Friday, September 27, 2019

Educator Effectiveness Update #2 - September 2019

As the first month of school is quickly approaching, it is also a great time to begin narrowing down the focus of your Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) aligned with your school's theory of action.  This is just a reminder of how important and meaningful, strategic SLOs are with the work you do to help students achieve at their highest levels. 

Key Points of the SLO

*  SLOs are one of two goals within the Educator Effectiveness Plan
*  SLOs are teacher driven
*  Teachers should have ownership over their plans and goals
*  Goals are relevant to a teacher's subject, students and their individual needs
*  SLOs should be aligned with the principal's, school's, and/ or district's goals
*  The POWER of the SLO comes from data analysis
*  SLOs inform specific change in instructional practice
*  Effective SLO development allows for deep and collaborative learning 
*  The SLO process creates trust and coherence 
*  Feedback from administrators for continuous improvement

Destroying the SLO Myths 

The SLO requires the teacher to identify a population of students for focused improvement. Identifying a grade level or subgroup for an SLO does not mean that a teacher ‘cares less’ about some students or groups of students than others. The teacher purposefully identifies the population after a thorough consideration of past student learning data. It goes without saying that the teacher will think about and be concerned about the academic achievement of all students in his or her care!

For more information regarding the Educator Effectiveness Plan, please visit the link below.

WI EE System User Guide for Teachers

Let's go be great!

Do you PLC?

A special shout out to East Principal, Tiara Rodgers, for helping us deepen our learning around PLC's this week! What I continue to realize, is that we all have varying perceptions of what a PLC really is. PLC's and this acronym that we so loosely use run the gamut from Magellans after work on Friday to field trip planning. Although these could be very productive meetings, neither are a true PLC.

When you read the three big ideas of a PLC, where do you fit as an active contributor?

1. We accept learning as the fundamental purpose of our school and therefore are willing to examine all practices in light of their impact on learning.

2.  We are committed to working together to achieve our collective purpose.  We cultivate culture through development of high-performing teams.

3. We assess our effectiveness on the basis of results rather than intentions. Individuals, teams, and schools seek relevant data and information and use that information to promote continuous improvement.

If you are not actively working towards these big ideas with a team, then you are not helping yourself, school or your students.
Make this a priority for success!

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Waukesha's Framework for Equitable Multi-Level Systems of Supports

https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/rti/pdf/rti-emlss-framework.pdf
If this visual looks familiar to you and if this reminds you of Wisconsin's Framework for Equitable Multi-Level Systems of Supports....it is!

One of the intentional leadership moves of our team is to make sure we don't "Waukesha-ize" things unnecessarily.

This week I attended a meeting with school psychs, coaches and administrators as we continue to deepen our work in the area of equity. The visual and the guiding document set a coherent framework of academic, behavioral, social, and emotional supports to ensure equitable success for every learner. Your work as teachers, your work as support staff, your work as SAIL teams, your Principal leadership....all of us....are responsible for leading the work of equity at the core, in a system of high quality instruction, strategic use of data, and collaboration within a continuum of supports to facilitate learner success.
Our MLSS team will be deepening our implementation around the entry points section of the linked document above. Please use the entry points and defining elements so we can all begin to build a common understanding and common language across our system.

Thank you for the positive culture you are building across classrooms these past two weeks. This will help our learners believe they can and will achieve at high levels.



Teaching and Learning Goals for 19-20

The pulse in the School District of Waukesha just got stronger this week, and I love it!
Welcome back!

I wanted to share with you our Teaching and Learning "Big Rocks" this school year.

1. Ensure a guaranteed and viable curriculum
2. Ensure high levels of instructional practices across our system
3. Ensure fidelity to feedback for students through grading and reporting

In order to accomplish these goals, we are focusing our weekly meeting time in a format that is primed to help us be successful.
Every 1st Thursday, we will be securing accountability through learning walks in our elementary and middle schools, focusing specifically on CLM in grades 3, 6, 7 and 8.
Every 2nd Thursday, we will debrief on our data collected around adult learning practices.
Every 3rd Thursday, we will focus on guaranteed and viable curriculum. This year's focus will be in the areas of high school Mathematics and 4K-12 Social Studies.
Every 4th Thursday, we will dig into data, assessment and reporting with Amy Riebel as we track progress to achieve results.

