Monthly Archives: December 2018

BAP041 Paul McGuire & Offering ELs an Opportunity to Show Gratitude

Hi EL Advocate friends!

I know many of you are in the home stretch of the first semester of the school year.  You’ve earned a break for sure.  If you’re in the classroom or supporting teachers of ELs, take that well-deserved break but know that your hard work is so important. I appreciate all you’ve done and all you continue to do for our students and teachers. I’m grateful for you and this is a show all about gratitude!

Listen to “BAP041 Paul McGuire and Offering ELs an Opporunity to Show Gratitude” on Spreaker.

Here is something that might give you a boost here in the last few days of 2018.  I did something special with VoicEdRadio on Wednesday, Dec 19.  We had a LIVE Boosting Achievement show and other VoicEd content creators joined in.

My spotlight guest was the amazing Paul McGuire!  I have been following Paul for years and I love his new Podcast Broadcast show with Stephen Hurley on Voiced Radio.  He lives in Ottawa, Canada and is a retired principal and thought-leader in the field.  You can follow him on Facebook and also subscribe to his blog. Paul expertise is not specific to English learners but his innovative way of thinking can serve all of us.

A few years ago, I heard my first education podcast and Paul’s ideas and conversation with Derek Rhodenizer was what pulled me back into the world of educational broadcasting.

So Paul has agreed to be on the show but he didn’t  know it would be LIVE.

On the show you’ll also hear from Stephen Hurley, the father of VoicEd Radio, Ramona Meharg of I Wish I Knew EDU and Jen Cort of Third Space with Jen Cort.

Gratitude & Serving Others

We talked about  gratitude projects and the effects they are having on our practice. I’m making some direct connections to service projects my ELs are doing so I know you’ll want to hear about that.  And Paul is a very innovative mind so you’ll love hearing his thoughts on professional development  and serving at-risk youth.  He is passionate about serving the underprivileged youth in Ottawa and he gives us some great inspiration as he describes the work he is doing with Christie Lake Kids and what he knows about how to break the cycle of poverty.

You can find all of us on voiced.ca. It was fun to do a live show & it’s now replaying in the VoicEd Radio stream.  You can go to the site to hear live and prerecorded shows throughout the day.

You could also download the VoicEdRadio app and listen through that. I sincerely appreciate everyone listening and interacting with me.

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If you’re in our area of the world, I’m wishing you a restful winter break.

If you’re like me, you’re just about out of gas. But remember that there are students who can’t wait for the break to be over to see you again.

HUGS,

Carol

PS:  Let’s stay connected on Twitter (@MsSalvaC) & Facebook (Facebook.com/SalvaBlog) over the break!

PSS:  We are taking a 1 week break from the #BoostingAchievement twitter chats we do on Thursdays.  We *should* be back on Dec 27th.   Reach out if you want to help me host one!

Content & Language Objectives – Twitter Chat

Hey friend!

Thank you if you joined us for this Twitter chat!   You didn’t miss it! Most of the answers were captured in a Twitter moment at the bottom of this post. Thanks to Deb Bray who reached out to ask if we could chat about objectives and boy were people enthusiastic about the topic!

Scroll to the bottom of this post for the recap!

These were the questions we used:

I appreciate everyone who participated in the chat. You’ll see some great insight and tips.  We do these chats almost every week. In fact, check out the recap on ELs with Special Needs from last week.

For Folks New to Twitter

Don’t know how a Twitter chat works?  No worries!  We have you covered!  All you need to do is log into Twitter and search the hashtag #BoostingAchievement at 7pm on Thursdays.  We try to do this every week.

To participate you would just keep refreshing that search to see all the tweets from friends who are responding to the questions.  You may also want to watch this 3-minute video that will give you a great summary of what to do to join us. Thank you, Pamela Broussard, for sharing this video with me!

So I hope you can join us.  Your voice is super important.

Be sure to reach out if you have any questions. I’d love to hear from you!

Carol

PS: Take a look at the amazing training opportunities coming up in Des Moines, Detroit and Omaha.  I’d love to see you at one of these events!

Here is the Twitter Moment

BAP040 EL Excellence Every Day with Tonya Singer

In this episode, I speak with best selling author and EL consultant Tonya Singer. We get some great tips from Tonya and I’m sure you’ll be inspired by the way she is working to empower teachers of ELs.

You can listen to the show in your favorite podcast app or right here:

Thanks to Tan Huynh & Dr. Katie Toppel, all of us can now participate in a book study for teachers of ELs over Twitter. You can read more about the #ELLchat_BkClub slow book chat here.  I was participating in the chat when we studied EL Excellence Every Day: The Flip To Guide for Differentiating Academic Literacy. It is a fantastic guide for teachers of ELs and we were all so happy that Tonya participated in the chat with us.

