I often am invited to come to places across the country to provide professional development on teaching English Language Learners, as is my friend and colleague Katie Hull.
Very occasionally, we can fit it in – especially if it’s in California – but the vast majority of time we are both too busy with teaching, writing and family (and I’ve got my basketball-playing, too 🙂 ).
So, feel free to continue to invite us. But, most of the time we’ll recommend you invite one of the following ELL educators, instead. We feel so positive about them that each is contributing one or more chapters to the second edition of our book, The ELL/ESL Teacher’s Survival Guide (they are not listed in any order of preference) Most are associated with Seidlitz Education, a Texas-based professional development organization supporting ELLs:
Valentina Gonzalez
Valentina Gonzalez is a specialist in English learners. She is a speaker, blogger, writer, former language arts and ESL teacher, and advocate for English learners. Valentina delivers professional development as well as coaches teachers on sheltered instruction and ESL strategies. Her experience as an immigrant and language learner fuels her passion for advocating for English learners and supporting teachers with the best research-based, teaching methods. Her work has been featured on many print and online journals including School Library Journal, MiddleWeb, EdWeek, Edutopia, and NCTE.
Carol Salva offers training, coaching, modeling and program planning for those working with English Learners. She is a highly requested consultant with Seidlitz Education for trainings that support English Learners. She is most requested to deliver training for students with limited education or interruptions in education.
She is the co-author of Boosting Achievement, Reaching Students with Interrupted or Minimal Education. She is an educational consultant with a background in ESL, literacy, bilingual and special education. She is a former elementary educator and most recently taught Newcomer English Language Development in both high school and middle school. Carol has had proven success with SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education) and continues to learn and share through social media, her blog and her podcast. She holds a Masters degree in Education Administration and a principal certification. Along with her ESL certification, she is a Certified Gomez & Gomez Dual Language Trainer and a Certified Abydos Writing Trainer. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and three school aged children.
Tan Huynh
Tan Huynh (@TanELLclassroom) is a career teacher specializing in language acquisition. Tan has taught students from fifth to twelfth grade. He has taught in public schools, private boarding schools, and charter schools. Internationally, Tan has served in schools in China, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. He shares teaching strategies on his blog, Empowering ELLs, and has facilitated district-wide and school-based professional learning workshops in places such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Italy, and Canada. To meet the unique needs of each school and district, he personalizes and tailors each engagement. Tan’s goal is to support all teachers who are committed to empowering language learners whether it be in a tweet, a blog post, a book, a training, an online course, or over coffee.
Stephen Fleenor
Stephen Fleenor is an educational consultant with Seidlitz Education who works with teachers, specialists, and leadership teams to help build academic language in the classroom. His experience draws from his work as a former scientist as well as his time as a teacher and instructional coach at a Title I high school in San Antonio, TX. Stephen holds a Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of the Incarnate Word and a PhD in Developmental Neurobiology from the University of Oxxford. Stephen can be contacted at stephen.fleenor@johnseidlitz.
Teaching Science to English Learners (written by Stephen) is a book and training that helps educators develop language-rich science classrooms. With a goal in mind of developing students’ proficiency in reading, writing, and discussing science content using science vocabulary in context, Teaching Science to English Learners breaks down how to employ language scaffolds to support all learners. Key areas of focus are: the mutualistic relationship between visuals and vocabulary; the role of inquiry in science learning and how to engage all learners in asking and thinking about questions; and practical total participation strategies to engage all learners in discussing science content. Many strategies from the book are modeled in the training, and participants leave with plans for implementing these strategies in their specific upcoming lessons.
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