I LOVE this time of year - time of reflection and planning. Time to analyze what went well and what can get better. I'm not tough on myself. I know life is life and things happen. Sometimes things go as planned, some other times they just go the opposite of what we planned.

Anyway, while reflecting on 2022 and my #OneWord, I can see how this word really came alive. Many things unfolded in my life. I became an author, I started serving students mainly in an inclusion model, my husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary...and so much more that is UNFOLDING!

I had a busy year. I know I did. But it really hit me when I read my daughter's Christmas card message.  "I know you have been busy this year so I hope you like what I got you."
This message coming from my 8 year-old really got to me. It made me stop and think how many times have I told her "I'm busy" and put other things before her. Or how busy had I've beed that she didn't reach out to me because she knew I was "busy".

Anyway, as I was thinking about my #OneWord2023, I wanted a word that would help me with the "being busy" reflection. 
I don't think I am stopping what I'm woking on since my book just released. What I can do is BE. Unapologetically BE who I want to BE and also BE present. 

What a year!! In October 2021, I started meeting virtually with a group of teachers of newcomers who are interested in learning new strategies, and gain lessons ideas to serve and teach their  newcomers. I have a list of over 300 teachers who monthly receive an invitation to meet and learn together. Of course, not all teacher attend, but sessions are recorded and I know MANY go back and catch up on the recording.

Our monthly meeting routine is basically the same every time. We have an expert and guest speaker share for 30-40 minutes then we go into grade-level breakout rooms to discuss deeper about the topic.
In our breakout room, we have a shared document where we make notes of any ideas or resources we lean about from each other.

I am so grateful to amazing and superheroes in the field who have agreed to join us and share their expertise with us. We are better because of their teaching and guidance.

​A HUGE shoutout to these amazing #PLC4newcomers’ superstars who shared with us from November 2021 to December 2022.

If you are interested in watching our previous meetings, follow this link to my YouTube channel ===> https://bit.ly/PLCplaylist
​
We are continuing these meetings in 2023. If you'd like to joining our PLC email list, please enter your information HERE and I will make sure you're invited to our next meetings. 

November - Supporting Struggling Learners with Patricia Vitale-Reilly -- @pattyvreilly
December - Does This Work with English Learners? Holly Genova -- @GenovaHollyAnn
January - Language Lens with Sarah B. Ottow -- @SarahOttow
March - Re-Imagining Migration with Adam Strom -- @afstrom
March/April -- Ramadan with Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi - @shinram1
May - Wild About WIDA with Courtney Morgan  -- @MrsMorganTeach
June - Celebrating Us with Lee Perez - @LanguagePerez
October 2022 -- Boosting Achievement with Carol Salva -- @DrCarolSalva
November 2022 - Engaging Families with Hannah Levister -- @HannahL_MLP
December 2022 - Sense of Belonging with Valentina Gonzalez --  @ValentinaESL

If you watch any of these fantastic presentations and find it helpful, please share a comment with me. I'd love to know how we're impacting YOU and your students.

Thank you for reading and watching! 

When & Where:
July 21, 2021
10:00 am – 1:00 pm CDT
Zoom Conference
What it is:
Amplifying the Voices of Unaccompanied Minors is an opportunity for teachers and school leaders to hear from those who have lived the experience as an unaccompanied minor in the American school system. ​

I am honored and excited to be part of this amazing North Carolina (NC) English Learners (EL) Network Team. This is my second year in this group and I love the energy and passion everyone shares.

The NC EL Network team brought together individuals who love working with ELs and began sharing a network of resources to support EL teachers in NC. 

We are so excited to be the WIDA Featured Educators for the month of March. Read about the network HERE and learn everything this wonderful group is doing in the Carolinas. 

Follow us on Twitter using the hashtag #Together4ELs 

WriteReader is a wonderful platform I've used with elementary and High school students. It's student-friendly & teacher-friendly.
In this webinar I share how & why I use it. 

