ELL News Headlines

When Jenny Kist's students walk through the classroom door every morning, they take out their 'little safe place' boxes. Made to be a portable version of a calming physical space in Kist's early childhood education classroom, these small plastic pencil boxes hold e'erything Kist’s students need throughout the day to practice self-regulation and emotional identification.

Can you feel it? The school year is drawing closer to an end. I’ve previously published a number of posts with ideas on how to finish the year strong (see Best Ways to End The School Year). Today’s post shares additional suggestions from teachers.

We must never lose sight of the fact that until reading instruction serves all students equally, we are shortchanging everyone and society. Most importantly, we must advocate for teacher preparation programs that send educators out into the world with the skills they need to ensure success for every child in every classroom, regardless of “the language they are loved in” (to quote my mentor, Dr. Moats).

An expert in special education shares strategies for building strong and enduring relationships with students’ families that every teacher can use.

In the past few months, I’ve walked the halls of more than 100 Denver schools and met with many of our new-to-country students, their families, and the educators dedicated to serving them. I’ve seen fear and sadness in these students’ eyes transform into sparkle and joy. I’ve watched thousands of teachers and school employees level up supports and services — hosting winter clothing drives and information sessions about the American school system. In the process, our leaders have grown, and our district has been enriched.

Cruzita is going to be a pop star. All she has to do is win a singing contest at her favorite theme park and get famous. But she can’t go to the theme park this summer. Instead, she has to help out at her family’s bakery, which has been struggling ever since Tío Chuy died. Cruzita’s great-uncle poured his heart into the bakery — the family legacy — and now that he’s gone, nothing is the same. When Cruzita’s not rolling uneven tortillas or trying to salvage rock-hard conchas, she has to take mariachi lessons, even though she doesn’t know how to play her great-grandpa’s violin and she’s not fluent in Spanish. At first, she’s convinced her whole summer will be a disaster. But as she discovers the heart and soul of mariachi music, she realizes that there’s more than one way to be a star―and more than one way to carry on a legacy.

As an English as a Second Language specialist at her Tennessee school and a long-time member of her rural Appalachian community, Missy Testerman often finds herself straddling two worlds, trying to bridge the divide. That could mean anything from accompanying a student and his mother to get a refill for epilepsy medication, to showing the staff at the local courthouse how to use a translation app so they can communicate with immigrant families.

Additional headlines include the following:

• Video: Missy Testerman, a teacher for over 30 years, is the National Teacher of the Year (CBS News)
• Video: First lady Jill Biden surprises National Teacher of the Year, Missy Testerman (CBS News)
• In rural Tennessee, the National Teacher of the Year helps diverse students and their families thrive (WPLN)
• Missy Testerman Makes Immigrant Students Feel Welcome. She’s the National Teacher of the Year (Education Week)
• Meet the National Teacher of the Year: Missy Testerman (CCSSO)

While Muslim students remain a rarity in many U.S. school districts, they are a major presence in some communities, prompting public schools to be more attentive to their needs during the holy month of Ramadan when dawn-to-sundown fasting is a duty of Islam.

In the three years I’ve taught at this all-girls public school, I have embraced joy I didn’t know was possible. I have remembered my girlhood. While I know how important it is for my students to be able to write about the injustices they notice — using powerful women like Shirley Chisholm and Malala Yousafzai as role models — I know that advocacy is only sustainable when balanced with joy and rest.