Posted inESOL, Featured, How to Fix Education, Instructional Strategies, New Teacher Bootcamp, The New Teacher Chronicles

Advice for New ESOL Teachers: Whose Holiday and Why?

The United States is growing ever more diverse in languages, religions and ethnicity and school districts are working (with varying levels of success) to adjust to their changing communities.  ESOL teachers are often in the position of go-between for their students and the larger culture, which can be a little awkward when the holidays come […]

Posted inEnglish Language Learners, Featured, From the Front Lines, How to Fix Education

Welcome to America: Now Take this Test. The Realities of Refugee Students and their Teachers

This year’s ASCD Conference in Los Angeles was weighed down by sessions about the CCSS and flipped classrooms – topics that reasonably should have been big 3+ years ago.  But there were a few diamonds among the rough; educators who presented with prescient understanding oncoming issues that the education community must face.  One of those […]

Posted inElementary School, Featured, Kindergarten, New Teacher Bootcamp

If You Become an ESL Teacher…

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] When I became an ESL teacher I was not prepared for a lot of what happened my first two years. It is very true when they say that you aren’t really […]

Posted inElementary School, Featured, Kindergarten, Uncategorized

Refugee Students: Who will advocate for the UN-Common students who got Left Behind during the Race to the Top?

By Jennifer Healey Portland, OR The notion that ALL students can be lifted up and freed from their circumstances, past language barriers, out of poverty and away from war and crime and drugs, upward and onward toward a glorious middle-class future, is absurd.  If we insist on being a country with an elite high school […]