April 15, 2024 • 38 mins
Welcome to episode 170 of the Leader of Learning Podcast. In this episode, we delve into the importance of embracing our multilingual students, the varied levels of support they require, and why viewing these students as assets is crucial in education today. We will talk about the tools that enhance communication with ELL families and the significance of involving everyone in the school in fostering a welcoming environment. Andrea will also share insights from her latest project, which involves interviewing a diverse group of individuals to create a mosaic of true stories. With Andrea's vast experience and deep understanding of ELs — highlighted by her transition from focusing on the deficits to celebrating the capabilities of these students — this episode is a must-listen for educators who work with or want to better support linguistically diverse students.
Guest Information:
Andrea is a proud English Language Learner Educator who lives outside of Philadelphia, PA. She is in her 23rd year of teaching! Throughout those 23 years, she has worked with students in grades K-12 as a HS English Teacher, Title 1 Reading Specialist, English Language Learner Teacher, and Teacher Mentor. She currently works with EL students in grades K-12, and travels the country inspiring and supporting educators, administrators, and support staff in how to best teach, reach, connect, and communicate with bilingual students and families. Andrea is also the author of "Take Me Home," and a contributing author of "The Impact of Influence-Volume 3," and "100 No-Nonsense Things ALL School Leaders Shout Stop Doing."
Episode Resources:
Andrea's Website
Andrea’s Books
This episode is sponsored in part by MagicMind, the world's first productivity drink. Visit https://magicmind.com/LL and use the code LOL20 at checkout to enjoy 20% off. If you want even more MagicMind, that same code will also get you 56% off on the 30-pack subscription!
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Guest Information:
Andrea is a proud English Language Learner Educator who lives outside of Philadelphia, PA. She is in her 23rd year of teaching! Throughout those 23 years, she has worked with students in grades K-12 as a HS English Teacher, Title 1 Reading Specialist, English Language Learner Teacher, and Teacher Mentor. She currently works with EL students in grades K-12, and travels the country inspiring and supporting educators, administrators, and support staff in how to best teach, reach, connect, and communicate with bilingual students and families. Andrea is also the author of "Take Me Home," and a contributing author of "The Impact of Influence-Volume 3," and "100 No-Nonsense Things ALL School Leaders Shout Stop Doing."
Episode Resources:
Andrea's Website
Andrea’s Books
This episode is sponsored in part by MagicMind, the world's first productivity drink. Visit https://magicmind.com/LL and use the code LOL20 at checkout to enjoy 20% off. If you want even more MagicMind, that same code will also get you 56% off on the 30-pack subscription!
**************************************************************
TAKE THE LEADERSHIP STYLES QUIZ!
https://dankreiness.com/quiz
**************************************************************
ACCESS MY INSPIRING RESOURCES:
SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Sign up for my email newsletter
50 AI Prompts for Instructional Leaders to Revolutionize Your School
The Teacher’s Guide to Becoming a School Leader“
Lead to Inspire Growth” eBook
FREE “Unlock Your Leadership Potential” course
**************************************************************
CONSIDER BECOMING AN OFFICIAL SHOW SPONSOR!
I can help promote your product or service - Email me at dan@leaderoflearning.comMedia Kit - https://dankreiness.com/media
Talk Studio is my recording platform of choice for video, audio, and even live streaming. For more information about Talk Studio and to receive 20% off your first billing cycle on ANY paid plan you sign up for, visit https://dankreiness.com/talk
Follow Dr. Dan Kreiness on Social Media:
Youtube Channel
Twitter/X
TikTok
The Leader Of Learning Podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better Podcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You know, one in four acrossthe country now comes from a multi lingual
fab and it's really important that I'mjust doing my due diligence in what I
call exploring a movie and not thesnapshot of their life. Welcome to the
Leader of Learning podcast. I'm yourhost, Doctor Dan Krenis, and this
is where I help educators grow theirimpact as instructional leaders because my research and
(00:23):
leadership experiences have led me to understandthat someone like you, regardless of your
role or your title, can havea tremendous impact on your organization. I
chat with inspiring guests who are trulymaking an impact as instructional leaders. Whether
this is your first time listening oryou come back for more, I hope
you've subscribed to this show on yourpreferred podcast app so you don't miss any
(00:47):
of the great episodes, topics,or guests. Anyway, I'm so glad
you've tuned in. Now let's getstarted. Y Hey, Leader of Learning,
Welcome into episode one seventy of TheLeader of Learning Podcast. I was
(01:07):
just wondering, are you getting myemail newsletter? I have hundreds of people
just like you who listen to thepodcast and really enjoy the themes and the
concepts and content that are shared here, as well as to the greater community
of followers and subscribers. This isan opportunity to join hundreds of like minded
(01:29):
individuals such as yourself, and notonly stay up to date on everything that's
happening here with the Leader of Learningpodcast, but so many great resources that
I share around the ideas of leadershipand inspiring and empowering others. So if
you're not already subscribed, head toDankriniz dot com, slash news, or
even easier, go to the shownotes for this episode in whatever app you
(01:55):
listen to this podcast on and you'llfind the link right here in the show
notes. My guest in this episodeis a passionate and inspiring educator concentrating on
the vulnerable population of students known asEnglish language learners. Andrea Bittner is an
English language learner educator as well asan author and speaker, and someone who
(02:17):
truly cares about high quality education forstudents who are in this population. And
as you heard her say at thetop of the episode, this is a
population that now includes one in fourstudents. Anyway, I do want to
get right into the interview so thatyou can feel as inspired as I was
talking to Andrea. So right afterthese messages is my interview with Andrea Bittner.
(02:43):
Welcome back, Leader of Learning toanother great episode with an amazing guest.
I'm here with Andrea Bittner, whomI've connected with for a while now
as part of the Teach Better Entrepreneurmastermind. I love learning from Andrea.
But she is an EL educator ELstanding for English Language or English learners or
(03:04):
English Language learners right, so theymight be called something a little different in
your neck of the woods, butan EL educator in year twenty three of
her teaching career. She's an authorof a book called Take Me Home,
which I would love for her totalk a little bit more about in this
conversation. As well, she's aspeaker, getting to teach el's daily and
(03:25):
traveling the world, inspiring and supportingmany K twelve teachers and of course those
English Language learners as well. Andrea, welcome to the show. If there's
anything I missed about who you are, where you are, and what you
do, please fill us in notat all. Thank you so much for
having me. It's great to behere. So twenty three years in education.
(03:49):
That's a little bit more than me, but we're getting up there.
I guess first of all, i'dlike to know, have you always been
a teacher of English language learners?Now you know? I started out as
a high school English teacher. Iwas hired right out of college Westchester University
over the weekend, bright eyed andbushy tail at age twenty one, ready
(04:11):
to go. And the first thingthat I was learned about school was that
I was given classes graduated on aSaturday. By Tuesday, I was a
long term sub filling in for freshmanacademy at a local high school. And
the first thing I learned was thatthose kids that I were working with hated
school. They hated school. AndI always say that that first year for
(04:34):
me, they taught me more abouteducation than I could ever teach them.