I feel like if I begin reflecting and writing about 2020 - it would make for a very long and sad post. 2020 was just a year we will never forget. The battles and struggles were real - But we made it through!
As I began thinking about my #OneWord for 2021 - I found myself going back to 2020's OneWord and asking myself whether I needed to keep the same word, or have a new one. 
You see, 2020 was a year where MANY - MANY things were put on hold. Because of COVID-19, schools were closed, parks, were closed, outdoor events were canceled, etc. Life seemed to have paused. So, as I read my post about my OneWord 2019, I couldn't help but think how this too needed to unpaused. 
I knew I didn't want to use the same word for 2020 so I thought about a word that would take my 2019 word to the next level. 

In 2019, I wrote:
You see, we are meant to be great! We are not to settle for just "good"...If I get comfortable with just being "good" - then I've failed myself and those around me. 

There's nothing wrong with wanting more. 

• More knowledge
• More readings
• More adventures
• More connections
• More action
• More keynotes
• More presentations
• More friendships
• More journeys
• More ANYTHING & EVERYTHING THAT SETS YOUR SOUL ON FIRE!"

You see, all this is still what I desire. I feel like 2021 will be a year to achieve our goals despite any difficulties encountered while achieving our goals or anything that sets our soul on fire! 
That's why my #OneWord2021 is TENACITY!

​--Tenacity says "I can" even though the impossibilities are bigger than our capabilities. 

**This post appeared originally in www.Middleweb.com on November 12th, 2020**
Click HERE to read original post

Here's my review of the new book for ELA & ELL teachers by Valentina Gonzalez and Dr. Melinda Miller - Published by Seidlitz Education
Reading & Writing with English Learners: A Framework for K-5 

I experienced an extraordinary feeling while reading Valentina and Melinda’s book. I was reading the introduction when I began highlighting text, making notes on the pages, and writing takeaways in my notebook. Reading & Writing for English Learners is a book that highlights the best of my two worlds: my English learner world and my educator world.
The English learner in me couldn’t contain the excitement as I was reading a book with a core belief centered on what’s best for English language learners (ELs). You see, I was once an English learner sitting at the back of class unengaged and just accumulating knowledge without the opportunity to demonstrate my learning.
Reading and writing lessons were not structured in a way that students’ background and home language were maximized. This lack of opportunities and modalities to demonstrate what I was able to do in class just made me feel like an outsider and without a sense of belonging.
So reading a professional development book that is centered around the whole child – and also provides ideas to weave in culturally responsive practices to help English learners grow linguistically – fills my heart with so much joy and hope for ELs.
The educator in me is grateful for a book that not only validates my pedagogy throughout but also provides new ways to help me grow and develop as I learn to teach reading and writing through a language lens.

Amá's deportation hurt the entire family - and we see how every one of them kept on pushing and functioning and planning regardless of how they were feeling. 

• We see Efrén struggling in school and trying to perform to the best of his ability regardless of what he was going through. 
• We see Apá working non-stop to be able to get extra money to be able to bring Amá back home.

• We see Max and Mía, two little kids, missing Amá's love and care (and cooking).

​
It is a story that many students will identify with - whether is because they are separated from their parents or maybe because they are carrying on the same responsibilities and obligations Efrén is having to do. 
This is a story all teachers, principals, social workers and guidance counselors need to read. I was able to connect with the story because I experienced a lot of the things the family goes through - but if you have NEVER experienced anything like this, it would give you a needed perspective to better understand your students. 

I do not doubt in my mind that a lot of students in our classrooms are experiencing things at home that do not feel comfortable sharing with anyone at school; hence knowing about these topics would give teachers that understanding and the knowledge they need to advocate for students.

Because I believe this book needs to be used in schools - whether is for bookclubs or guided/strategy reading groups or school group discussions, I made these chapter notes and questions as I read the book.

