Family 2 Family - Reaching out to immigrants (join us on FACEBOOK)

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Join Family 2 Family - Reaching out to immigrants

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This is a Level one-3rd grader that has been in America for one month. He is learning English through a Leveled D reading book. He is retelling a story putting the pictures from the story in sequential order. Great way to learn vocabulary and check for comprehension. Encourage ELLs to retell stories using story telling props! :-)

Connecting Families to Communities

(John Hopkin University) written by Laurel Conran
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/ppp/2009/nav/multi_index.asp

Choice Boards / Menus

A CHOICE BOARD offers students a way to make decisions about what they will do in order to meet class requirements. A choice board could be for a single lesson, a week-long lesson, or even a month-long period of study. In order to create a choice board:

• Identify the most important elements of a lesson or unit.
• Create a required assignment or project that reflects the minimum understanding you expect all students to achieve.
• Create negotiables which expand upon the minimum understands. These negotiables often require students to go beyond the basic levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.
• Create a final optional section that requires students the opportunity for enrichment. The optional section often reflects activities that students can use for extra credit.

Choice Board # 1 Retelling a Story

Teachers from Iksan Korea use Eric Carle's, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to retell the events in the story using the illustrations they created. This activity builds language development, vocabulary, sequence of events, comprehension and builds self confidence learning English or any second language (Any story, poem, play or novel could be used according to the students' language abilities and/or their reading levels.)
(Iksan, Korea)

Choice Board #2 Making a Book

Students illustrated a book using the multiple intelligences.

Choiceboard #3 Writing a Song

During the Professional Development workshops in Iksan, the teachers wrote a song about their two favorite ESOL teachers, "Misty and Laurel:" There are two ESOL teachers......and it was a very fun class!

Teaching in South Korea - Seoul Korea

Last August, the HCPSS delegation to South Korea had the honor of meeting the National Assembly Member that represents the City of Iksan in the national parliament - Ms. Cho. She invited our entire delegation to the National Assembly building where we were given a special tour and then we were given the wonderful opportunity to eat lunch with Ms. Cho in the National Assembly building.

We visited Changdeokgung, known as Changdeokgung Palace which is set within a large park in Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the "Five Grand Palaces" built by the kings of the Joseon Dynasty. Because of its location east of Gyeongbok Palace, Changdeokgung is also referred to as the East Palace(東闕, Donggwol). The literal meaning of Changdeokgung(昌德宮) is "Palace of Prospering Virtue".




Enjoying a traditional Korean meal with our homestay families.

ESOL World

Through my travels I have learned many lessons in the ESOL World! I have learned that ESOL and classroom teachers are the most compassionate people when teaching their new English Language Learners. They are the most amazing people I know. They use many teaching methods to differentiate their instruction to their newly arrived students coming from different corners of our world.

I see the collaboration between ESOL/classroom/reading teachers and students in the classrooms working hard and meeting school, county and state academic standards. I have learned that creating positive relationships with students, staff and parents is the key to academic success

Teaching ESOL is a rewarding challenge. It has brought me great happiness watching the students learn English in both their social and academic environment. It is exciting to learn about everything, constantly seeking out new knowledge, looking to the veteran teachers and administrators as mentors and advisers, and absolutely enjoying my time with my students.

As an ESOL Team Leader, teaching ESOL is the best job in the world! Thinking back to the teachers that you had in your early years, what impact did they have in your life? What was it that made them so important to you? Was it the subject that they taught? How did they motivate you to be a life long learner? I remember my social studies teacher pulling down the wall map. I fell in love with the different geographical places, culture and people. I became very inspired! It was this inspiration that helped me explore beyond the classroom and towards the outside world with a certain sense of curiosity to be taken on and to learn about this world around me. Why? Because teaching is the most important job in the world. Teachers are the bridges to the outside world!

We knew that someone cared about our success even if that teacher never said it. Remember this as you enter your classrooms... Children will never care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

I will share various teaching and experiences with you and
if my topics are interesting to you, I hope you will write and share your comments. Happy Teaching and Welcome to the ESOL World!