These are our "always behaviors" that the Teaching and Learning Team are committed to.
We look forward to helping each of you build coherence in your classrooms and your schools as we all work on getting better at getting better!

May this be our best year yet!



Friday, September 20, 2019

Equity in Education: CRT Strategies

It is the end of week number 3 and what I have been seeing in classrooms throughout the district has been amazing and exciting! Teachers are building positive relationships with students, AVID strategies are being implemented and vision boards are being created to set the tone for the year.  Below are other strategies from an article written by Janelle Cox that can help create a safe, welcoming learning environment for all.  Have a great day and relaxing weekend.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies


Take Time to Learn about Students

Get to know your students. As many of you already know, the more that you know about a student, the better that you are able to ensure they will succeed. By showing a genuine interest in each and every one of your students, you’re building a trust and a bond with them. The more students feel comfortable talking with you, the more they will feel comfortable talking in your classroom to their peers. Creating a culturally responsive classroom is creating a space where all students (regardless of their culture) feel comfortable.
One of the best ways to learn about your students is when you take two minutes out of your day for ten consecutive days to just sit and talk and learn about a student. By the end of the ten days you’ll have created a solid bond with students.

Use Culturally Responsive Language

Students who are from diverse backgrounds use different language. When teaching, try and incorporate using their language to help build understanding for the other students. One of the biggest misconceptions about culturally responsive teaching is that you need to incorporate racial pride into your lessons. However, many diverse students use different words or use memory strategies that incorporate rhythm and words to help make learning stick. Try using words to be more culturally responsive by making it more like the students’ own cultural learning process. This can help all students to engage more and process the content more effectively.

Bring in Diverse Guest Speakers

Invite diverse speakers to come to the classroom and share their knowledge. By inviting diverse speakers, you’re engaging students who share a culture with them. Research shows that there are academic benefits for students who share the same ethnic/cultural background as those of their teachers.

Deliver Diverse Forms of Content  

Culturally responsive teaching focuses on the students. One way to ensure that each unique child is getting what they need academically and emotionally from the classroom is to adapt your teaching. Look at your curriculum and modify your instruction to include all students’ backgrounds. Culturally diverse students are said to be more engaged in their learning when they can connect with their own experiences (culturally).

Gamify Learning

One of the best ways to diversify content is to gamify it. One thing students love about games is beating a  high score and earning a badge. Try setting goals and offering awards for completing tasks, it can be a great way for students of all cultures to learn. Plus, this style of learning is a great way to help students of all cultures learn to process and understand content better.

Utilize Different Forms of Technology

Books, movies, computers, and tablets can all effectively help children of diverse cultures learn and address their needs. Using different forms of technology and media in your classroom can not only help to boost student engagement levels, but it can also help to depict a variety of cultures that students wouldn’t have been exposed to if technology wasn’t utilized.

Present Real-World Problems

Presenting a relatable real-world problem is a great strategy to use in a culturally responsive classroom. When you present a relatable problem for students to solve, you’re giving students the opportunity to look for a cultural link as well use their own cultural awareness to solve the question. Try and use or create a scenario using ethnic events. Students can then solve the problem using their own diverse expertise.
Consistency is key to being a more culturally responsive teacher. Try using all of the teaching strategies listed above daily to ensure that you are meeting the needs of all culturally diverse students.


Is “Good Teaching, is Good Teaching” enough?

Is “Good Teaching, is Good Teaching” enough?

The Misconception that “Good Teaching, is Good Teaching” 
“A good teacher is like a candle, it consumes itself to make light for others” -Mustafa Kamel Ataturk

Most teachers are good teachers, and caring professionals who want to do the best they can for students, and strive to do even better every day for every kid.  Through the course of our work, most of us are operating under the theory that “good teaching, is just good teaching”, in fact I’ll bet we can recall times we have said it or heard someone say it.  Our content standards for teaching, even our evaluation system supports the reinforcement of this assumption that if we can teach “good”, that is to utilize solid teaching practices with knowledge of our content, it will be sufficient to ensure that all learners can learn.   We also know that our work as educators is a practice as well as an art-with a set of dispositions, beliefs and expectations that are not clear in our content standards.  One of those really unclear expectations for most teachers is the hidden demand of the English Language in the content areas and the assumptions those lead us to make about what is required, what is needed and what is assumed about the needs of our language learners, and particularly our bilingual students.  
Some of the misconceptions about language learning itself, based largely on myths, steer us away from finding solutions to the teaching and learning art that we know we have within us.  Let’s take a look as some of them now so that can demystify the argument that “good teaching is just good teaching”.

