What a busy beginning of the year this has been! I can finally breathe enough to stop and add to my blog. I hope everyone has a great start to their year.
I started this school year with 130 ELLs at my primary building. Thankfully we have hired a second ESL teacher to help me this year. She is wonderful! She works primarily with third and fourth graders with higher proficiency. I am working with the lower grades and low proficiency/newcomer students. I am also traveling again this year and work at a second school with only 19 ELLs. My caseload is right at 70.... last year I had 119. I almost feel like I am slacking... almost.
I attended the Missouri Federal Programs Conference in September to learn more about my new position as ESL Coordinator for our district. I learned that I have much to learn. : ) I also discovered that ESSA brings with it many changes for our ESL programs. More about that as I sift through it.
The next weekend I attended and presented at Mid-TESOL in Kansas City. What a honor that was! Over 100 people attended my session on teaching thematically. Many thanks to Marti Jones, a co-worker, who helped me present. While at the conference I got to meet Sonia Nazario and Stephen Krashen... in person! They were both wonderful speakers with great messages. The sessions on the legal rights of immigrants and ELLs presented by Roger Rosenthal were great as well. Overall, it was a terrific weekend of learning.
It is conference time in our district this week. I thought I would share with you how we conduct our conferences for parents in need of interpreters.
First, I send out a note to parents notifying them of the dates and times for conferences. We offer one evening and one daytime session.
Second, I secure interpreters. We have K-4 in our building and 4-5 teachers at each grade level. I set up 7 tables in our library and assigned an interpreter to each table. I also have interpreters to assist us with greeting parents as they arrive.
Parents are invited by grade level to a time frame. Times are based on the numbers needed at each grade level. For this year our times were: Kg 4:00-5:00; 1st grade 5:00-5:40; 2nd grade 5:40-6:20; 3rd grade 6:20-7:00 and 4th grade 7:00-7:30.
On conference day, teachers come to the library at their allotted time. We greet parents, sign them in, and have them wait in the cafeteria with snacks, activities, and books to read with their children. When the teachers are ready, we take parents, one at a time, to the teacher in the library. The extra tables with interpreters allow us to go ahead and start the next group of teachers should one teacher run long. The night runs very smoothly, and all of our parents are able to meet and visit with their child's teachers with the help of the interpreters.
I also prepare dinner and snacks for our interpreters as a thank you for their helping us.
Before I sign off for today want to share a great website I found for working on Sight Words. The sight is called
100+ SIGHT WORD ACTIVITIES
It has some really fun ways to practice and learn.
