we are talking all about it! Tevia Tovares is joining us today to share her experience with translanguaging and how she encourages translanguaging in the classroom.

We know how important it is to create a safe, comfortable, and inclusive atmosphere for our ELLs. In order to do this, we must allow our students opportunities to express themselves both in English and in their native language. This is exactly what our guest, Tevia, is sharing with us today. In this episode, we are talking about how Tevia creates a welcoming classroom atmosphere, what translanguaging is and why it's important, and how to start encouraging translanguaging in your classroom.

Tevia Tovares is a third generation teacher who has been in the classroom 20 years.  She holds a Master's in International Education, is a member of the International Baccalaureate Educator Network and is currently teaching 5th grade at the Metropolitan School of Panama where she has been teaching for 10 years.  She loves learning about new things and challenging herself.  In her spare time she enjoys quality time with her husband, family and friends, as well as baking, acting, and gardening.

Do you know what stage of language acquisition your ELL students are in and how to support them in that stage? Understanding the stages and knowing where your students are at is so important in helping them successfully learn the English language. Cris Howard is joining us today to share her extensive knowledge on language acquisition and its importance.

Keeping the stages of language acquisition in mind when we are teaching our ELLs is key to helping them understand and retain the language. Cris is sharing some incredibly helpful insight on language acquisition with us. She is covering her experience teaching English, what language acquisition is and why it matters, why it is important for teachers to understand this approach, what the steps of language acquisition are, and tips on how to teach students at each stage.

Holiday season is upon us in the U.S. which means it’s a great opportunity to improve our ELLs’ English language using seasonal vocabulary. We can take advantage of the season and use the excitement of the holidays to engage our students and really work on their English skills. Today, I am sharing some activities I wish I would have done to take full advantage of the holidays with my ELLs.

We’ve all tied the holidays into our lessons by teaching vocabulary, playing seasonal vocabulary games, or using word searches. But are these activities making the best use of our time with our students?

In this episode, we are looking at alternative activity options to be more intentional with our instructional time while still bringing in the excitement of the holidays for our students. We are covering ideas for teaching holiday vocabulary in context, the importance of including students’ native language when teaching holiday vocabulary, using discussion prompts in your lessons, and how to help your students feel included in your classroom and connected to the holidays.

Are you looking to create a culture of reading at your school and with your ELLs? We all know that reading opens so many doors for our students but getting them to read can be a struggle. Today I am joined by high school librarian Terrie Sharp, who is sharing how she helped create a culture of learning in her school.

There can be many obstacles in getting ELL students and emergent bilingual students to read but it is so important that we help them become readers. Terrie saw there was a need to make reading more accessible to the students in her high school in order to help them develop their reading skills. In this episode, Terrie is sharing her background and current role, what the Cowboys Read! program is and how it got started, how the program created a culture of reading in the school, and what’s next for the program.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the Science of Reading and maybe your school is pushing to incorporate it more into literacy lessons but you aren’t quite sure how to do that. You’re in luck! Today, we are continuing our conversation with Sara Marye about how to create skilled readers through literacy instruction and the Science of Reading.

The new “hot topic” in education this year is the Science of Reading. You may have heard about it or looked into it but aren’t sure how to incorporate it into your work with ELL students. Maybe you aren’t really sure what all the buzz is about. Sara Marye from The Stellar Teacher Company is joining us today to share her expertise about literacy and the Science of Reading.

Sara has so much knowledge to share that we had to make this a two part episode! In this week’s episode we are talking about what the Science of Reading is and why it is important especially for ELL students, what challenges teachers face when helping students become skilled readers, and the first three elements of language comprehension.

Sara Marye has over a decade of experience working as a classroom teacher and school administrator. She is now CEO of The Stellar Teacher Company and a literacy specialist passionate about helping elementary teachers around the world grow their students into lifelong readers. Sara’s mission is to make teachers’ lives a little easier by providing them with endless encouragement, effective strategies, and engaging no-fluff resources. Sara is also the host of the Stellar Teacher Podcast, where she loves to share her favorite literacy tips each week!

Disclaimer: the audio for this episode is not the best, but the content is so great that we still want you to hear it!

There is a huge shift in how schools are teaching reading. They are moving away from Guided Reading and moving towards Science of Reading with a focus on phonics and phonemic awareness. Today, Aylin Claahsen is joining us to share her expertise on teaching younger students early literacy skills.

Ensuring that our ELLs are receiving the best literacy instruction we can give them is so important and Aylin is sharing so much helpful information with us! We are covering what the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics is, where to begin with phonemic awareness and phonics instruction, how literacy instruction is changing with the shift to Science of Reading, and fun and engaging ways to teach phonics.