Feel free to use them! If you create any more resources for this book, I'd love to hear from you. So far all I have are questions and topics for discussion but I would love to see educators creating an entire book study with activities for the book. 
Here's a great identity heart graphic organizer a book study participant created.
Amy Sherman took the challenge in creating an identity map on Efrén Nava and it is just fabulous. 
This would be something amazing to have our students create too. 
​You can find a printable version of the graphic organizer here. 

These are the questions we used for discussion during our book study on #ELLchat_bkClub. If you need an editable version of the questions pdf documents above, you can access them here. 

This book is without a doubt a 5 starts book that middle schoolers and HS students would love.

I'd love to hear from you if you have read it or if you decide to read it. There are many topics to discuss and I'd love to engage in conversation with you about this book. Author Ernesto Cisneros is very active on Twitter so connect with him and ask any questions you may have.


Thank you for reading! 

Just wanted to make sure you knew about this fantastic (and FREE) webinar opportunity to learn how to support our immigrant and refugee students. 

This free webinar is hosted by Re-imagining Migration and The Immigrant Learning Center's (ILC) Public Education Institute.

It is a two-day online workshop featuring researchers, teacher trainers and pedagogical experts.
Participants will learn:

1. the impact of current events on immigrant and refugee students
2. strategies to improve distance learning
3. how to support students during times of crisis
4. how to bring the immigrant voice into focus across the curriculum

You can register HERE for the 2020 Immigrant Student Success: Strategies and Tools for K-12 and Adult Educators on July 8 and 9, 12:00 to 3:00 PM EDT, three hours each day

I was so excited to read this book that I pre-ordered it and received it 2 days after it was released. As soon as I found out that this story was about 3 Guatemalan teenagers - I knew I had to read it. 

Of  course the story does not disappoint! We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez is a hard book to read just because the journey Pulga, Chico, and Pulga (3 main characters) go through are  VERY difficult. This book tells the raw journey of 3 teens who ride La Bestia (a monster train) to immigrate to the USA and their journey will stay with you long after you finish the book.

As a Guatemalan and immigrant myself -  I was able to identify with the characters which is something I long for my students to do when reading our class books. I am going to be so excited to share this book with my students...especially when the Spanish version is released!!!

You can find my full booktalk/review of this 5-Star book here on my YouTube channel! 

I read this book over a weekend! I usually take much longer to read books because I read in between errands, parenting, cleaning, cooking, etc. THIS book, however, was a book I couldn't put down. 
Laurie Halse Anderson's book  SHOUT - is a book that that will make you want to shout and stand up for those who have experienced or are experiencing sexual abuse, rape, and/or harassment of any type.  
I would not even think twice about having this book on my class bookshelf for HS students to read.  Not only will this book encourage and empower readers to stand up and speak up agains sexual assaults, but also will ignite the desire to want to know more about this topic and advocate for those who are hurt.

Check out my review on my YouTube channel here! 

I was super excited when the author Laurie Halse Anderson shared my BookTalk - see it below!! 

If you read any of these books, please share with me on the comments below. I'd love to hear from you and your thoughts on any of these books or other books written by these authors. 

Thank you for reading and keep on reading!! 

The Bilingual/ESL Department at Region 10  ESC in North TX holds an annual symposium for their 500+ educators. This year, due to the COVID pandemic, the event was help virtually.

I was honored and humbled to be invited as their 2020 Symposium 'Power Of Unity' keynote speaker. I was so excited to connect and meet so many passionate educators who are working hard to provide their very best for all students. 

The keynote presentation was on June 23rd and it was a way to kick-off the symposium - teachers had a long day of sessions to attend right after the keynote. 
My presentation title was 'Shifting from Statistics to Stories'

The presentation was streamed LIVE so you can find the recorded version on my YouTube channel below. 

I wanted to share this interview with you. On March 30th author and friend Tara Martin invited me to be on the Dave Burger Consulting, Inc Facebook live Teacher Appreciation Series.
During this interview I shared a story about a teacher and friend who has had a power impact in my life - professional and personal life, Angie Power.