I had a chance to meet her at WIDA2018. In fact, MANY of us in our Twitter PLN got to meet her and other #ELLchat_bkClub authors.  Recognize any of the folks in this pic?  It was our #Ellchat_bkClub meet up!

I loved connecting with all of these EL advocates in Detroit and I jumped at the chance to interview Tonya to share her passion with you all.  One of my favorite quotes from this episode is when Tonya is talking about writing.  She says that she loves helping ELs see that what they want to express in the world is valuable.  What a fantastic way to look at our role as teachers.

Tonya also shares about shifting the discourse, classroom culture and why mistakes really ARE magic.  I agree with her when she says that teachers must feel comfortable taking risks and that sometimes, the productive struggle is exactly what will propel a student forward.  Hmmmmm… now that’s something to think about!  If you listen to the show, you’ll hear so many more great insights from Tonya.

To give you a sense of who Tonya is, you’ll love this short video.  Tonya surprised a family in Mexico who she hadn’t seen in 25 years.  She dedicated her book to them and you will love watching that moment unfold in this short clip:

A favorite tip of mine from the show is when Tonya tells us about how she creates sentence frames from what the class says when they are speaking about a topic.  She shares with us that the “I do, We do, You do” model is important but sometimes, we just need to let them speak to hear what they are able to really do.

You can follow Tonya Singer on Twitter at @TonyaWardSinger

Lots of free downloads here: TonyaSinger.com/ELExcellence

sure to also check out her website and blog here: TonyaSinger.com

Big Thanks to Tonya for being my guest and for her work in the field. I’m a fan!

And a big thanks to YOU for all the greatness you are putting into the world.  If you’re listening to this show, it’s because you have an interest in supporting English learners.  I hope you enjoyed this show and I hope you’ll connect with me and Tonya about it.

{{Hugs}}

Carol

PS: Have you left a review for the show in your podcast app?  It would really help! TIA!!

PSS: Can you join me in Des Moines, Detroit, or Omaha?  I’d love to see you at one of these events if you’re reading this before January 2019.  Otherwise, check out upcoming events here: seidlitzeducation.com/upcoming-events

ELs with Special Needs – #BoostingAchievement Chat ReCap

Did you miss our Twitter chat on ELs with special needs?  No! You didn’t!

Scroll to the bottom of this post for the top tweets!

Thanks again to everyone who participated.  Please check my Twitter profile for other twitter moments on topics such as Native Language Use, SLIFE in STEM, Writing with ELs and more.  Our PLN rocks!

We had the questions here for you so folks could think over what they wanted to contribute.  You are always welcome to just bring your curiosity as our PLN on Twitter NEVER disappoints!

Again, the recap of this chat is at the bottom of this post.  But consider joining us for a future chat.  Don’t know how a Twitter chat works?  No worries!  We have you covered!  All you need to do is log into Twitter and search the hashtag #BoostingAchievement at 7pm on Thursdays.  We try to do this every week.

To participate you would just keep refreshing that search to see all the tweets from friends who are responding to the questions.  You may also want to watch this 3-minute video that will give you a great summary of what to do to join us. Thank you, Pamela Broussard, for sharing this video with me!

I very much appreciate Nancy Rodriguez, Stephanie Williams and the rest of the Bilingual/ESL World Languages Dept in Magnolia ISD here in Texas.  This team was in one of my Rapid Literacy trainings & they wanted to talk more about this specific demographic.

I used to be the SPED/ELL person for our district so I answered questions with my thoughts on distinguishing disability from language interference. My first advice is always to begin documenting your observations, assessments and data as soon as possible.  This will help immensely as you try to determine if the child is struggling due to lack of language or cognitive issues.

Our English Learners with special needs have challenges but they also have talents and gifts.  I was thrilled to participate in this chat because our teachers deserve more ideas about how to support all of their English learners.  I’m happy that I was able to capture the top tweets and embed them below so we can always refer back to them or find the links that were shared.

The buzz on Facebook and Twitter about this chat was inspiring!  What a great example of the type of learning we want for our students. This is an authentic collaboration where we are breaking down geographic barriers.  We are drawing on global funds of knowledge and also contributing to them as well.  I’m grateful to Nancy & Stephanie for prompting all of this.  So much is possible if we just keep advocating for all of our ELs!

Be sure to reach out if you have any questions. I’d love to hear from you!

Carol

PS: Take a look at the amazing training opportunities coming up in Des Moines, Detroit and Omaha.  I’d love to see you at one of these events!

UPDATE!   THE FOLLOWING TWEETS WERE CAPTURED IN THE RECAP:

⚡️ “ELs with Special Needs” by @MsSalvac