Stay ConnectedOn the Highest Aspirations Podcast, we engage in important conversations about the most rapidly growing student demographic in the United States – English Language Learners. We speak with educators and students, researchers and policy makers, and parents and community members about how we can help all students reach their highest aspirations.
Join us on this important journey as we bring the vibrant ELL Community together around the topics that matter most to the students we serve.
Dr. Adrian Johnson, Superintendent of Schools at Hearne ISD in Texas, talks about how his district is taking a gradual approach to bringing students and teachers back to school buildings, what they have learned about school community exposure to COVID, making the most of quality time with students and more.
This episode is part of our "In This Together" docuseries, where we follow the triumphs and challenges of a cross section of EL program directors as they strive to deliver equitable experiences for students this school year. You can find all episodes (video and audio) on our "In This Together" channel. You can also find free tools to help ensure your English learners and their families receive equitable access to instruction and services on our Equity in Action page.
Please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This will help us continue bringing you the best topics and guests on Highest Aspirations.
High School Literacy Coach Melissa Cabrera joins ESOL Director Vicky Saldala to discuss how she and her students are dealing with changes in learning environments, why differentiating and grouping students is still a challenge, how they are identifying and coping with learning loss and more. Melissa and Vicky's transparency and willingness to discuss difficult topics provide listeners with the information and inspiration they need to work through challenges together.
This episode is part of our "In This Together" docuseries, where we follow the triumphs and challenges of a cross section of EL program directors as they strive to deliver equitable experiences for students this school year. You can find all episodes (video and audio) on our "In This Together" channel. You can also find free tools to help ensure your English learners and their families receive equitable access to instruction and services on our Equity in Action page.
Please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This will help us continue bringing you the best topics and guests on Highest Aspirations.
How is lesson planning directly related to dismantling or supporting systems of oppression? Why is it so important to recognize that approaching education from a monolingual lens has not served many of our students and what can we do to change it? How does the C6 Biliteracy Instructional Framework help educators design learning opportunities that are culturally supportive rather than culturally destructive? We discuss these questions and much more in our conversation with Dr. José Medina.
Dr. José Medina is the founder and Chief Educational Advocate for Dr. José Medina: Educational Solutions. Prior to establishing the boutique consulting firm, Dr. Medina served as Research Scientist and Director of Dual Language and Bilingual Education at the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) in Washington, DC. José provides dual language technical assistance, professional development, and job-embedded support to dual language programs across the United States and globally.
He is a former dual language school principal and district leader who has also served as an administrator, educator, and advocate at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Dr. Medina is a co-author of the third edition and widely-used Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education and creator of the C6 Biliteracy Instructional framework, which we discuss during this interview. Dr. Medina is also a member of Ellevation's Instructional Advisory Board.
You can learn more about Dr. José Medina on his website and by following him on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
From Maywood District 89, IL, Director of ELs Juan Corona and Assistant Superintendent Maribel Taboada discuss building a culture of collaboration between EL specialists and content teachers, planning for a hybrid model, overcoming technology issues and more.
This episode is part of our "In This Together" docuseries, where we follow the triumphs and challenges of a cross section of EL program directors as they strive to deliver equitable experiences for students this school year. You can find all episodes (video and audio) on our "In This Together" channel. You can also find free tools to help ensure your English learners and their families receive equitable access to instruction and services on our Equity in Action page.
Please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This will help us continue bringing you the best topics and guests on Highest Aspirations.
Prince William County Director of EL Programs and Services Lynmara Colón discusses professional development, the power of productive struggle, her district's plans organize a summit to support EL education in a hybrid environment and more.
This episode is part of our "In This Together" docuseries, where we follow the triumphs and challenges of a cross section of EL program directors as they strive to deliver equitable experiences for students this school year. You can find all episodes (video and audio) on our "In This Together" channel. You can also find free tools to help ensure your English learners and their families receive equitable access to instruction and services on our Equity in Action page.
Please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This will help us continue bringing you the best topics and guests on Highest Aspirations.
How do we go about creating successful co-teaching and co-planning partnerships to support English learners? What are some protocols that co-teaching and co-planning pairs should have in place to help mitigate any conflicts that may arise between co-teachers? How can school leaders support and amplify the practice to maximize impact on students?
We discuss these questions and much more in our conversation with Andrea Honigsfeld and Maria G. Dove. Together, they have co-authored five best-selling Corwin books, including their most recent, Coteaching for English Learners: A Guide to Collaborative Planning, Instruction, Assessment, and Reflection (2018).
Andrea Honigsfeld, EdD, is Associate Dean and Professor in the Division of Education at Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York. She directs a doctoral program in Educational Leadership for Diverse Learning Communities. Before entering the field of teacher education, she was an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher in Hungary (Grades 5–8 and adult) and an English-as-a-second-language teacher in New York City (Grades K–3 and adult). She also taught Hungarian at New York University.