I hope you tune in and hear how Angie Power took me under her wing and helped me become the teacher I am today. 
Of course I made sure Angie hear this interview so I shared it with her and she responding with the message below.

Watch the recording on the DBC, Inc Facebook page or on Youtube - video below.

Hello friends!
Just in case you don't know yet, I wanted to post here about our current bilingual Twitter book study on Integrando Lenguage, Lectura, Escritura y Contenidos en español e inglés ~ Integrating Language, Reading, Writing, and Content in English and Spanish.

This book is not available on Amazon. You can get your copy through Velázquez Press following this link. 

This book study is through the very well known hashtag #ELLchat_bkClub by Katie Toppel and Tan Huynh. Katie allowed us to include this book study to the reading rounds so it is round 24.0! This book study is bilingual (Spanish and English) because the book is written in both languages (side-by-side). 
A list of questions will be posted every Sunday just to guide out conversation but you're welcome to post anything. Some ideas to post are: Favorite quotes, own questions, #BookSnaps, own thoughts, etc!

This book has great content and support for all teachers who are:

• Bilingual teachers
• Spanish teachers
• ESL/ENL teachers
• Elementary teachers
• HS teachers
• Coaches

• ​Lead teachers

​We started on March 15th and we'll be following the schedule on the image above. We'd love to have you join us if you can. 

Katie Toppel has more information on her website if you're looking for all the questions and for more information on how this chats work. 
Her Website is: ​http://ellchatbkclub.blogspot.com/

Thank you for reading! 

During our 5th session on Effective strategies for ELs (click here to read about session 1-4), we took most of the time to dig deeper into our ELLevation Instructional Framework activities. 
We started our session reviewing the 6 effective practices we learned about during session 4.
We used Kahoot to not only have a little fun but also to review our learning. 
The game consisted of answering reflective questions that teachers were to analyze and assign to the corresponding practice. For example,  a question was..."Am I considering non-traditional experiences as well as mainstream experiences when I discuss and teach something in class?" is this Building Background Practice or Developing Academic Language Practice?!?!? Of course, this question is referring to "Building Background". 
You can play the game here if you'd like.
We notice how teachers are as competitive as students are! Congratulations to Mrs. Pierce for getting 1st place.

We made our 5th session centered on ELLevation activities because these classroom activities are effective to use during instruction and are research-supported to help improve language acquisition and content learning. These activities are non-content specific and they can be used in any core content classroom. 
We thought that a fun and creative way to show our learning was to create a chart containing activities for each practice. So, we created an "An Activity in Your Pocket" chart. This is an idea taken from the popular "a Poem in Your Pocket" chart. 

Since there are 85+ activities available for teachers, I thought each teacher could find a classroom activity for each practice learned, write it on a strip of paper provided, and place it in the corresponding practice pocket. 

Teachers shared their favorite activity as they placed them in the practice pocket. 

You can see the picture below - our chart is filled with amazing and effective classroom activities to share with your colleagues. 
A couple of great observations was pointed out by our math teacher and our Spanish as a foreign language teacher. 
Our math teacher expressed how it was a challenge to find activities she could apply while teaching Math III but she had a few that she will definitely be using in class. 
The same was addressed by our Spanish teacher, however, she said how she will be able to twist these activities to use them as she teaches Spanish. 

Overall, we were really excited about our teachers' excitement as they shared their favorite activities. You can't hide passion...and passion was what they were sharing as they told us how they'll be using the activities in class. 
​
These are some of the activities we were finding interesting:

• Practice #1: Building Background - Brainstorm Walk Activity - Carousel Activity click here for more.
• Practice #2: Clarify Input - 5 and 2 Activity (lecture for 5 minutes then Students discuss for 2) - Similar activity is "Chat stations" click here for more. 
• Practice #3: Inside Outside Circle activity  Click here for more. 
• Practice #4: The Expert and the Novice activity - To see more ways to structure students conversations in classrooms click here. 
• Practice #5: Word Walls activity  - click here for more 
• Practice #6: Exit Tickets activity - Click here to learn more

Thank you so much for reading! 