And I was going home and Iwas crying every night, and I was
like, I just came out ofthis student teaching experience with all of these
students that loved school and were totallyengaged and ready to go. And what
I quickly discovered their challenge was wasthat they hated school because they were freshmen
in high school who couldn't read andit bothered me enough to go back to
(04:59):
school. I continued to teach them, but I the following year. By
that following year, I enrolled ina reading specialist program and got my master's
in reading, and I started towork with middle school students then as a
title one reading specialist, and Idid that for a few years. And
while I was working with those studentsat the middle school level, I started
to work with English Language learners.And then I started to get more curious
(05:21):
about, well, how can Iequit myself to work best with English Language
learners? So I went back toschool again and then I got a certification
in working with els. And sofor seventeen of the twenty three years I've
been teaching, I've been in thesupport role, working as an English Language
learner, teacher, title I,reading specialist, etc. What do you
(05:45):
think it was that allowed you orhad you kind of gravitate toward working with
whether they be students who struggled withreading as a reading teacher, an interventionist,
or students who I won't say arestruggling with but who are early on
in learning a new language. Isthat like, what did you learn about
(06:05):
yourself? You know, I thinkI learned that the world was much bigger
than the bubble that I came from. And so, you know, I
was raised in a smaller town inPennsylvania, about fifteen minutes south of the
Philadelphia Airport where I still live today, and I, you know, grew
up in a very typical family withyou know, normal challenges and winds and
(06:28):
all that good stuff. And Ihad never really stepped foot even out of
my state, you know, letalone, out of my culture or out
of you know, the norms youknow that I grew up with. And
so I got curious about working.I think we're even noticing that the world
was much bigger than where we are. When I had this really good friend
in fifth grade, her name wasIrena. She's still a friend of mine
(06:50):
today, and she came from Russia, and she came to school and I
remember vividly her learning English and wewere buddies and we used to play on
the playground together all the time.And that was the first and only time
in my career, until I hadstepped out into teaching, that I had
met someone from a different place withyou know, different values. And I
used to go over to her houseand hang out with her parents and get
(07:13):
to see, you know, differentperspectives on the world. And so I
think that coming you know, fromthat small town, you know, and
moving into the mentality of the worldbeing much bigger is what really attracted me
to I can help these kids,I can work with these families and respecting,
accepting and admiring them for who theyare and what they bring to the
table. You've talked a lot justin the first five minutes here about you
(07:38):
know, how how when you gotstarted, especially in your career, and
as it's gone by, how muchyou yes, you've taught students, but
how much they've taught you too.I think that's so cool. It's kind
of a theme I think so farin your answers. Let's dive in a
little bit deeper to you know,working with English Language learn and some of
(08:01):
the tricks of the trade. Iguess I first wanted to ask you,
just out of sheer curiosity, acouple of questions. First, what terminology
is current and what terminology do youprefer? Because we've had a lot of
them over the years. I'm inyour eighteen teacher of teaching and being an
educator, and I've heard them allfrom ESL to el to MLLL is what
(08:26):
really my district uses now multi languagelearner. But I'm just curious about that
and also how, in your expertopinion, teaching English language learners has evolved
over the years, because I thinkwhat I've seen is it's kind of like
special ed where it's gone from morepull out and secluded and self contained to
(08:50):
really more like mainstream and inclusivity.And so I'm wondering if that's what you've
seen too, So terminology and thenthe changes over over time. Yeah,
I mean, I couldn't agree more. You know, the term English Language
learner, you know, even herein Pennsylvania, it back you know,
when we first started education, Ido believe it was e s L.
(09:13):
Then they went to el L EnglishLanguage Learner, then the state decided to
chop off and L, and thenthey went to e L. And yes,
I have also seen ML's MLL inTexas. I believe they're called eb's
Emergent Bilinguals. So as I've traveledthe country, you will see a variety
of labels that you know they're placingon students who are learning the language.
(09:37):
But what I say to people is, no matter what acronym. You know,
people want to place on that classmaster label when they come in.
Who you're meeting at that time isa young person who's coming into your building
with a gift. Their parents havegifted them with the opportunity, along with
their teachers, to become bilingual.So it's a really great, you know,
opportunity to work with these students andfamilies in our career. So yeah,
(10:00):
it's always changing, but right nowI believe ML's or MLL's is what
I'm seeing the most of Your secondquestion was in terms of how it's kind
of changed over time, and Iagree, I'm seeing the same kind of
changes over time. But what's reallyawesome is that the intensity of what I
call that educational lens and accountability iscoming onto schools now to recognize English language
(10:24):
learners as having more of an assetthan a deficit. You know, when
I worked with the young people fromTaking Me Home, one of the first
messages they asked me to share withpeople relates to what you're saying, and
what that is is that being anEnglish learner is not a condition. You
know, it's not even a transition. It's an expansion. It's an expansion
(10:46):
of skills, and they're coming toyou ready. You know, with the
set of skills, they have toexpand upon those to grow even more.
And so yes, there is alot more accountability now on schools tied to
you know, the federal government,the local government, the local school systems
to shift and take a look athow these students are performing and how we
(11:07):
can better support them and engage withsuccess with their families. This podcast is
a proud member of the Teach Betterpodcast Network, Better Today, Better Tomorrow,
and the podcast to get you there. Explore more podcasts at www dot
Teach Better Podcastnetwork dot com. Nowlet's get back to the episode. I
(11:33):
really like what you said there,and I would agree at least in my
personal experience in my district. Andwe have a former English language learner as
our superintendent, and she is avery fierce advocate for English language learners,
and I think that has helped ourdistrict, who has a very high population
(11:58):
of English language learners, to understandlike you said, that it's more of
an asset. And and and studentswho already know multiple languages or are you
know, learn learning a second languagereally have an advantage. Uh. And
and it's it's interesting to look atthat way, and I really appreciate that,
(12:18):
you know, I'm a couple ofschools in my in my district,
including mine, actually have dual languageprograms, and it's kind of fascinating to
think of multi language learners kind ofhave a clear advantage in a program like
that because they already know a languageand they've at least started learning another one.
(12:41):
Where it's almost like the English speakingstudents who are in the dual language
program are slower at learning and adaptingto a new language and some new nuances
and and things like that. Butit is pretty cool to see. I
don't know if you see other programlike do a language programs like that out
(13:01):
in you know, when you traveland when you consult, But it's it's
kind of cool that we have programslike that. I think it's definitely another
way of you know, not justmainstreaming English language learners, but like really
immersing them and your native English speakersinto the same program where they're getting you
(13:24):
know, both languages and and lotsof different exposures to not just the language,
but even like cultural aspects as well. Absolutely, and you know you'll
see that, you know, inthe el program. We are working on
reading, writing, listening, andspeaking. And so if you think about
it in a dual language approach,for students that are already speaking a different
(13:48):
language at home, they do havethat advantage because they get that daily practice,
maybe you know, the of thelistening and the speaking of that language
at home if it's the language thattheir parents, you know, also speak.
If you're an English speaking student andyou don't have a family at home
that is speaking let's say Spanish,if you're in a dual language program,
then you would be doing all ofthat work at school. So that practical
(14:11):
application is something that I think thatgives your English lie wage owners an advantage
in that situation. Hey, Leaderof Learning, we'll be right back with
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(14:35):
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(16:03):
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work that you do, not justin your classroom, but also with the
(16:25):
educators that you speak to when youtravel and you consult. And because I'm
curious, especially for my non elteaching population who's listening, and I have
a pretty big mix of classroom teachers, administrators, district administrators, even higher
ed, what would we need toknow about what goes into working with this
(16:51):
special population of students who have thisasset, like you said before, of
having this like emerging, you know, superpower of learning a new language.
