Curious about what providing English classes might look like at your place of business? Improve communication, customer satisfaction, employee retention, and workplace productivity through on-site English classes. Respond to this blog in May and receive a free demo class! If you like it, take advantage of my six week summer packages and let's give it a try! Pricing, structure, and curriculum will be tailored to needs and availability of your employees. Contact me today on the form below for a free consultation. Click the articles below for some examples of how other companies have benefited from on-site English classes. Americorps makes a difference offering English@Work Classes in Texas. Improving Workplace Opportunities For Limited English-Speaking Workers in the Manufacturing Sector.
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Our mindsets have the ability to propel us forward and hold us back in life.
The concept of having growth vs. a fixed mindsets is relatively new to me. My thinking started to shift when I read Carol Dweck's claim that "mindset and drive set us apart". I thought about my students who lacked motivation and seemed "stuck" and I wanted more for them. I wanted my students to believe that “working hard was not something that made you vulnerable, but something that made you smarter” (Dweck, 2006). Students shouldn't be embarrassed to engage in learning. I want students to know that learning should be a fun challenge...and learning comes naturally to you...you may have to fight for an even greater challenge! I was intrigued while reading Opening Minds. The author showed not only how to identify a student’s mindset but told us that these learning behaviors could be explicitly taught to transform a student's thinking. (Johnson, 2012) This inspired me to develop and implement growth mindset targets in my teaching. Over the past six weeks, I have been working with a group of girls on having a growth mindset as they attack new, challenging problems in math. I insist that the girls explain their thinking to me as they make meaning-and even when they don't. We are able to figure out what steps have been successful, and where their thinking is breaking down. I have noticed a significant increase in their effort, engagement, and ability to explain their thinking. A growth mindset gives them hope that they are on their way to figuring out something new and exciting. You will find these Mindset Targets in my new Inquiry Tool Kit. I plan to continue to use these throughout this year and hope to refine the lessons as I deepen my understanding of the power of our Mindset. You will also find video resources that have helped to form my understanding of Growth Mindsets. I think these would also make great resources for our parents of gifted students-or any parents for that matter. There is so much power in the words we use with children! I am finding this "not yet" mindset is giving students the understanding that they have everything they need to learn-they just need the perseverance not to give up when things are still a little fuzzy. There is hope for all of us! Complex, comforting, and ever-changing, our culture influences all we do. Most of our core values remain at the unconscious level until we find ourselves in situations that spur emotional responses. Excitement, anger, fear, and intrigue are all ways people respond as they encounter the world around them. As humans, we learn more about ourselves from the non-examples of our culture than we do thinking about our everyday practices. During cross-cultural conflicts, we have the opportunity to reflect on why we believe what we believe, and why we do what we do. We open our minds to other perspectives and challenge ourselves to see the world from another lens. Through this process, we discover who we are, what drives our passions, and what influences all that is important to us. Whether we agree in the end or not, conflict leads to revelation...a lesson learned and a deepening of our self awareness. As our English Learners navigate the culture of school, it is important for us to be aware of what it feels like to encounter experiences outside of our comfort zone. When we can empathize with what it feels like to navigate the unknown, we are able to advocate for our students as they do the same. Students come to us with varying strengths, backgrounds, and circumstances. Some will walk into school the first day and rise to the challenge. Others may require more strategic support to address culture shock, misconceptions, and at times frustration. The resources below are designed to help students transition from a seemingly foreign environment to what will eventually feel like home. Would it freak you out if you came to school one day and all of your teachers were dressed as Lego people? ;) #CultureMoment
Writing can be one of the most difficult areas for students to develop native-like fluency, regardless of their linguistic backgrounds. It is also one of the most difficult areas to teach for students who have not had exposure to the vocabulary and sentence structures needed to be successful in writing for academic purposes.
This week, as I was coaching a native English-speaker on her informative writing, I suggested she try to vary the types of sentences she uses to help her to "sound like an expert" in her writing. Specifically, I thought that adding a few appositives would really help to move her piece to the next level. When she said she had heard of that before, but she didn't really know HOW to add appositives, I found it incredibly difficult to articulate the process to her. I could tell her where to add one, and what to say but as far as equipping her with tools to be able to do it herself...there was much left to be desired. The native English speaker in me is able to create appositives without much thought because I have read them in higher-level books, and have been writing for academic purposes for many years. Since it is something that I just do, it was incredibly difficult to explain. I found myself scanning my brain for the rules-written and unwritten that would lend itself to an appositive "tool belt" for her with minimal success. For those kiddos lacking academic language input, directly teaching the skill may be the only way they will ever learn it. In hopes that I would never be left without words again, I created an activity to help introduce the idea of appositives at the classroom level that is now available under writing resources. While you are there, check out the other resources that I have used to help my students move forward as writers this year. Happy writing! Welcome! I am so excited to have a format to collaborate with you. In all honesty, sometimes it's difficult for me to quiet my mind until I share my ideas...so I guess I'm not that different from my 1st graders after all...
Currently I am teaching ESL at two schools. My students fall into grades K-6 and represent 16 languages. Their language levels and needs are just as varied as the cultures they represent. I know there are many people who still believe I must be able to speak all of those languages to be able to teach my kiddos, (I still feel bad when I have to answer that question with "no")...but lucky for us, ESL is very different. ESL is a mindset. It is looking at the grade level expectations and having the vision-or savviness- to see the map to be able to get all of your kiddos to the finish line. It might be with an instructional support such as a graphic organizer, using sentence stems, or adding manipulatives, or maybe it is with a shift in your teaching strategies by using oral rehearsal or reciprocal teaching. Being an effective language teacher-with or without ESL certification-requires a keen awareness of where your students are, where they need to go, and what tools you have available to get them there. It is my hope that the strategies we share here in this blog will help to ensure that what we aspire to do becomes our new reality. Wherever your map leads you, the process of differentiating for the unique needs of your students is incredibly rewarding. If you are new to this process, don't get overwhelmed. I want to encourage you to start with one. One language level. One need. One kiddo who needs to feel successful, if only in one area. Doing something feels better than doing nothing...but doing the right thing for even just one feels amazing! As always, let me know what works for you and what you'd like to see on the site! Amber |
AuthorI am an ESL Teacher that firmly believes that the more we learn about the cultures around us, the more we discover about our own. Archives
May 2018
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