What might I need to contemplate about “good teaching”? I am a good teacher, my students are passing and I have language objectives in my classroom.  I make sure my learners can do the work, and I help them to complete it.  I take away barriers that I see in them being able to participate in my class.  Everyone talks in my class and I feel good about it.  

1) Removing barriers and making it easier for students to access content is good enough.
False.  Removing barriers is part of the work, yes.  But what happens when barriers get removed, and those spaces get filled with learning opportunities that are below grade level?  What happens when the removal of the barrier does not actually scaffold new language the student needs.  Helping.  Helping can be really great, it makes us feel good, it makes kids feel good, and it is probably reason number one why English learning students speak social English and cannot speak or write for academic purposes.  Helping by removing a barrier without also addressing the language needed to be able to meet the standard-helps no one, but is especially damaging to a young person. Young people need expectations and scaffolds-they need instruction. Trying to “get around” language will most certainly ensure gaps than trap students outside of their ability and desire to succeed.  Researcher Evelyn Hatch calls this type of  ‘helping’ a “benevolent conspiracy” of lowered expectations and lower order thinking, and a lack of content goals that can reinforce the avoidance of these students as learners

Well, isn’t just being in our classrooms, immersed in English or in Dual Language enough?  How did you learn your first language?  In your caregivers arms, interaction with siblings to get what you wanted and needed, as you strove to learn new things?  Learning a first language is universal.  We all do it in very similar ways around the globe, in fact, we all follow very similar developmental patterns when learning a first language.  So a misconception that results from this can be:


2) Students will learn a second language through exposure to that language. 
False.  Most settings offer insufficient exposure to a partner language in order to ensure Academic Language Acquisition.  Schools are also settings where the hypothesis that students will learn their partner language as they learned their first, are false without explicit teaching of language and the language of the content together.  This is why simply attending your physics class will not actually create English proficiency-attendance alone is insufficient.  Second language learners, particularly older learners, bring literacy and oracy in their first language.  Where literacy in their first language isn’t present, they may bring distinct abilities in oral language acquisition that they have developed as a compensatory style for the literacy so inaccessible to them. In addition to this, older students have much greater cognitive abilities that they can apply to language learning, rather than just language exposure.  All English learners will become bilingual differently-especially true of older students.  You do not have to speak a language to read a language, and likewise, there are speakers who cannot read or write.  We cannot assume a silent child knows nothing, any more than we can assume that a child who speaks English is academically literate in it.



Well, my job is to teach my content area.  I teach English, Science, Business-whatever subject, the content of the learning in every subject specialty is totally dependent upon language.  When you look at your standards, is it clear to you what the hidden English language demands are?

3) My standards are a resource for the invisible English curriculum.
False.  In fact, this might be the biggest hurdle we face as teachers.  Our standards ask us to unpack our standards and content, analyzing and evaluating it for the invisible English curriculum.  These standards do not reference that students need to be able to manage prepositional phrases to be able to summarize, or that they need to be able to form the structures of questions in order to engage in Inquiry.  I am simplifying here, but beyond vocabulary, most teachers struggle to evaluate their content areas language.  Future Blog and PD to support you is on the way!!!


Well, but what if I integrate Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization and Reading-these are critical attributes of daily learning experiences for kids!  Won’t just doing this as a first step be sufficient to engage students in the hidden language of the content?

4) Strategies alone will not ensure language acquisition.
True-ish.  We must look AT language, not THROUGH it.  If you are committed to WICOR, you are on your way to peeling back the layers of the hidden language demands in your content area because you are already asking yourself what you want students to be able to know and do.  You are already committed to using strategies to get them talking and collaborating, writing and reading every day.  For ALL learners these are powerful ways to balance approaches to learning.  These practices will lead educators to asking why some students speaking and writing looks different than the grade level expectation and will guarantee to get you thinking about language; however, these practices alone will not guarantee language acquisition.  Why?  Often these strategies focus on removing language barriers for students, making tasks more accessible for a student, but do very little in terms of explicitly teaching students what they need to reach the goal.  Biliteracy and bilingualism is often invisible in our content classrooms-teachers in English mode of instruction are unlikely to know, use or prompt multilingualism in individuals and are even less likely to be aware of the opportunity a multilingual ecology could provide for all of the learners.  Tapping into a student’s first language and the similar cognates, words that look, sound and mean the same thing in English and Spanish, or prompting bilingual pairs to use their partner language to turn and talk-seem like bilingual education strategies that don’t belong in English mode classrooms.  But, if we are serious about tapping into all resources a student has to offer, and we recognize that a bilingual students doesn’t switch off their “Spanish Brain” when learning in English-we can certainly tap on this one.  Click here to see how Chris Knutson, West Social Studies, does it.