You know, I think that's areally great question and one of the first
things you have to do, youknow, as a continary teacher, a
school leader, an English language learnerteacher is team up, right, because
(17:12):
no one achieves success alone. I'ma huge John Gordon Fan I read a
lot of his work and that's oneof the first, you know, pivotal
points that he makes is that morepeople you can involve in putting together a
project or a brainstorming session, youknow, or working together towards a common
goal, the more success that youwill have. And so for our English
(17:33):
Language learners in particular, you haveto team up because your English Language learner
teacher is going to be your pointperson that's going to provide you with the
most information about this student and family. No two English language learners are the
same. You know, when Iwas teaching at Interborough High School, you
know, about a decade ago,when I did the work that I was
(17:55):
doing there, you know, Ihad students who had across the border.
I had students that work students,I had adopted students. I had students
who had waited ten years for avisa it came after their parents. I
had students that had come before theirparents. And I had students who were
born here in the US, andmost of them now are you know,
one in four across the country nowcomes from a multi lingual family. And
(18:18):
so as the EL teacher, it'sreally important that I'm bringing this information to
the team, and it's really importantthat I'm just doing my due diligence in
what I call exploring the movie andnot the snapshot of their life. Because
I had students who came in whowere already proficient in five languages. I
had students who came in that werewicked readers and writers but needed English language
(18:40):
support with listening and speaking. Ihad students who were the opposite that could
listen and speak all day long toEnglish, but if you put a piece
of literacy in front of them,they really struggled. And I had students
who were, you know, interruptededucation, who had come with traumatic situations
and were working on all four Andso when I would bring that information to
the team, that's the first thingthey needed to know. What is their
(19:03):
English language proficiency level? What didtheir former schooling look like before they came
to us. Did they move infrom down the street, did they come
from a state over, did theymove from a different country, you know,
what did that look like for them? And the other piece too is
what language did their parents prefer schoolcommunication? Because not all parents prefer their
(19:26):
first language, some of them preferEnglish, and so a lot of communication
needs to happen in the beginning inexploring that movie of the assets and the
challenges that the student is bringing tothe table. And the best person to
do that to team up with isthe EL teacher and the team, and
the best people to interview about thatare the students' parents and so providing communication
(19:48):
resources to districtwide. You know,how do you communicate with your English Language
learner parents who do prefer a languageother than English. Are you calling them
with your guidance counselor to interview them, to ask them their thoughts, answer
their questions, find out their goalswith their student, hear about their prior
school experience and any traumas that mayor may not have happened. And when
(20:10):
you can gather all of that nowyou can start to plan for instruction and
making sure that everyone in the buildingknows who your English Language learners are because
eighty percent of the time they're notwith their YEL teacher, they're with everybody
else. And so that's why Ireally get intense about everybody in the building
(20:32):
has to be on board with workingwith our students and families. Just to
second that everybody in the building hasto be on board with many of the
or all of the initiatives that takeplace in school, because it's hard to
develop and implement initiatives when not everyone'son board. I just had to throw
(20:52):
in my two cents there. Sure, No, that's really fascinating. And
as you were talking, I'm thinkingthat I know for sure there are technology
platforms and even student information systems likepower School who have kind of adapted over
the years to I think helping schoolspartner with families in this way. For
(21:15):
sure, you can look in powerSchool if your district uses it to see
and and you know, hopefully thefamily themselves have have filled out that information,
but to see what their preferred languageis. There are apps like parent
Square and Talking Points and probably othersthat allow teachers and schools to communicate with
families in whatever language they would prefer, whether it's their native language or not.
(21:40):
You know, basically, the teacheror the school sends out a message
and then it gets translated into anylanguage or not. You know, maybe,
like you said, the family stillprefers to receive communication in English.
As you were talking, I thinkyou answer this question, but I just
wanted to make sure, like interms of of sort of the teaching model,
(22:02):
the instructional model that's happening, youknow, predominantly at this point,
is it that co teaching model wherefor the most part, I think you
said about eighty percent of the time, and I'm guessing that's an average that
our English Language learners are spending inmainstream classes with their you know, native
English speaking classmates and colleagues, andthen a little bit of work just with
(22:26):
the ELL or MLL teachers. Youknow, it depends on their proficiency level
of English and reading, writing,listening, and speaking. Every state has
different recommendations for dependent upon their proficiencylevel and their screener or in the state
of Pennsylvania, it's our Access Score, which is our annual exam for English
Language learners to take that determines theirproficiency level during a given year. So
(22:49):
depending on that will equal the recommendedamount of time that an English Language learner
teacher needs to support those students inthe classroom. That can look different from
state to state, but it canalso look different in terms of classroom support.
For example, sometimes you push intothe classroom, sometimes you pull out
(23:10):
in the classroom. At a highschool level, you could have scheduled classes
where a teacher who is certified inEnglish and also as an EL teacher for
a short period of time can serveas the English teacher primarily until that student
is right. I believe it's oneyear until they're ready to go into the
mainstream classroom. They have newcomer academiesin different states where students get to spend
(23:33):
find an amount of time in thenewcomer academy if they fit that criteria.
So it's really a case by casebasis in terms of the student's needs.
But every place has different recommended amountsof times to service those students until they
exit, and the exit criteria isimportant to consider as well, because that
can differ from state to state.Fascinating stuff, it really is, and
(24:00):
you know, I know that,and I will leave all political beliefs out
of this statement, but it's justwhat I see. The evidence is there
that more and more students are arecoming into our schools all the time in
these situations where English may not betheir first language, and and it depends
how fluent they how fluent they arein English when when they come in,
(24:23):
and it has become a very bigresponsibility and a very big priority, uh
for schools to educate these students andand and have them adapt and assimilate.
I'm going to say as quickly aspossible. It's it's probably not the best
way to put it, but youknow, but in order to really succeed
(24:47):
in in school, I never reallygot to know him well enough to hear
a whole lot of his stories.But as you were speaking, I was
thinking to my grandpa, who cameto this country when he was ten years
old. And I think you evenalluded to the fact that sometimes parents come
over and then their kids come yearslater, and that's what happened to him.
(25:07):
And he worked so hard, especiallyat learning the language and losing his
accent pretty quickly. That I mean, obviously he was much later in life
when when I got to really knowhim. But I could never tell that
he spoke a different language when hewas younger, and that he came from
a different country. It was like, it was always really fascinating to me,
(25:29):
like I can't believe that. Ijust I could never tell. And
they, I'm sure they didn't haveyou know, English as a second language
programs or classes or anything like thatwhen he you know, this was we're
talking like the nineteen twenties and thirties. So yeah, yeah, absolutely,
And you know, speaking about thefact that you couldn't hear you know,
whether he didn't have that accent,that's a physical piece because if you come
(25:53):
over to a new place like theUS as an adolescent, the physical muscles
in your throat have already formed youraccent. You have an accent. I
have an accent. People hear meand they know him from Philly, right,
So it's it's impossible. What I'mtrying to say is it's impossible for
you to quote unquote us it.If you come over as an adolescent,
(26:14):
your throat has formed, your musclesare there in the way you've learned to
make sound, so it won't change. But if you come over below an
adolescent age, those muscles are notfully formed, and you do start to
acquire a different language. That's whyyou don't keep that accent that you started
with when you were younger. Andso I found that really fascinating. It's
(26:34):
one of the first things I everlearned when I went to English Lineage learner
school when we started the program yearsago. Well, I know is he
did used to tell me stories abouthow kids would make fun of him when
he was younger and he hadn't quitelost enough of his accent. But I
guess back in the twenties and thirties, part of gym class was actually boxing,
(26:56):
and he used to use like legallyspeaking or whatever you want to call
it, Like in school, heused that as a way to fight and
get back at these bullies so tospeak, who would tease him about his
accent. I always that was agreat story. I was used to like
hearing that. And plus yeah,plus he played on the football team and
(27:18):
they like didn't wear helmets back then, probably, and he used to like
he used to use that as anexcuse to take his aggression out on some
people I think too. All Right, So I really want to know about
this book, now take me home. I have it pulled up on Amazon.