Cabarrus County Schools use ELLevation as a platform to house and store our ELLs' data information. I know there are several counties who use this platform.
​ELLevation also provides ELLEvation InClass platform section that teachers can use to improve instruction for ELLs. The instructional platform is an additional license counties can purchase to support with academic and language instruction. ​

We are so lucky to be able to have the data and the instructional platform for ALL teachers in our county. 
This ESL pd session was understanding the instructional framework that ELLevation provides for educators.  The resources learned here can really be applied in any county whether you have ELLevation system or not. It is a teaching framework with effective practices that can make you just a better teacher. ​

• Activating background knowledge 

​Before we started digging deeper into the instructional framework provided by ELLevation, we reviewed what we have learned the tree sessions before.
To Review, we practiced and activity called "Inside-Outside Circle" where teachers had the opportunity to share what they've learned so far in out ESL sessions. 
We modeled this activity hoping that teachers will take this activity and use in their classroom and foster interactions among their students. 

Our 4th ESL pd was part two of our second language acquisition (SLA)  lesson. We were on our EOC week so not everyone attended but information was emailed out so teachers can still learn about this content. 

• Activating Prior Knowledge - PowToon on affective filter

Teachers watched the short Powtoon and affective filter and were asked to reflect on their own experiences as second language learners. When did you have to learn the 2nd language? How was your 2nd language learning experience? Do you still use the 2nd language learned?
Teachers were asked to share their thoughts and the conversation led into a deeper conversation on learning vs acquiring the language. 
The Wakelet below has a great presentation that explains the difference on learning and acquiring a second language. 
This learning led us to dig deeper on one of the most important theories known on SLA - The AFFECTIVE FILTER! This theory is researched and supported by studies and its founder, Steven Krashen, is who you want to read about if you want to learn more about this topic. 
We talked about how important it is for students to use academic language in the classroom to help them acquire the language. One way we recommended for students to use academic language consistency is posting sentence starters and model for all students to use. 

This chart on sentence starters is just an example of what you can post for all students to use. 

• Content learning: Factors that lowers or increases the affective filter 

We only had two teachers but these two educators were very engaged in our topic and were very creative to show their learning. 
The article we read was "To Help English Learners, You Need Ways to Reduce Their Affective Filter" by Kara Wyman, MEd   and you can read it here ​

• Activating Background knowledge on SLA 

We have teachers mixed statements and they were to sort the statements. We quickly explained Basic Interpersonal Communicative Social Language (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). Teachers did a great job sorting the statements. There were a couple we had to discuss and place in the correct column. 

• Content: 5 Stages of SLA  

Teachers worked with a partner - each partner took a stage in the language learning continuum from THIS article and created a poster to share with the rest of us. 

This were the amazing posters they created to show their learning. ​

For homework assignment, teachers were to read the provided articles and power point presentation and share thoughts on our padlet. 

Everything you need and more for this pd is in the Wakelet below!

We kicked off our ESL PD for teachers highlighting students background - learning who our ELs are, seeing them for who they are, and for what they CAN accomplish.

All the resources used are in the Wakelet below.
​

• Activating Background knowledge:

Teachers watched the chip "Immersion" - After watching the short clip about Moisés' experiences, we asked them to write 5 basic things teachers should know about ELLs.

• Content: Questions to Ask About ELs 

After sharing  with teachers how simply being aware of our ELs' background can help us understand them and sere them even better. Asking 5 simple questions about our ELs can clear up any myths and misunderstandings about our students. 
The 5 simple key questions to ask about our ELs came from this article from Barbara Gottschalk. Teachers were asked to work with a partner and each partner was to read one of the key questions and create a poster to share with the rest of us.
​ 
The 5 key questions are represented here: