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Millions of students within the United States public school system are non-native English speakers. As this figure continues to grow year over year, true bilingual education is becoming more vital to equitably support student success.
How do we ensure students achieve proficiency with the English language while receiving a rich and comprehensive education? One that affirms and celebrates their identities and helps them learn about and understand others?…Read More
When I began teaching English as a second language (ESL), I had anywhere from seven to 13 different languages in my classroom because our district was in an area with a lot of recent immigration. It was an entry point for me to begin thinking about what a rich profession teaching is, along with how students develop their early reading skills, especially when they are learning multiple languages at once.
Today, I am the director of Literacy First, a program that the University of Texas launched almost 30 years ago with the mission of teaching students to read in the early grades. Literacy First fulfills its mission by offering a variety of support services, with a particular focus on achieving successful outcomes for growing readers, including one-to-one literacy interventions, teacher and staff training, instructional coaching, data-centered advising, and bilingual and culturally sustaining reading resources and interventions. One of the things I’ve learned a great deal about along the way is how to run an effective summer reading program for emergent bilingual students.…Read More
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Irvington Public Schools is an urban district with the hometown feeling of a place where everyone knows each other. Our student body is predominantly Black, but we are quite diverse and have many cultures represented among our students. Approximately 20 percent of our scholars speak English as a second language.
I have been with the district for 20 years, though I didn’t become the superintendent until April 2020. When I came into the office, I had a tech-focused vision for the future of our district, but the pandemic was beginning to force us to move in that direction anyway, albeit without the careful consideration and planning we would have preferred. I gave our technology department marching orders to get every student and every teacher on a Chromebook and trained in the Google Suite within two weeks. It was immensely stressful for them, but they got it done and we haven’t looked back.…Read More
At the TCEA Convention & Exposition, thousands of educators from various parts of the world get together to connect, gain knowledge, and improve their craft while becoming familiar with new advances in education technology. The event’s focus is not only on ed tech but also on good teaching, good learning, and good leadership with ed tech. The TCEA event has the goal of setting up educators to become curious and to discover education technology through the on-trend sessions, leading speakers, and an exhibit hall full of exhibitors. This year’s event featured more than 800 sessions on various topics such as leadership, mathematics, STEAM, digital citizenship, literacy, English language arts, and more. Scroll down for some highlights as pulled from the newswire:
Lumio by SMART Technologies, a cloud-based learning platform that effortlessly makes learning fun and engaging on student devices, unveiled a new plan, ‘Spark’. The Spark plan offers new, additional capabilities and features designed to support schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, and other organizations with enhanced instructional consistency and more flexible lesson creation and delivery. New features include an Organization Library, Shared Libraries, Co-Editing, and Learning Management System Integrations.
Dan McMahon, VP of Product at SMART Technologies, says: “We’re excited to reveal Lumio’s Spark plan at TCEA this year, giving customers access to their top-priority organization-level features. Our new multi-tiered offering continues to set Lumio apart from other tools, providing highly requested features and functionality today and in the future, at a really competitive cost. The organizations we talk to are very eager to get access to these features, and we’re proud to support even more schools and educators with keeping learning fun and engaging.”…Read More
The new edition of myView Literacy comes at a time when the Science of Reading movement has gained national momentum, with many states now requiring the use of evidence-based strategies for teaching students to read. More and more school districts today are making it a priority to use high-quality instructional materials that not only demonstrate both efficacy and a positive impact on student achievement but also provide teachers the training and support they need to successfully implement the curriculum.
Firmly grounded in the Science of Reading, myView’s daily foundational-skills instruction follows an easy-to-teach sequence that’s proven to increase reading achievement and close skills gaps. Adding to the program’s exciting authentic literature and interactive resources, the new edition of myView Literacy now features an increased focus on foundational writing instruction, more student practice opportunities, and new enhancements and improved navigation for a more seamless digital teaching and learning experience.…Read More
For more news on instructional strategies, visit eSN’s Innovative Teaching page
I agree with you, Mr. Arthur Miller, “the woods are burning” indeed. America’s current political climate seems like a blazing forest fire of disagreement. We are unable to see each other through the smoke of our confirmation biases, and unable to hear each other over the crackling whirling flames in our self-created echo chambers. As educators, we should all work together to help lead our country through this self-destructive conflagration. Teaching various methods for conflict resolution to our students might be one prescription public schools could employ for this monumental challenge.