It looks amazing, sounds amazing,and I know that it includes some
really cool stories. So what canyou tell us about that book? And
(27:42):
and I asked you this off theair. I don't know if you're comfortable
sharing on the air. I knowyou're working on a new one too,
So if there's anything that you couldtell us about that early project, that
would be awesome. Sure, sotake Me Home as a true story and
based on eleven of my former Englishlanguage learner students who are now in their
(28:06):
late twenties and early thirties, andthey give a first hand account of what
it's really like to become bilingual inAmerica. And this story was born out
of an experience I had over tenyears ago. I was working, like
I mentioned earlier, with about fortydifferent students at the high school level,
with about twenty five different languages,and as I mentioned before, they come
(28:26):
from all walks of life, adoptedstudents, exchange students, crossing the border,
students born here, students, etc. And I worked with one particular
family at the time, the Lopezfamily, and I had taught all seven
of their children over time, andthey happened to be from the country of
Alsalvador. And I've traveled to AlvaSalvador myself a few times to do some
(28:48):
work with some schools down and sothere were all boys and one girl,
and I started with Serio and workedmy way down to Sarahio Junior down to
Jeffrey. There was a Jeffrey fromLas Vegas, all the way down to
Nancy, the only female in thefamily. And so at that time we
had this huge classroom banner, andour classroom banner said, in my room,
(29:11):
education is opportunity, education is freedom. What's your plan? Because our
kids knew that no matter what theirprior life experiences had been, their only
plan could not be I'm not goingto be successful here. Because at the
high school level, we had afew years to work with them for their
free time in education, and weknew that we would remind them often that
(29:33):
mom and dad have given you thisgift of the ability, along with your
teachers, to become bilingual, andwe're going to figure out what this plan
wants to look like for you.And so every year, our seniors would
have this alumni day where our alumniwould come back and they would bring our
seniors a T shirt and on thatT shirt it would say wherever they were
(29:55):
headed next. We didn't care ifit was college, university, military,
trade school, vocation, workforce,YouTuber, whatever it was. We were
there to celebrate that they had finishedthis chapter of their life's plan. They
were given the opportunity to sign thatbanner to say they had graduated from our
program, and the alumni were thereto share with them about what was waiting
(30:18):
for them in this bilingual professional world. And so we went through this watcher
plan mentality together and we had alot of success, and all of those
young family, the Lopez family Imentioned before, graduated with that mentality.
And about a year after Nancy,the youngest one, had graduated, I
was teaching outside and there were abunch of helicopters outside one day, and
(30:40):
I thought, well, I hopeeverything's all right. There's a lot of
helicopters outside today. And about anhour after I had that thought, my
principal came down to get me tolet me know that one of my students
had been hit by the train,and unfortunately that student was Nancy, and
unfortunately she died that day. Shehad a pair of headphones on and she'd
made a decision to walk along theinside of the track and she didn't hear
(31:03):
the acella and it came and itclipped her from behind. And so it
threw our school community into a hugesense of trauma with these awesome kids and
teachers and her family. And oneof the most challenging parts of that day
was that mom and dad were stilllearning English themselves, so when they got
the call that something had happened toone of the kids. No one in
the local force spoke Spanish, sothey could kind of figure out that something
(31:26):
was wrong, and they could kindof figure out that something had happened to
one of the kids, but theydidn't know which one it was, and
so they stood there for hours waiting, trying to figure out which one of
their children had passed away. Andso in the coming weeks, we worked
with immigration to be allowed to haveNancy's brother come back and bury her,
(31:47):
which he was denied. We workedwith the local school community and mom and
dad to bury their daughter and navigatethe language barriers and the funeral process and
the Latino community. And the dadwas a pastor, so the church would
come and sit with them every evening, and so we were supporting the family
during this experience. One of myjobs also at that time, was to
speak at her funeral, and soI wrote this short poem and I called
(32:10):
it take Me Home, and itwas homaged to Nancy's crossing into the US.
So I let that poem sit onmy desk for a while, and
a few months later I saw itsitting there, and I continued to teach
these great kids and I thought,maybe somebody could be used, maybe this
could help someone, this part ofthis story. So I send it out
on a whim to a bunch ofpublishers, and this one publisher gets back
(32:32):
to me and they say, hey, Andrea, we really like your poem,
but we don't want you to writea poem. We want you to
write a book, and we're goingto give you six months to do it,
and if you come back with somethingwe like, we'll take you on
and publish it. And I startedto think to myself, well, I
don't just want to tell her story. I want to tell all their stories
because they're so different. And alot of my students had experiences where assumptions
(32:57):
were being made about them, wherepeople thought, if you were an eel,
they're all the same. And soI took that opportunity and I went
back and found eleven of my formerstudents who are now in their late twenties
early thirties. I interviewed them overa period of about six months, and
we created Take Me Home. It'stold in the first person through their perspective.
(33:19):
We give a chapter to each student. We cover almost every continent and
almost every experience we could think of. And it's written in the sense of
their names were changed to names ofstrength, so we have characters like Volte
and Charge and Embrace and Shine,etc. I was also able to meet
with Nancy's parents, who I stilltalk to today and get her perspective on
(33:42):
coming to the US, so she'sincluded in the story as well. And
it is written in English and itrepeats in Spanish, all within the same
book. So that's my long windedversion of our work that we've done so
far, and it's really making agreat positive impact changing hearts and minds all
around the world. That's really cool. It's i mean, obviously a sad
(34:06):
story there, but really awesome howyou and the rest of those students were
able to tell her story and theirstory. You know. I hear a
little bit of like Freedom Writers inthere with Seed Folks, which I know
is still a fairly popular book that'sread in schools, and I know for
sure that some schools have picked upyour book as well and studied it with
(34:31):
staff and students. So really awesomestuff. Anything you can tell us about
the next project, you know,the next project I'm going to start working
on this summer. I'm still doinggreat work and will continue to do great
work with Take Me Home all aroundthe country with teachers and educators, not
only in terms of reading it,but in terms of going out and talking
(34:52):
to teachers, which has been awesome. But the next project is going to
be a very similar style. I'mgoing to be interviewing about thirty different people
with a variety of topics and creatingtheir true stories to again help people gauge
perspective of what it's like to bethe many students that we see in our
(35:13):
classrooms. Awesome, Well, thankyou for the work you've done, the
work that you are doing and willcontinue to do, including this upcoming project.
It's always really cool for me anywayto hear about this stuff. It's
not something that I have a lotof expertise in, and so I love
(35:35):
learning about it, you know.I mean this is called leader of Learning,
right. We're helping people grow theirimpact as instructional leaders, and I
think this is such an important piece. And it's not just because I wanted
to make sure I got this outthere too. It's not just because our
multi language learners, along with ourstudents with disabilities, are those subgroups that
everyone is so concerned about you know, making the mark on their state tests.
