Moving Beyond for Multilingual Learners: The Blog

 In our classrooms, we group and partner students in a variety of different ways for a variety of different purposes. Sometimes, we do randomized groupings and pairings - and this tool will help you do just that. The inspiration for this tool came from the ORIGINAL student sorting sticks set designed by a team at the IL Classrooms in Action group from ISBE. Unfortunately, their website is no longer "up" but I did save their sorting sticks and their guide in my Google Drive. Woohoo! I used these in my own classroom and my students loved being able to work with different kids across the classroom. I loved these even more than the "clock buddies" appointments because it eliminates the need for students to wander around the room to find a 1:00 appointment buddy - for some students, this can be such a confidence killer .  I've had it on my task list to design an "updated" version of the sorting sticks, and I finally got to it this week! The directions ar

I've used the word Advocate for a long time, and I know many of us do, too. I also use the words Change Agent, Instructional Leader, Community Connector, Family Liaison, and more to describe today's multilingual educator (EL, Bilingual, Dual Language).  As I speak with multilingual educators, many feel that they are on an island. Perhaps they are the only EL teacher in the building - or they are one of just a few. There is this feeling of "If I don't speak up/ask this question/fight for this student/advocate for this family, then no one else will." I don't have to tell you how utterly exhausting and how potentially dangerous this feeling is for us.  I found myself saying "YES" to everything. Every committee. Every leadership team. Every tutoring program. Every family program. Everything. Because I felt I needed to be "the EL voice." No surprise- I burned myself out. I was drowning. I hit rock bottom several times - financially, spiritually,