Aside from the obvious classroom management benefits of teaching conflict resolution to students, children would also develop better interpersonal relationships outside of the classroom. Perhaps, eventually, our democracy could improve too?…Read More
For more news on English language learners, see eSN’s Innovative Teaching page
STEM education brings benefits to all students, especially multilingual learners (MLs) whose primary language is not English.
STEM can help with English language development by allowing students to engage with language in a variety of ways. The hands-on nature of STEM learning also makes concepts and vocabulary easier to grasp, and makes learning fun. …Read More
For more news on social-emotional development, visit eSN’s SEL page
Everyone had that favorite teacher; the one who inspired your confidence to succeed or fostered love of a certain subject. For me it was Ms. Pierre, my high school English teacher who embodied social-emotional mastery before there was such a thing. Her balanced approach of rigor and care created a nurturing environment where I felt supported. She tapped into my untapped potential, fostering a profound sense of self-belief and cultivating my passion for learning.
I often think about how our students’ futures would be different if more teachers were able to have such a connection with individual students, like I had with Ms. Pierre. Now I can make this a reality as district administrator for social emotional learning (SEL) for the Windsor Public Schools. Windsor puts a premium on SEL, hiring dedicated resources to support students and teachers, and transforming the educational experience with data.…Read More
Discovery Education, the worldwide edtech leader, today announced that the Spanish and English versions of Science Techbook for Texas by Discovery Education for K-8 and Biology students is now available for use in classrooms statewide. This dynamic core instructional curriculum was created from the ground up expressly for Texas educators and students. Science Techbook for Texas has been found to be 100% aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and the English Language Proficiency Standards at every grade level by the relevant state review panels and has earned a 100% score from the Texas Resource Review for its K-5 and Biology editions.
Science Techbook for Texas empowers Texas school systems to easily integrate an innovative, updateable, digital-print-kit blended curriculum into instruction to create unique, student-centered learning experiences. Included in this comprehensive core curriculum are engaging digital resources, print student and teacher editions, hands-on activity kits, and virtual investigations. In addition, an embedded professional learning component within Science Techbook for Texas helps teachers quickly and easily integrate this resource into classroom instruction, ensuring school leaders see maximum return on their technology investment.
The Science Techbook for Texas curriculum includes ready-to-use, phenomena-driven lessons that motivate students with powerful technology tools—such as toggle-on authentic Spanish translation—that personalize the student experience, and time-saving teacher tools that streamline preparation and grading. Available in both print and digital formats, Science Techbook for Texas provides a seamless classroom experience complete with immersive, interactive ways to explore scientific phenomena, including hands-on engineering activities, labs, and STEM connections. …Read More
Last spring, a few weeks after I started using ChatGPT, I challenged my high school English students: “Artificial intelligence can do any of your class assignments,” I told them flatly. “Now prove me wrong.”
I wanted to provoke them, to get them to ask questions, and to start using these tools—not to cheat—but to flip their learning on its head. I knew we needed to learn this together. And since that day, we didn’t just shift the paradigms—we sent them into somersaults.…Read More
Throughout my career, I’ve held many titles. I’ve been a reading specialist, a special education teacher, and an English teacher, among others. No matter what my job was called, one of the most important things I did every day was to try to build relationships with students. Especially since the pandemic, teachers have been encouraged to build rapport with their students as schools have placed greater focus on social and emotional learning (SEL).
Students with disabilities often require more frequent check-ins. Whether it’s because they need reassurance that they are doing their work correctly, have a tendency to drift off track, or just need an extra pat on the back here and there, the connection is important to their success.…Read More