(35:59):
It's because we're really trying trying toget them to be successful, not
just in school, but at thenext level and like you said, wherever
they choose to go after leaving ourprograms. So thank you for your work,
Thank you for your time. Pleaseshare with the audience as well where
they can connect with you. Ofcourse, I will let the listeners know
(36:19):
that Andrea's book Take Me Home,as well as her website and social media
contact information will be in the shownotes. But where can everybody find you
if they need you? You know, the best place to find me is
via the website, which is andreabitnerbooksdot com. You can also connect with
me directly on LinkedIn or we're stillcalling it Twitter now or Twitter as well,
but they are probably the three bestplaces. The website, LinkedIn and
(36:44):
Twitter, you can follow our journeyand learn more about the work that we're
doing with schools. Awesome. Thankyou so much for your time and the
amazing information. Amazing work. Iknow you and I will continue to stay
connected, but I really appreciate yougetting this out there for for the listeners,
and yeah, just thanks, Ireally appreciate it. Oh. Thanks
(37:04):
for having me. Well that's itfor this episode. Thank you so much
for listening. If you haven't doneso yet, don't forget to subscribe to
this show on your favorite podcast app. If you enjoy the content covered on
this show, I want to askyou to do this one thing for me.
Please share it. The biggest favoryou could ever do for me is
(37:28):
to please let others know about whatI'm doing and how I'm helping educators grow
their impact as instructional leaders. Ihope you can share this podcast with other
educators, leaders, friends, oranyone you think would love listening and learning.
If you're interested in leaving a positiverating and review of this show,
links to do so are always inthe show notes for every episode. For
(37:51):
more information about me or this show, and to access the great content that
I share, please visit my websiteat Leader of Learning dot com. That's
where you can find my online courses, YouTube channel, blog, how to
connect with me on social media,and even ways that you can support the
show like donating or purchasing Leader ofLearning merchandise. Thanks again, and remember,
(38:14):
no matter who you are or whereyou are, you are a Leader
of Learning,
You know, one in four acrossthe country now comes from a multi lingual
fab and it's really important that I'mjust doing my due diligence in what I
call exploring a movie and not thesnapshot of their life. Welcome to the
Leader of Learning podcast. I'm yourhost, Doctor Dan Krenis, and this
is where I help educators grow theirimpact as instructional leaders because my research and
(00:23):
leadership experiences have led me to understandthat someone like you, regardless of your
role or your title, can havea tremendous impact on your organization. I
chat with inspiring guests who are trulymaking an impact as instructional leaders. Whether
this is your first time listening oryou come back for more, I hope
you've subscribed to this show on yourpreferred podcast app so you don't miss any
(00:47):
of the great episodes, topics,or guests. Anyway, I'm so glad
you've tuned in. Now let's getstarted. Y Hey, Leader of Learning,
Welcome into episode one seventy of TheLeader of Learning Podcast. I was
(01:07):
just wondering, are you getting myemail newsletter? I have hundreds of people
just like you who listen to thepodcast and really enjoy the themes and the
concepts and content that are shared here, as well as to the greater community
of followers and subscribers. This isan opportunity to join hundreds of like minded
(01:29):
individuals such as yourself, and notonly stay up to date on everything that's
happening here with the Leader of Learningpodcast, but so many great resources that
I share around the ideas of leadershipand inspiring and empowering others. So if
you're not already subscribed, head toDankriniz dot com, slash news, or
even easier, go to the shownotes for this episode in whatever app you
(01:55):
listen to this podcast on and you'llfind the link right here in the show
notes. My guest in this episodeis a passionate and inspiring educator concentrating on
the vulnerable population of students known asEnglish language learners. Andrea Bittner is an
English language learner educator as well asan author and speaker, and someone who
(02:17):
truly cares about high quality education forstudents who are in this population. And
as you heard her say at thetop of the episode, this is a
population that now includes one in fourstudents. Anyway, I do want to
get right into the interview so thatyou can feel as inspired as I was
talking to Andrea. So right afterthese messages is my interview with Andrea Bittner.
(02:43):
Welcome back, Leader of Learning toanother great episode with an amazing guest.
I'm here with Andrea Bittner, whomI've connected with for a while now
as part of the Teach Better Entrepreneurmastermind. I love learning from Andrea.
But she is an EL educator ELstanding for English Language or English learners or
(03:04):
English Language learners right, so theymight be called something a little different in
your neck of the woods, butan EL educator in year twenty three of
her teaching career. She's an authorof a book called Take Me Home,
which I would love for her totalk a little bit more about in this
conversation. As well, she's aspeaker, getting to teach el's daily and
(03:25):
traveling the world, inspiring and supportingmany K twelve teachers and of course those
English Language learners as well. Andrea, welcome to the show. If there's
anything I missed about who you are, where you are, and what you
do, please fill us in notat all. Thank you so much for
having me. It's great to behere. So twenty three years in education.
(03:49):
That's a little bit more than me, but we're getting up there.
I guess first of all, i'dlike to know, have you always been
a teacher of English language learners?Now you know? I started out as
a high school English teacher. Iwas hired right out of college Westchester University
over the weekend, bright eyed andbushy tail at age twenty one, ready
(04:11):
to go. And the first thingthat I was learned about school was that
I was given classes graduated on aSaturday. By Tuesday, I was a
long term sub filling in for freshmanacademy at a local high school. And
the first thing I learned was thatthose kids that I were working with hated
school. They hated school. AndI always say that that first year for
(04:34):
me, they taught me more abouteducation than I could ever teach them.
And I was going home and Iwas crying every night, and I was
like, I just came out ofthis student teaching experience with all of these
students that loved school and were totallyengaged and ready to go. And what
I quickly discovered their challenge was wasthat they hated school because they were freshmen
in high school who couldn't read andit bothered me enough to go back to
(04:59):
school. I continued to teach them, but I the following year. By
that following year, I enrolled ina reading specialist program and got my master's
in reading, and I started towork with middle school students then as a
title one reading specialist, and Idid that for a few years. And
while I was working with those studentsat the middle school level, I started
to work with English Language learners.And then I started to get more curious
(05:21):
about, well, how can Iequit myself to work best with English Language
learners? So I went back toschool again and then I got a certification
in working with els. And sofor seventeen of the twenty three years I've
been teaching, I've been in thesupport role, working as an English Language
learner, teacher, title I,reading specialist, etc. What do you
(05:45):
think it was that allowed you orhad you kind of gravitate toward working with
whether they be students who struggled withreading as a reading teacher, an interventionist,
or students who I won't say arestruggling with but who are early on
in learning a new language. Isthat like, what did you learn about
(06:05):
yourself? You know, I thinkI learned that the world was much bigger
than the bubble that I came from. And so, you know, I
was raised in a smaller town inPennsylvania, about fifteen minutes south of the
Philadelphia Airport where I still live today, and I, you know, grew
up in a very typical family withyou know, normal challenges and winds and
(06:28):
all that good stuff. And Ihad never really stepped foot even out of
my state, you know, letalone, out of my culture or out
of you know, the norms youknow that I grew up with. And
so I got curious about working.I think we're even noticing that the world
was much bigger than where we are. When I had this really good friend
in fifth grade, her name wasIrena. She's still a friend of mine
(06:50):
today, and she came from Russia, and she came to school and I
remember vividly her learning English and wewere buddies and we used to play on
the playground together all the time.And that was the first and only time
in my career, until I hadstepped out into teaching, that I had
met someone from a different place withyou know, different values. And I
used to go over to her houseand hang out with her parents and get
(07:13):
to see, you know, differentperspectives on the world. And so I
think that coming you know, fromthat small town, you know, and
moving into the mentality of the worldbeing much bigger is what really attracted me
to I can help these kids,I can work with these families and respecting,
accepting and admiring them for who theyare and what they bring to the
table. You've talked a lot justin the first five minutes here about you
(07:38):
know, how how when you gotstarted, especially in your career, and
as it's gone by, how muchyou yes, you've taught students, but
how much they've taught you too.I think that's so cool. It's kind
of a theme I think so farin your answers. Let's dive in a
little bit deeper to you know,working with English Language learn and some of
(08:01):
the tricks of the trade. Iguess I first wanted to ask you,
just out of sheer curiosity, acouple of questions. First, what terminology
is current and what terminology do youprefer? Because we've had a lot of
them over the years. I'm inyour eighteen teacher of teaching and being an
educator, and I've heard them allfrom ESL to el to MLLL is what
(08:26):
really my district uses now multi languagelearner. But I'm just curious about that
and also how, in your expertopinion, teaching English language learners has evolved
over the years, because I thinkwhat I've seen is it's kind of like
special ed where it's gone from morepull out and secluded and self contained to
(08:50):
really more like mainstream and inclusivity.And so I'm wondering if that's what you've
seen too, So terminology and thenthe changes over over time. Yeah,
I mean, I couldn't agree more. You know, the term English Language
learner, you know, even herein Pennsylvania, it back you know,
when we first started education, Ido believe it was e s L.