Aylin is a certified reading specialist, literacy consultant and curriculum designer who loves sharing literacy tips for teaching readers. Specializing in Kindergarten-5th Grade, she can be found sharing literacy tips on her blog or social media at Literacy with Aylin Claahsen, or in her newsletter. Aylin has a huge passion for small group instruction as she’s seen the impact it has on readers of all ability levels. Writing engaging passages is one way that Aylin gets to connect with students and teachers all around the world. She believes that building confidence in readers is one of the most important things teachers can do.

Reading can be a challenge for many students and it can be especially difficult for our ELL students. That’s why it is so important to systematically work on sight words with our students. Leslie Tomanovich is joining us today to share her experience and wisdom on teaching sight words to our ELL students.

When it comes to reading, we want to find ways to reduce the cognitive load and frustration for our students. Sight words play a huge role in that. In today’s episode, Leslie and I are discussing the importance of sight words for our ELL students, the difference between sight words and high frequency words, effective techniques for teaching sight words, what orthographic mapping is and why it’s great for reading instruction, and Leslie’s routine for teaching sight words in her lessons.

Leslie is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to teaching sight words and phonics to ELLs and she is sharing so much information with us today! Don’t forget to check out the sight word resource we’ve put together if you’re interested in seeing more of her routine and how to make sight word practice work for your students this year!

Leslie Tomanovich has been teaching ELLs for over 10 years. She lives and works in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. She works with grades K-4, but specializes in the primary grades. Leslie has developed multi-modal sight word instructional routines and materials that are used by many teachers in her school district. She lives and works in the Finger Lakes region of New York State.

Working with our ELL students on social emotional learning is so important now more than ever. Between virtual learning, the pandemic, and any traumatic experiences they may have been through, they may need help with coping skills and that is where SEL  comes in. Today, we are getting some wonderful insight about the importance of SEL from our guest, Rachel Davis.

Rachel is sharing all about social emotional learning. We are talking about the importance of SEL, easy to implement tips for incorporating SEL into the classroom, SEL lesson ideas, and how to support students who have been through trauma. Rachel has so much knowledge on SEL and helping students with their emotions and she is sharing tons of info with us so we can best help our ELLs!

Rachel is the school counselor and curriculum designer behind Bright Futures Counseling. With nearly a decade of experience, a highly rated school counseling podcast, and an engaged online community, Rachel is passionate about helping school counselors increase their impact and advocate for their role. She resides in Costa Rica, and when she’s not working on her business you can find her at the beach playing with her toddler son!

Have you ever thought about trying out a different lesson planning process? Planning units and lessons based on language forms and functions may be a method that could really benefit your ELLs! Today, I have special guest, Kristen Vibas, joining us to talk about how she plans her lessons around different language functions and forms.

In this episode, Kristen is giving us an inside look at what her role and lesson planning process looks like. She is sharing what her role in a very large district looks like, what she focuses on the first month of school,how she communicates with parents, and how she plans her instruction utilizing language forms and functions.

Kristen Vibas is a K-6 elementary ESOL teacher living in Northern Virginia. She’s been teaching multilingual learners since 2005 in one of the country’s largest school districts. She enjoys each grade level, but is particularly fond of working with upper elementary newcomers. Kristen also loves creating educational resources that support English language development. She opened her TpT store, called “Kristen Vibas,” in 2012, and shortly afterwards started a blog called “A Walk in the Chalk.”

It seems like our ELL students are constantly taking assessments. They take them with us, for core classes, benchmarks, and the list goes on!

But are these assessments helping to drive our instruction or are they just wasting time? Today, we are diving into how to better assess students authentically so that we can adjust our instruction to meet our students’ needs.

We want our assessments to be more than just the mandatory state assessments. We want them to give us great insight so we can turn them into action. In this episode, we are looking at 5 different ways we can authentically assess our ELLs, why assessing in these ways is important, and ideas and tips on how to implement these assessments in your classroom.

We all know that classroom management is crucial for a smooth school year. But where do you even start with classroom management, especially when you aren’t a homeroom teacher? Today, we are diving into how to get started with easy-to-implement strategies to help you have great classroom management this year!

Classroom management begins with building relationships and trust with your students. In this episode, we are talking about the importance of having clear expectations, how to get your students to really buy into the classroom rules, why you should explicitly teach expectations, and how to implement the behavior side of classroom management. We want our students to thrive and strong relationships, clear expectations, and involvement in classroom agreements are all great ways to help our students!

FREE Visual Chart - Classroom Management Strategies

As we head into the start of another school year, we want to make sure that we are creating a welcoming place for our ELLs and newcomers right away. There always seems to be pressure to get started with assessments and lessons but it is so important to slow down the first few weeks of school. Sindy Bonilla is joining us today to talk about how she starts the school year so her students and families feel welcomed and safe.

Today, we are talking about slowing down and creating a place of safety and comfort for ELL students. Sindy is sharing why building relationships with both students and parents is important, tips for building strong relationships starting day one, activities she loves to do the first couple weeks, and advice for working with refugee students and their families.