Well, but I am not an ESL teacher.  Isn’t this her job?  After all, I have 180 students a day, I need to deliver my grade-level content.  I just don’t have the skill to support those learners.

5) Content teachers must teach ensure learning for all learners, also those learning English.
Yes, so true.  An ESL teacher is a resource to you and to the students.  ESL teachers are expected to have specialized training in how to develop Biliteracy and bilingualism, and to use the capacity of all of the students language.  The ESL teacher is part of the system that ensures that English learning students perform on grade level in language and content-she is a partner.  There is no way 1 or 2 ESL specialists can ensure content and language acquisition across an 8 period day for all learners.  What they can do is co-serve and support you to analyze your content for the hidden demands of English.  They can help you to better understand how to use a students first language literacy for their second language literacy.  They can help you to demystify the needs of students by sharing students Individualized Language Plans and co-planning for instruction based on goals you both share for students.  ESL teachers can support your development of lenses that both teach and practice the language that is needed so all of your learners go beyond just “getting around the language”, to the language learning itself.  She can support you as you develop a multilingual ecology in your classroom.  The ESL teacher can support you to learn how to make effective and measurable objectives for language in your instruction-and support you to provide feedback to students. She can support you to know your own power and become highly impactful. Teamwork does make the dream work!

Most teachers are good teachers, and caring professionals who want to do the best they can for students, and strive to do even better every day for every kid. We also know that our work as educators is a practice as well as an art-with a set of dispositions, beliefs and expectations that are not clear in our content standards.  One of those really unclear expectations for most teachers is the hidden demand of the English Language in the content areas and the assumptions those lead us to make about what is required, what is needed and what is assumed about the needs of our language learners, and particularly our bilingual students.  Systems of collaborative teachers creates achievement and opportunities for students.  If you are curious, engage your ESL teacher to discuss this article and starting points for your transformative work.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Getting Better at Getting Better

I wanted to let you know that I presented Thursday at the WASDA Fall Superintendents Conference in Madison, and the sectional that I co-facilitated was titled: Chart Your Course for Continuous Improvement and Transformation Via SAIL.

Initiative overload and competing cultures regularly prevent districts from preparing every graduate for college/career. What is needed is organizational coherence, where large numbers of people have a deeply understood sense of what has to be done and see their part in achieving that purpose. It's a shared meaning, capacity, and commitment to action cultivated through pervasive leadership. Participants learned how creating a coherent system is arguably the most important journey you can lead.

I was very proud to represent our district and am blessed to serve in this leadership capacity. I want to thank each of you for owning your school's SAIL work and for committing to the adult learning frameworks and 100 day action plans that are set up to impact our students!

I look forward to seeing you again soon in your classrooms!

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Launching Workshop

A great principal (Rachel Hermann) once said, "It is okay to slow down so that we can go fast."  This is exactly what we need to do in our literacy workshops during the month of September! Slow down to go fast.  Many of us come into our classrooms, filled with new resources, books, ideas and children and we are so incredibly anxious to jump right back into the content we teach.  However, if we don't establish clear expectations, practice routines and carefully examine our classroom set-up, we will end up struggling months down the road with student engagement and classroom management.  We, as teachers, need to give ourselves the permission to slow down to be able to go fast.  


Classroom set-up:
The set-up of the classroom can be one of the most impactful elements to our workshops.  It is incredibly important to consider the flow of the students, the flexibility of the seating arrangements, the space for the whole group meeting area and the different areas of our classroom for different types of learners.  In our classrooms we want to be sure to consider places for students to meet and discuss, and also cozy places for student to read and write. When meeting with a Literature Discussion Group or Language Workshop, consider the way your students are seated.  Does this seating allow for natural conversation to happen or are all students unintentionally sitting and facing the teacher? 