(09:13):
Then they went to el L EnglishLanguage Learner, then the state decided to
chop off and L, and thenthey went to e L. And yes,
I have also seen ML's MLL inTexas. I believe they're called eb's
Emergent Bilinguals. So as I've traveledthe country, you will see a variety
of labels that you know they're placingon students who are learning the language.
(09:37):
But what I say to people is, no matter what acronym. You know,
people want to place on that classmaster label when they come in.
Who you're meeting at that time isa young person who's coming into your building
with a gift. Their parents havegifted them with the opportunity, along with
their teachers, to become bilingual.So it's a really great, you know,
opportunity to work with these students andfamilies in our career. So yeah,
(10:00):
it's always changing, but right nowI believe ML's or MLL's is what
I'm seeing the most of Your secondquestion was in terms of how it's kind
of changed over time, and Iagree, I'm seeing the same kind of
changes over time. But what's reallyawesome is that the intensity of what I
call that educational lens and accountability iscoming onto schools now to recognize English language
(10:24):
learners as having more of an assetthan a deficit. You know, when
I worked with the young people fromTaking Me Home, one of the first
messages they asked me to share withpeople relates to what you're saying, and
what that is is that being anEnglish learner is not a condition. You
know, it's not even a transition. It's an expansion. It's an expansion
(10:46):
of skills, and they're coming toyou ready. You know, with the
set of skills, they have toexpand upon those to grow even more.
And so yes, there is alot more accountability now on schools tied to
you know, the federal government,the local government, the local school systems
to shift and take a look athow these students are performing and how we
(11:07):
can better support them and engage withsuccess with their families. This podcast is
a proud member of the Teach Betterpodcast Network, Better Today, Better Tomorrow,
and the podcast to get you there. Explore more podcasts at www dot
Teach Better Podcastnetwork dot com. Nowlet's get back to the episode. I
(11:33):
really like what you said there,and I would agree at least in my
personal experience in my district. Andwe have a former English language learner as
our superintendent, and she is avery fierce advocate for English language learners,
and I think that has helped ourdistrict, who has a very high population
(11:58):
of English language learners, to understandlike you said, that it's more of
an asset. And and and studentswho already know multiple languages or are you
know, learn learning a second languagereally have an advantage. Uh. And
and it's it's interesting to look atthat way, and I really appreciate that,
(12:18):
you know, I'm a couple ofschools in my in my district,
including mine, actually have dual languageprograms, and it's kind of fascinating to
think of multi language learners kind ofhave a clear advantage in a program like
that because they already know a languageand they've at least started learning another one.
(12:41):
Where it's almost like the English speakingstudents who are in the dual language
program are slower at learning and adaptingto a new language and some new nuances
and and things like that. Butit is pretty cool to see. I
don't know if you see other programlike do a language programs like that out
(13:01):
in you know, when you traveland when you consult, But it's it's
kind of cool that we have programslike that. I think it's definitely another
way of you know, not justmainstreaming English language learners, but like really
immersing them and your native English speakersinto the same program where they're getting you
(13:24):
know, both languages and and lotsof different exposures to not just the language,
but even like cultural aspects as well. Absolutely, and you know you'll
see that, you know, inthe el program. We are working on
reading, writing, listening, andspeaking. And so if you think about
it in a dual language approach,for students that are already speaking a different
(13:48):
language at home, they do havethat advantage because they get that daily practice,
maybe you know, the of thelistening and the speaking of that language
at home if it's the language thattheir parents, you know, also speak.
If you're an English speaking student andyou don't have a family at home
that is speaking let's say Spanish,if you're in a dual language program,
then you would be doing all ofthat work at school. So that practical
(14:11):
application is something that I think thatgives your English lie wage owners an advantage
in that situation. Hey, Leaderof Learning, we'll be right back with
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work that you do, not justin your classroom, but also with the
(16:25):
educators that you speak to when youtravel and you consult. And because I'm
curious, especially for my non elteaching population who's listening, and I have
a pretty big mix of classroom teachers, administrators, district administrators, even higher
ed, what would we need toknow about what goes into working with this
(16:51):
special population of students who have thisasset, like you said before, of
having this like emerging, you know, superpower of learning a new language.
You know, I think that's areally great question and one of the first
things you have to do, youknow, as a continary teacher, a
school leader, an English language learnerteacher is team up, right, because
(17:12):
no one achieves success alone. I'ma huge John Gordon Fan I read a
lot of his work and that's oneof the first, you know, pivotal
points that he makes is that morepeople you can involve in putting together a
project or a brainstorming session, youknow, or working together towards a common
goal, the more success that youwill have. And so for our English
(17:33):
Language learners in particular, you haveto team up because your English Language learner
teacher is going to be your pointperson that's going to provide you with the
most information about this student and family. No two English language learners are the
same. You know, when Iwas teaching at Interborough High School, you
know, about a decade ago,when I did the work that I was
(17:55):
doing there, you know, Ihad students who had across the border.