Sindy Bonilla is an ESL & Spanish teacher for students K-8 in NJ. She has been teaching ELLs for 6 years. Sindy has worked with the International Rescue Committee to support and provide ESL instruction to refugee newcomers.

Sindy is currently a student at Rowan University where she is working on her supervisor certification and completing a dual language certification program online with UCSanDiego. Sindy enjoys working with ELLs in the community and with their families. In her free time, Sindy enjoys watching sports and practicing yoga.

The first day of school is filled with so much excitement but can be full of stress and anxiety for our students. We all try to start the year off right by building relationships and community and often do this by using get-to-know-you activities or icebreakers. Unfortunately, these can cause unnecessary stress and create fear in students, especially ELLs. Today, we are looking at what we can do on those first days of school to build a safe and welcoming environment for all students.

In this episode, we are looking at how to prevent creating an unsafe or unwelcoming experience for our students at the beginning of the school year. We are talking about how ELL students may feel when put on the spot, three questions to ask yourself as you prep activities for the first days of school, and three activities you can use to ensure your ELLs feel safe, welcome, and comfortable in your classroom. We want to make sure our students can be involved, having fun, and making connections without the added fear and anxiety that some ice breakers can cause.

Do you feel like you are spending so much time planning lessons or that you’re on a hamster wheel of lesson planning? If that sounds like you, this episode is one you don’t want to miss! I am diving into three common problems I see when it comes to ESL teachers and lesson planning.

In today’s episode, I am talking about one of the biggest stressors for ESL teachers - lesson planning. I am breaking down the three types of lesson planners and how to avoid spending all your time lesson planning, how having clear goals can ensure you are meeting each students’ needs, how to move away from planning only one day ahead and bringing your work home with you, and why you don’t need to plan different lessons for each grade and language level you work with. I am giving you examples and practical tips to reduce the stress of lesson planning and regain your time while still meeting your students’ needs!

Have you been curious what ESL teachers’ roles look like in other districts?  We are joined by special guest Jina Wood who is sharing what her role as the K-8 ESL teacher looks like in her district in Iowa.

Jina gives us a look at her challenges and shares her tips on how she ensures her students’ needs are being met. In this episode, Jina talks about how she groups and supports her ELL students, how she prepares for the school year during the summer, why it’s important to advocate for both your students and yourself, and how she uses her special education background to best support her ELLs.

Jina Wood has been teaching ELL for 7 years. Her current role is as the K-8 ESL Coordinator and Teacher at Cherokee Elementary and Middle Schools in rural Northwest Iowa. As an Iowa educator Jina is certified in K-12 Special Education, K-12 English as a Second Language, K-12 Reading, and holding a Masters in Professional Education.  She has worked in education for 18 years, starting as a para-educator and then working in 9-12 Special Education, K-12 ESL, and also is a part time professor for the Schools of Education and Special Education at a local university but she has found her passion to be her ESL work.  Jina and her husband have a busy blended family with 6 kids between them; 3 are now working full time, 2 are in college, and their youngest will be a high school senior this coming school year.

How can you successfully support your K-4 ELLs in a very large district? Our special guest is sharing some insight! In this episode, Jen Ferreyra is giving us a glimpse into what her role as an ESL teacher looks like at her school.

Today, Jen and I are talking about how she works with other teachers to provide the best support possible for her students. We are covering the challenges and benefits of teaching ELLs using a co-teaching model in the classroom, how she gets set up for the school year during the summer, and the importance of relationship building with teachers and families.

Jennifer Ferreyra has been an educator for over 20 years. She has taught in multiple bilingual classroom models and has been an ESL teacher for eight years. Jennifer currently teaches ESL at the elementary level in the Framingham School District in Massachusetts. Jennifer has facilitated PD at not only the school, but the district level as well, focusing on how to best support ELs and the power of co-teaching. Jennifer has also presented at the MATSOL conference multiple times to fellow educators who also teach multilingual learners. Jennifer speaks Spanish fluently and is raising her two children to be biliterate with her husband.

Are you wondering what teaching ELLs looks like in other schools or districts? Today, I am chatting with Karen Hartke to get some insight into what being an ESL teacher looks like for her and her district.

Karen serves as both the only ESL teacher and the EL coordinator in her K-12 district which brings on unique challenges. In this episode, she is sharing with us what her role looks like, some tips and tricks for teaching ELLs, and the importance of building strong relationships with administration, classroom teachers, and support staff to best serve your students.

Karen Hartke is currently a K-12 ESL teacher at Lakeview Independent School District in rural southwest Minnesota.  She has taught at the primary, intermediate, and upper elementary levels, as well as 7th and 8th grade mathematics.  Additionally, she has MN teaching certification in middle school Mathematics, K-12 English as a Second Language, K-12 Reading, K-6 Elementary, and a Masters in Educational Leadership.   She is also a parent of middle and high school age children.