Routines:
Many classrooms are spending time practice reading stamina and teaching specific mini-lessons around workshop routines.  These mini-lessons include how to find a good spot, how to find additional materials and how to transition from the mini-lesson to independent reading time.  In one kindergarten classroom I saw, the students were purposefully assigned a discussion partner, and during the first two weeks of school they were explicitly taught the routine for how to transition when asked to turn and talk.  By day 9 of school, the five year old children were able to turn to their partner and have a discussion without any management from the teacher! That teacher went slow to be able to go fast later. 


Expectations:
It is important to set high expectations during the launch of our workshops.  This importance comes in the fact that we want to ensure that we are setting ourselves up to be able to spend the independent application time meeting with groups and conferring with individual students.  One big way to set high expectations during the launch of workshop is to only allow students to practice the correct way to independently read and write. Just like as in sports, if we allow a student to practice incorrectly, we are training their brain and bodies to expect this type of behavior and action.  If every time, during the launch, we see a student practicing independent reading or writing incorrectly, we correct that behavior and teach the appropriate behavior, imagine how successful and prepared our students will be! 


During the first two weeks of, I had the opportunity to spend time in many classrooms at Lowell Elementary.  Launching is everywhere at Lowell and I took some time to capture it in action in our classrooms. Please enjoy the photos below and remember that you must go slow in order to go fast!


                   

Friday, September 13, 2019

Educator Effectiveness Update - September 2019


I hope everyone had a great second week of school continuing to build positive relationships with students and parents, establishing a culture for learning, creating an environment of respect and rapport, managing student behavior by organizing the physical space in classrooms and schools to maximize learning.  Below are some guiding principals of the Educator Effectiveness System which was designed to promote continuous learning for educators and school leaders, foster professional growth and leadership development while having a student-centered focus.  This process is a collaborative culture grounded in trust where administrators and teachers are "in it together." 

Guiding Principles   

* Guides effective educational practice that is aligned with student learning and development
* Documents evidence of effective educator practice using Danielson’s four domains
* Documents evidence of student learning through SLO’s
* Improving student learning is the ultimate goal of the system
* Informs appropriate professional development
* Supports future Strategic Compensation decisions
* Is credible, valid, reliable, comparable, and uniform across schools and districts

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Is “Good Teaching, is Good Teaching” enough?

The Misconception that “Good Teaching, is Good Teaching” 
“A good teacher is like a candle, it consumes itself to make light for others” -Mustafa Kamel Ataturk

Most teachers are good teachers, and caring professionals who want to do the best they can for students, and strive to do even better every day for every kid.  Through the course of our work, most of us are operating under the theory that “good teaching, is just good teaching”, in fact I’ll bet we can recall times we have said it or heard someone say it.  Our content standards for teaching, even our evaluation system supports the reinforcement of this assumption that if we can teach “good”, that is to utilize solid teaching practices with knowledge of our content, it will be sufficient to ensure that all learners can learn.   We also know that our work as educators is a practice as well as an art-with a set of dispositions, beliefs and expectations that are not clear in our content standards.  One of those really unclear expectations for most teachers is the hidden demand of the English Language in the content areas and the assumptions those lead us to make about what is required, what is needed and what is assumed about the needs of our language learners, and particularly our bilingual students.  
Some of the misconceptions about language learning itself, based largely on myths, steer us away from finding solutions to the teaching and learning art that we know we have within us.  Let’s take a look as some of them now so that can demystify the argument that “good teaching is just good teaching”.

What might I need to contemplate about “good teaching”? I am a good teacher, my students are passing and I have language objectives in my classroom.  I make sure my learners can do the work, and I help them to complete it.  I take away barriers that I see in them being able to participate in my class.  Everyone talks in my class and I feel good about it.  

1) Removing barriers and making it easier for students to access content is good enough.
False.  Removing barriers is part of the work, yes.  But what happens when barriers get removed, and those spaces get filled with learning opportunities that are below grade level?  What happens when the removal of the barrier does not actually scaffold new language the student needs.  Helping.  Helping can be really great, it makes us feel good, it makes kids feel good, and it is probably reason number one why English learning students speak social English and cannot speak or write for academic purposes.  Helping by removing a barrier without also addressing the language needed to be able to meet the standard-helps no one, but is especially damaging to a young person. Young people need expectations and scaffolds-they need instruction. Trying to “get around” language will most certainly ensure gaps than trap students outside of their ability and desire to succeed.  Researcher Evelyn Hatch calls this type of  ‘helping’ a “benevolent conspiracy” of lowered expectations and lower order thinking, and a lack of content goals that can reinforce the avoidance of these students as learners