I had students that work students,I had adopted students. I had students
who had waited ten years for avisa it came after their parents. I
had students that had come before theirparents. And I had students who were
born here in the US, andmost of them now are you know,
one in four across the country nowcomes from a multi lingual family. And
(18:18):
so as the EL teacher, it'sreally important that I'm bringing this information to
the team, and it's really importantthat I'm just doing my due diligence in
what I call exploring the movie andnot the snapshot of their life. Because
I had students who came in whowere already proficient in five languages. I
had students who came in that werewicked readers and writers but needed English language
(18:40):
support with listening and speaking. Ihad students who were the opposite that could
listen and speak all day long toEnglish, but if you put a piece
of literacy in front of them,they really struggled. And I had students
who were, you know, interruptededucation, who had come with traumatic situations
and were working on all four Andso when I would bring that information to
the team, that's the first thingthey needed to know. What is their
(19:03):
English language proficiency level? What didtheir former schooling look like before they came
to us. Did they move infrom down the street, did they come
from a state over, did theymove from a different country, you know,
what did that look like for them? And the other piece too is
what language did their parents prefer schoolcommunication? Because not all parents prefer their
(19:26):
first language, some of them preferEnglish, and so a lot of communication
needs to happen in the beginning inexploring that movie of the assets and the
challenges that the student is bringing tothe table. And the best person to
do that to team up with isthe EL teacher and the team, and
the best people to interview about thatare the students' parents and so providing communication
(19:48):
resources to districtwide. You know,how do you communicate with your English Language
learner parents who do prefer a languageother than English. Are you calling them
with your guidance counselor to interview them, to ask them their thoughts, answer
their questions, find out their goalswith their student, hear about their prior
school experience and any traumas that mayor may not have happened. And when
(20:10):
you can gather all of that nowyou can start to plan for instruction and
making sure that everyone in the buildingknows who your English Language learners are because
eighty percent of the time they're notwith their YEL teacher, they're with everybody
else. And so that's why Ireally get intense about everybody in the building
(20:32):
has to be on board with workingwith our students and families. Just to
second that everybody in the building hasto be on board with many of the
or all of the initiatives that takeplace in school, because it's hard to
develop and implement initiatives when not everyone'son board. I just had to throw
(20:52):
in my two cents there. Sure, No, that's really fascinating. And
as you were talking, I'm thinkingthat I know for sure there are technology
platforms and even student information systems likepower School who have kind of adapted over
the years to I think helping schoolspartner with families in this way. For
(21:15):
sure, you can look in powerSchool if your district uses it to see
and and you know, hopefully thefamily themselves have have filled out that information,
but to see what their preferred languageis. There are apps like parent
Square and Talking Points and probably othersthat allow teachers and schools to communicate with
families in whatever language they would prefer, whether it's their native language or not.
(21:40):
You know, basically, the teacheror the school sends out a message
and then it gets translated into anylanguage or not. You know, maybe,
like you said, the family stillprefers to receive communication in English.
As you were talking, I thinkyou answer this question, but I just
wanted to make sure, like interms of of sort of the teaching model,
(22:02):
the instructional model that's happening, youknow, predominantly at this point,
is it that co teaching model wherefor the most part, I think you
said about eighty percent of the time, and I'm guessing that's an average that
our English Language learners are spending inmainstream classes with their you know, native
English speaking classmates and colleagues, andthen a little bit of work just with
(22:26):
the ELL or MLL teachers. Youknow, it depends on their proficiency level
of English and reading, writing,listening, and speaking. Every state has
different recommendations for dependent upon their proficiencylevel and their screener or in the state
of Pennsylvania, it's our Access Score, which is our annual exam for English
Language learners to take that determines theirproficiency level during a given year. So
(22:49):
depending on that will equal the recommendedamount of time that an English Language learner
teacher needs to support those students inthe classroom. That can look different from
state to state, but it canalso look different in terms of classroom support.
For example, sometimes you push intothe classroom, sometimes you pull out
(23:10):
in the classroom. At a highschool level, you could have scheduled classes
where a teacher who is certified inEnglish and also as an EL teacher for
a short period of time can serveas the English teacher primarily until that student
is right. I believe it's oneyear until they're ready to go into the
mainstream classroom. They have newcomer academiesin different states where students get to spend
(23:33):
find an amount of time in thenewcomer academy if they fit that criteria.
So it's really a case by casebasis in terms of the student's needs.
But every place has different recommended amountsof times to service those students until they
exit, and the exit criteria isimportant to consider as well, because that
can differ from state to state.Fascinating stuff, it really is, and
(24:00):
you know, I know that,and I will leave all political beliefs out
of this statement, but it's justwhat I see. The evidence is there
that more and more students are arecoming into our schools all the time in
these situations where English may not betheir first language, and and it depends
how fluent they how fluent they arein English when when they come in,
(24:23):
and it has become a very bigresponsibility and a very big priority, uh
for schools to educate these students andand and have them adapt and assimilate.
I'm going to say as quickly aspossible. It's it's probably not the best
way to put it, but youknow, but in order to really succeed
(24:47):
in in school, I never reallygot to know him well enough to hear
a whole lot of his stories.But as you were speaking, I was
thinking to my grandpa, who cameto this country when he was ten years
old. And I think you evenalluded to the fact that sometimes parents come
over and then their kids come yearslater, and that's what happened to him.
(25:07):
And he worked so hard, especiallyat learning the language and losing his
accent pretty quickly. That I mean, obviously he was much later in life
when when I got to really knowhim. But I could never tell that
he spoke a different language when hewas younger, and that he came from
a different country. It was like, it was always really fascinating to me,
(25:29):
like I can't believe that. Ijust I could never tell. And
they, I'm sure they didn't haveyou know, English as a second language
programs or classes or anything like thatwhen he you know, this was we're
talking like the nineteen twenties and thirties. So yeah, yeah, absolutely,
And you know, speaking about thefact that you couldn't hear you know,
whether he didn't have that accent,that's a physical piece because if you come
(25:53):
over to a new place like theUS as an adolescent, the physical muscles
in your throat have already formed youraccent. You have an accent. I
have an accent. People hear meand they know him from Philly, right,
So it's it's impossible. What I'mtrying to say is it's impossible for
you to quote unquote us it.If you come over as an adolescent,
(26:14):
your throat has formed, your musclesare there in the way you've learned to
make sound, so it won't change. But if you come over below an
adolescent age, those muscles are notfully formed, and you do start to
acquire a different language. That's whyyou don't keep that accent that you started
with when you were younger. Andso I found that really fascinating. It's
(26:34):
one of the first things I everlearned when I went to English Lineage learner
school when we started the program yearsago. Well, I know is he
did used to tell me stories abouthow kids would make fun of him when
he was younger and he hadn't quitelost enough of his accent. But I
guess back in the twenties and thirties, part of gym class was actually boxing,
(26:56):
and he used to use like legallyspeaking or whatever you want to call
it, Like in school, heused that as a way to fight and
get back at these bullies so tospeak, who would tease him about his
accent. I always that was agreat story. I was used to like
hearing that. And plus yeah,plus he played on the football team and
(27:18):
they like didn't wear helmets back then, probably, and he used to like
he used to use that as anexcuse to take his aggression out on some
people I think too. All Right, So I really want to know about
this book, now take me home. I have it pulled up on Amazon.
It looks amazing, sounds amazing,and I know that it includes some
really cool stories. So what canyou tell us about that book? And
(27:42):
and I asked you this off theair. I don't know if you're comfortable
sharing on the air. I knowyou're working on a new one too,
So if there's anything that you couldtell us about that early project, that
would be awesome. Sure, sotake Me Home as a true story and
based on eleven of my former Englishlanguage learner students who are now in their
(28:06):
late twenties and early thirties, andthey give a first hand account of what
it's really like to become bilingual inAmerica. And this story was born out
of an experience I had over tenyears ago. I was working, like
I mentioned earlier, with about fortydifferent students at the high school level,
with about twenty five different languages,and as I mentioned before, they come
(28:26):
from all walks of life, adoptedstudents, exchange students, crossing the border,
students born here, students, etc. And I worked with one particular
family at the time, the Lopezfamily, and I had taught all seven
of their children over time, andthey happened to be from the country of
Alsalvador. And I've traveled to AlvaSalvador myself a few times to do some
(28:48):
work with some schools down and sothere were all boys and one girl,
and I started with Serio and workedmy way down to Sarahio Junior down to
Jeffrey. There was a Jeffrey fromLas Vegas, all the way down to
Nancy, the only female in thefamily. And so at that time we
had this huge classroom banner, andour classroom banner said, in my room,
(29:11):
education is opportunity, education is freedom. What's your plan? Because our
kids knew that no matter what theirprior life experiences had been, their only
plan could not be I'm not goingto be successful here. Because at the
high school level, we had afew years to work with them for their
free time in education, and weknew that we would remind them often that
(29:33):
mom and dad have given you thisgift of the ability, along with your
teachers, to become bilingual, andwe're going to figure out what this plan
wants to look like for you.And so every year, our seniors would
have this alumni day where our alumniwould come back and they would bring our
seniors a T shirt and on thatT shirt it would say wherever they were
(29:55):
headed next. We didn't care ifit was college, university, military,
trade school, vocation, workforce,YouTuber, whatever it was. We were
there to celebrate that they had finishedthis chapter of their life's plan. They
were given the opportunity to sign thatbanner to say they had graduated from our
program, and the alumni were thereto share with them about what was waiting
(30:18):
for them in this bilingual professional world. And so we went through this watcher
plan mentality together and we had alot of success, and all of those
young family, the Lopez family Imentioned before, graduated with that mentality.
