It turns out that great strategies to teach students learning the English language are often great strategies to teach anyone.
Killeen ISD hosted about 80 educators a day during a three-day Multilingual Conference that concluded Thursday at the Franklin and Emily Pratt Learning Center.
The overall number of participants and the percentage of educators other than bilingual and ESL teachers was larger than ever, a fact that made KISD Multilingual Services Director Eli Lopez very happy.
The first day, teachers heard from Edith Trevino, a nationally known presenter known as “Dr. ET,” who shared personal stories, weaving in lessons learned as a teacher and living among various cultures.
The next two days focused on strategies for preparing for the TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System) and interactive teaching techniques and bridging between languages.
Sessions were open to all KISD teachers and with more than 90 different languages in the district, emerging bilingual students are everywhere, Lopez pointed out.
“If I’m going to algebra class, that is taught completely in English, and my ESL teacher is not in there. So, these sessions were designed to empower (all teachers) to support the emerging bilingual in that classroom,” she said.
Making learning visible and pre-teaching vocabulary are important skills for all teachers.
“It was great to see that it wasn’t just the bilingual teachers and ESL teachers coming because no one was assigned to come. They got to select from the summer catalogue. It’s great they came to the sessions,” Lopez said.
“We need a lot of vocabulary, and they are focusing on that. (Our students) need to read and write,” said Pershing Park Elementary bilingual teacher Rubidia Jaco-Melendez.
She was happy to see teachers who don’t see non-English speakers regularly taking advantage of the specialized training. “Understanding how our kids think is important. They can understand the needs our kids have. All the techniques help them.”
“Coming together with all the campuses is what I enjoy,” said Trimmier Elementary bilingual teacher Martha Smart. “We get to talk together and bounce ideas off one another. It’s really, fun.”
She was happy to see administrators in the room, including two from her campus. “It’s good to know they know what we’re all about,” she said. “We’re bridging.”
Photo Gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/killeenisd/albums/72177720326419380/