Well, isn’t just being in our classrooms, immersed in English or in Dual Language enough?  How did you learn your first language?  In your caregivers arms, interaction with siblings to get what you wanted and needed, as you strove to learn new things?  Learning a first language is universal.  We all do it in very similar ways around the globe, in fact, we all follow very similar developmental patterns when learning a first language.  So a misconception that results from this can be:


2) Students will learn a second language through exposure to that language. 
False.  Most settings offer insufficient exposure to a partner language in order to ensure Academic Language Acquisition.  Schools are also settings where the hypothesis that students will learn their partner language as they learned their first, are false without explicit teaching of language and the language of the content together.  This is why simply attending your physics class will not actually create English proficiency-attendance alone is insufficient.  Second language learners, particularly older learners, bring literacy and oracy in their first language.  Where literacy in their first language isn’t present, they may bring distinct abilities in oral language acquisition that they have developed as a compensatory style for the literacy so inaccessible to them. In addition to this, older students have much greater cognitive abilities that they can apply to language learning, rather than just language exposure.  All English learners will become bilingual differently-especially true of older students.  You do not have to speak a language to read a language, and likewise, there are speakers who cannot read or write.  We cannot assume a silent child knows nothing, any more than we can assume that a child who speaks English is academically literate in it.



Well, my job is to teach my content area.  I teach English, Science, Business-whatever subject, the content of the learning in every subject specialty is totally dependent upon language.  When you look at your standards, is it clear to you what the hidden English language demands are?

3) My standards are a resource for the invisible English curriculum.
False.  In fact, this might be the biggest hurdle we face as teachers.  Our standards ask us to unpack our standards and content, analyzing and evaluating it for the invisible English curriculum.  These standards do not reference that students need to be able to manage prepositional phrases to be able to summarize, or that they need to be able to form the structures of questions in order to engage in Inquiry.  I am simplifying here, but beyond vocabulary, most teachers struggle to evaluate their content areas language.  Future Blog and PD to support you is on the way!!!


Well, but what if I integrate Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization and Reading-these are critical attributes of daily learning experiences for kids!  Won’t just doing this as a first step be sufficient to engage students in the hidden language of the content?

4) Strategies alone will not ensure language acquisition.
True-ish.  We must look AT language, not THROUGH it.  If you are committed to WICOR, you are on your way to peeling back the layers of the hidden language demands in your content area because you are already asking yourself what you want students to be able to know and do.  You are already committed to using strategies to get them talking and collaborating, writing and reading every day.  For ALL learners these are powerful ways to balance approaches to learning.  These practices will lead educators to asking why some students speaking and writing looks different than the grade level expectation and will guarantee to get you thinking about language; however, these practices alone will not guarantee language acquisition.  Why?  Often these strategies focus on removing language barriers for students, making tasks more accessible for a student, but do very little in terms of explicitly teaching students what they need to reach the goal.  Biliteracy and bilingualism is often invisible in our content classrooms-teachers in English mode of instruction are unlikely to know, use or prompt multilingualism in individuals and are even less likely to be aware of the opportunity a multilingual ecology could provide for all of the learners.  Tapping into a student’s first language and the similar cognates, words that look, sound and mean the same thing in English and Spanish, or prompting bilingual pairs to use their partner language to turn and talk-seem like bilingual education strategies that don’t belong in English mode classrooms.  But, if we are serious about tapping into all resources a student has to offer, and we recognize that a bilingual students doesn’t switch off their “Spanish Brain” when learning in English-we can certainly tap on this one.  Click here to see how Chris Knutson, West Social Studies, does it.

Well, but I am not an ESL teacher.  Isn’t this her job?  After all, I have 180 students a day, I need to deliver my grade-level content.  I just don’t have the skill to support those learners.