And about a year after Nancy,the youngest one, had graduated, I
was teaching outside and there were abunch of helicopters outside one day, and
(30:40):
I thought, well, I hopeeverything's all right. There's a lot of
helicopters outside today. And about anhour after I had that thought, my
principal came down to get me tolet me know that one of my students
had been hit by the train,and unfortunately that student was Nancy, and
unfortunately she died that day. Shehad a pair of headphones on and she'd
made a decision to walk along theinside of the track and she didn't hear
(31:03):
the acella and it came and itclipped her from behind. And so it
threw our school community into a hugesense of trauma with these awesome kids and
teachers and her family. And oneof the most challenging parts of that day
was that mom and dad were stilllearning English themselves, so when they got
the call that something had happened toone of the kids. No one in
the local force spoke Spanish, sothey could kind of figure out that something
(31:26):
was wrong, and they could kindof figure out that something had happened to
one of the kids, but theydidn't know which one it was, and
so they stood there for hours waiting, trying to figure out which one of
their children had passed away. Andso in the coming weeks, we worked
with immigration to be allowed to haveNancy's brother come back and bury her,
(31:47):
which he was denied. We workedwith the local school community and mom and
dad to bury their daughter and navigatethe language barriers and the funeral process and
the Latino community. And the dadwas a pastor, so the church would
come and sit with them every evening, and so we were supporting the family
during this experience. One of myjobs also at that time, was to
speak at her funeral, and soI wrote this short poem and I called
(32:10):
it take Me Home, and itwas homaged to Nancy's crossing into the US.
So I let that poem sit onmy desk for a while, and
a few months later I saw itsitting there, and I continued to teach
these great kids and I thought,maybe somebody could be used, maybe this
could help someone, this part ofthis story. So I send it out
on a whim to a bunch ofpublishers, and this one publisher gets back
(32:32):
to me and they say, hey, Andrea, we really like your poem,
but we don't want you to writea poem. We want you to
write a book, and we're goingto give you six months to do it,
and if you come back with somethingwe like, we'll take you on
and publish it. And I startedto think to myself, well, I
don't just want to tell her story. I want to tell all their stories
because they're so different. And alot of my students had experiences where assumptions
(32:57):
were being made about them, wherepeople thought, if you were an eel,
they're all the same. And soI took that opportunity and I went
back and found eleven of my formerstudents who are now in their late twenties
early thirties. I interviewed them overa period of about six months, and
we created Take Me Home. It'stold in the first person through their perspective.
(33:19):
We give a chapter to each student. We cover almost every continent and
almost every experience we could think of. And it's written in the sense of
their names were changed to names ofstrength, so we have characters like Volte
and Charge and Embrace and Shine,etc. I was also able to meet
with Nancy's parents, who I stilltalk to today and get her perspective on
(33:42):
coming to the US, so she'sincluded in the story as well. And
it is written in English and itrepeats in Spanish, all within the same
book. So that's my long windedversion of our work that we've done so
far, and it's really making agreat positive impact changing hearts and minds all
around the world. That's really cool. It's i mean, obviously a sad
(34:06):
story there, but really awesome howyou and the rest of those students were
able to tell her story and theirstory. You know. I hear a
little bit of like Freedom Writers inthere with Seed Folks, which I know
is still a fairly popular book that'sread in schools, and I know for
sure that some schools have picked upyour book as well and studied it with
(34:31):
staff and students. So really awesomestuff. Anything you can tell us about
the next project, you know,the next project I'm going to start working
on this summer. I'm still doinggreat work and will continue to do great
work with Take Me Home all aroundthe country with teachers and educators, not
only in terms of reading it,but in terms of going out and talking
(34:52):
to teachers, which has been awesome. But the next project is going to
be a very similar style. I'mgoing to be interviewing about thirty different people
with a variety of topics and creatingtheir true stories to again help people gauge
perspective of what it's like to bethe many students that we see in our
(35:13):
classrooms. Awesome, Well, thankyou for the work you've done, the
work that you are doing and willcontinue to do, including this upcoming project.
It's always really cool for me anywayto hear about this stuff. It's
not something that I have a lotof expertise in, and so I love
(35:35):
learning about it, you know.I mean this is called leader of Learning,
right. We're helping people grow theirimpact as instructional leaders, and I
think this is such an important piece. And it's not just because I wanted
to make sure I got this outthere too. It's not just because our
multi language learners, along with ourstudents with disabilities, are those subgroups that
everyone is so concerned about you know, making the mark on their state tests.
(35:59):
It's because we're really trying trying toget them to be successful, not
just in school, but at thenext level and like you said, wherever
they choose to go after leaving ourprograms. So thank you for your work,
Thank you for your time. Pleaseshare with the audience as well where
they can connect with you. Ofcourse, I will let the listeners know
(36:19):
that Andrea's book Take Me Home,as well as her website and social media
contact information will be in the shownotes. But where can everybody find you
if they need you? You know, the best place to find me is
via the website, which is andreabitnerbooksdot com. You can also connect with
me directly on LinkedIn or we're stillcalling it Twitter now or Twitter as well,
but they are probably the three bestplaces. The website, LinkedIn and
(36:44):
Twitter, you can follow our journeyand learn more about the work that we're
doing with schools. Awesome. Thankyou so much for your time and the
amazing information. Amazing work. Iknow you and I will continue to stay
connected, but I really appreciate yougetting this out there for for the listeners,
and yeah, just thanks, Ireally appreciate it. Oh. Thanks
(37:04):
for having me. Well that's itfor this episode. Thank you so much
for listening. If you haven't doneso yet, don't forget to subscribe to
this show on your favorite podcast app. If you enjoy the content covered on
this show, I want to askyou to do this one thing for me.
Please share it. The biggest favoryou could ever do for me is
(37:28):
to please let others know about whatI'm doing and how I'm helping educators grow
their impact as instructional leaders. Ihope you can share this podcast with other
educators, leaders, friends, oranyone you think would love listening and learning.
If you're interested in leaving a positiverating and review of this show,
links to do so are always inthe show notes for every episode. For
(37:51):
more information about me or this show, and to access the great content that
I share, please visit my websiteat Leader of Learning dot com. That's
where you can find my online courses, YouTube channel, blog, how to
connect with me on social media,and even ways that you can support the
show like donating or purchasing Leader ofLearning merchandise. Thanks again, and remember,
(38:14):
no matter who you are or whereyou are, you are a Leader
of Learning,
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