Does this sound familiar: It’s late in the afternoon and you’re still at school preparing your lessons. But before you can go home, you have to modify them for your Multilingual Learners of English (MLEs) so they can understand the material.
With a sigh, you stare at your plan book and try to figure out how to teach your academic subject matter to students who are not yet fluent in English. After a quick break for coffee or tea, you reconcile yourself to spending a couple more hours at your desk getting ready for tomorrow and the following week.
If that sounds overwhelming, the good news is: I can help!
I support dedicated upper elementary and middle school teachers like you who have English Language Learners in your classes by providing low prep, academically engaging resources that develop the content and language skills of all your students. That means you don’t have to create extra lessons because my resources can be used with everyone in your class. Think about how much time that will save you!
Before I became an ESL teacher, right after graduating from Brown University with a B.A. in Anthropology, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone for 2 years, showing farmers how to grow rice in paddies.
Then I spent 2 years in China, teaching English to graduate students and professors at a university in Wuhan (yes, that Wuhan). Following that wonderful experience, I was a teacher and teacher trainer at a university in Borneo, Indonesia, working with Indonesian teachers of English and other professors.
When my contract ended, I returned to the U.S. to obtain a master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language from The School for International Training. (I also have a master’s degree in Intercultural Administration from SIT.) I subsequently got another job in China and was a teacher trainer at a university in Nanjing for one and a half years, working with Chinese teachers of English.
After that, I returned to the U.S. and taught at English language schools before finally ending up at a K-8 school in Massachusetts.
Now I live in Arizona and am no longer a classroom teacher. Instead, I am utilizing all my training and experience to create MLE-friendly resources for teachers like you: Regular education teachers teaching English Language Learners in mainstream classes and ESL teachers who are teaching content subjects.
As an exchange student in Sweden, I attended a local high school where all the instruction was in Swedish. Despite a crash course in the language before school started, it took about 6 months before I was able to really comprehend what was being taught and communicate effectively in Swedish. That experience was pivotal to my teaching career because I could immediately relate to what my students were going through in my classroom, and it now helps me design materials that address their learning needs.
It also helped me make connections with the parents and guardians of my students, because I could reassure them about the progress their children were making. In fact, in my first year teaching in Massachusetts, one parent nominated me for a national teaching award and in my last year there, one parent started crying when I told her I was moving to Arizona because she was upset her daughter wouldn’t have me as a teacher anymore. Truly, one of my joys in teaching MLEs was working with their families because I considered us partners who had the same goal of helping their children do well in school. All my resources are designed so students can do them without family support, since that is not available for all students.
Paul Wellstone said it very well: “I saw as a teacher how, if you take that spark of learning that those children have and you ignite it, you can take a child from any background to a lifetime of creativity and accomplishment.”
So if you’re ready to ace your teaching with academically accessible, culturally appropriate, English language proficiency-differentiated resources your students will enjoy and will save you time, you’re in the right place!
Please click on the links below for ideas and resources that will help you teach your Multilingual Learners of English and your other students as well.
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