5) Content teachers must teach ensure learning for all learners, also those learning English.
Yes, so true.  An ESL teacher is a resource to you and to the students.  ESL teachers are expected to have specialized training in how to develop Biliteracy and bilingualism, and to use the capacity of all of the students language.  The ESL teacher is part of the system that ensures that English learning students perform on grade level in language and content-she is a partner.  There is no way 1 or 2 ESL specialists can ensure content and language acquisition across an 8 period day for all learners.  What they can do is co-serve and support you to analyze your content for the hidden demands of English.  They can help you to better understand how to use a students first language literacy for their second language literacy.  They can help you to demystify the needs of students by sharing students Individualized Language Plans and co-planning for instruction based on goals you both share for students.  ESL teachers can support your development of lenses that both teach and practice the language that is needed so all of your learners go beyond just “getting around the language”, to the language learning itself.  She can support you as you develop a multilingual ecology in your classroom.  The ESL teacher can support you to learn how to make effective and measurable objectives for language in your instruction-and support you to provide feedback to students. She can support you to know your own power and become highly impactful. Teamwork does make the dream work!

Most teachers are good teachers, and caring professionals who want to do the best they can for students, and strive to do even better every day for every kid. We also know that our work as educators is a practice as well as an art-with a set of dispositions, beliefs and expectations that are not clear in our content standards.  One of those really unclear expectations for most teachers is the hidden demand of the English Language in the content areas and the assumptions those lead us to make about what is required, what is needed and what is assumed about the needs of our language learners, and particularly our bilingual students.  Systems of collaborative teachers creates achievement and opportunities for students.  If you are curious, engage your ESL teacher to discuss this article and starting points for your transformative work.

The Importance of Routines
As classrooms around the district start the first week of school, dual language classrooms are focused on  developing classroom routines and procedures that students will use and follow to facilitate their learning this year in halls, bathrooms, lunch rooms etc.

We’ve thought of everything, but have we?
The strength of a Dual Language Program rests in our collective ability to ensure Bilingualism and Biliteracy, and if we do this we get Academically and Multiculturally proficient students.  Have we thought about teaching our students procedures to maintain their linguistic higiene?  Our students code switch because they can, but what would happen if we taught our learners a procedure to grow their language.  It’s very simple!



Instead of only using the code-switching to navigate new language, it is appropriate for us to teach our students to use ¿Cómo se dice?.  

¿Cómo se dice? solicits linguistic support from the listeners when the speaker is searching for what or how to say it-reinforcing listening engagement, cognition and problem solving, and increasing the status of the partner’s linguistic abilities.  It indicates linguistic meta-cognition-key to growing language and ensuring the outcomes we want.  If we explicitly teach and model ¿Cómo se dice? With our students, and set the expectation that they use this procedure-we will ensure bilingualism that is transferable anywhere in the world!


Friday, September 6, 2019

Equity in Education: Culturally Relevant Teaching

What does it mean to be a culturally responsive teacher? Being a culturally responsive teacher means you have the ability to relate to people not only from your own culture, but to that of others as well. Culturally responsive teaching is your ability to engage and appeal to all learners in your classroom using unique teaching strategies, even those with distinct backgrounds. This is much more than simply knowing and understanding the background of your students. We live in a multicultural world, and incorporating these teaching strategies are becoming more necessary in order to create a successful learning environment where all students are able to thrive.

As we complete our first week of this 2019-2020 school year, have you started to build a culturally relevant community in your classroom?

1.      How have you gotten to know your students?
2.      How have your students gotten to know you?
3.      How have your students got to know each other?
4.      How have you begun to make your classroom a safe and welcoming judgment-free zone?
5.      Are the pictures and posters you have in your room representative of ALL students?
6.      How are you going to include all cultures in your teaching?

Options for developing positive relationships

Learn from Your Students:  Learn about your students through questionnaires, asking about interest, surveys, gathering information from learning styles, holding open discussions allowing students to talk about positive experiences from past classes and teachers.

Interview Students:  Individually ask students questions regarding how to pronounce their names, do they have a nickname, their hobbies, favorite subjects, activities, sports, pets, movies, books, learning style.

“For all students to excel, teachers must learn about them and connect with each child.  This is not just about finding out how they learn, but it is finding out who they are.”
– George Couros





Primed! Pumped! And Ready!






My name is Demetri Beekman and I will be serving as the Director of Equity and Educator Development (the position formerly held by Sharon Thiede).  I am currently the SAIL Coach for Butler and Horning Middle Schools but not limited to working with other schools throughout the district. I will be visiting all schools throughout the year and look forward to serving as an additional team member to assist with the life changing work schools are already doing.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions or concerns.  This 2019-2020 school year is going to be the BEST year ever!

“For all students to excel, teachers must learn about them and connect with each child.  This is not just about finding out how they learn, but it is finding out who they are.”
– George Couros