She was the recipient of a doctoral fellowship at St. John’s University, New York, where she conducted research on individualized instruction and learning styles. She has published extensively on working with English language learners and providing individualized instruction based on learning style preferences. She received a Fulbright Award to lecture in Iceland in the fall of 2002. In the past twelve years, she has been presenting at conferences across the United States, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. She frequently offers staff development, primarily focusing on effective differentiated strategies and collaborative practices for English-as-a-second-language and general-education teachers.
Maria G. Dove, EdD, is Associate Professor in the Division of Education at Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York, where she teaches preservice and inservice teachers about the research and best practices for developing effective programs and school policies for English learners. Before entering the field of higher education, she worked for over thirty years as an English-as-a-second-language teacher in public school settings (Grades K–12) and in adult English language programs in Nassau County, New York.
In 2010, she received the Outstanding ESOL Educator Award from New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (NYS TESOL). She frequently provides professional development for educators throughout the United States on the teaching of diverse students. She also serves as a mentor for new ESOL teachers as well as an instructional coach for general-education teachers and literacy specialists. She has published articles and book chapters on collaborative teaching practices, instructional leadership, and collaborative coaching.
What are some of the affordances we can leverage to engage English learners in STEM classes in remote and hybrid learning environments? How might we make synchronous meetings more engaging to promote growth in content area knowledge, language skills and collaborative work? What are some tools and strategies we can use to incorporate effective visuals, manipulatives and other supports in remote environments? We discuss these questions and much more in our conversation with Dr. Stephen Fleenor.
Stephen is a scientist-turned-educator who is inspired by the principles of sheltered instruction and growth mindset, particularly in the service of English learners. In 2014, Stephen earned his PhD in Developmental Neurobiology and sought to empower the next generation of thinkers as a high school science teacher at a Title I school in San Antonio. He has developed innovative approaches to working with ELs and economically disadvantaged students, and has presented his ideas across various districts, as well as at regional conferences. A central component of Stephen’s pedagogy is student ownership of personal growth throughout the school year. This approach has been particularly effective in promoting language and content acquisition for ELLs, and under his leadership his department closed the gap in EL performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) in Science.
In 2017, Stephen was awarded the Edgewood ISD District Teacher of the Year Award and the KENS5 ExCEL Award, and went on to serve as a science instructional coach for Edgewood ISD. In addition to his PhD from Oxford, Stephen holds an M.Ed. in School Leadership from the University of the Incarnate Word and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin. Stephen lives in San Antonio with his wife, a fellow educator.
You can learn more about the work Stephen is doing by visiting Seidlitz Education's Upcoming Events page. Also, check out his new Visual Non-Glossary website here.
Finally, please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This will help us continue bringing you the best topics and guests on Highest Aspirations.
What is implicit bias and what does it mean for teachers of multilingual students? How can educators take steps to recognize their own implicit biases so they can better serve students? How can weaving cultural responsiveness into curriculum and pedagogy create more opportunities for communication and collaboration? We discuss these questions and much more with Megan Fuciarelli.
Megan Fuciarelli is a retired superintendent of schools with over 20 years of experience in the social justice realm. Now residing in Michigan, Fuciarelli has spent the bulk of her career in the Chicago area. As the Executive Director & Principal Consultant of US 2 , she works with a team of like-minded individuals whose primary goal is to help Unite Society through equity and inclusion work. Throughout her career, she has presented for local, state, national, and international audiences in the areas of Bias, Cultural Consciousness, Equity & Inclusion, and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. She is very proud of her work with Teaching Tolerance as a contributor and the author of the Critical Practices Webinar Series. Fuciarelli has also been featured as a TEDx Speaker discussing the idea of “When Implicit Bias Becomes Explicit”.
Megan is a passionate advocate for social justice and a continual learner - having earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education, a Master of Arts in Teaching & Learning degree with a concentration in Reading, a Master of Education degree with a concentration in Organizational Development & Leadership, a certification in English as a Second Language, and completed the certification program for Urban School Leadership at Harvard.
Finally, please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This will help us continue bringing you the best topics and guests on Highest Aspirations.
We catch up with ESOL Director Vicky Saldala to discuss Broward County's Parent University program, differentiating for the wide spectrum of English learners, leveraging staff diversity, and more.
This episode is part of our "In This Together" docuseries, where we follow the triumphs and challenges of a cross section of EL program directors as they strive to deliver equitable experiences for students this school year. You can find all episodes (video and audio) on our "In This Together" channel. You can also find free tools to help ensure your English learners and their families receive equitable access to instruction and services on our Equity in Action page.
Please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This will help us continue bringing you the best topics and guests on Highest Aspirations.
Director of ELs Juan Corona and Assistant Superintendent Maribel Taboada discuss implementing remote communication strategies for students and families, providing teachers with real time data for their ELs, planning for differentiated instruction and more.
This episode is part of our "In This Together" docuseries, where we follow the triumphs and challenges of a cross section of EL program directors as they strive to deliver equitable experiences for students this school year. You can find all episodes (video and audio) on our "In This Together" channel. You can also find free tools to help ensure your English learners and their families receive equitable access to instruction and services on our Equity in Action page.
Please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This will help us continue bringing you the best topics and guests on Highest Aspirations.
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