Shownotes
As teachers of ELLs, we want every student to feel welcomed, safe, loved. We want every child to succeed. We want to celebrate diversity and admire the gift our students have in speaking multiple languages!
In our 99th episode host Beth Vaucher sits down for a lively chat with the amazing Andrea Bitner. Andrea is an author, speaker, and educator of 23 years. Join us as Andrea shares valuable insights and practical strategies for how to bridge the diverse cultures in your school.
Resources:
Transcripts
This is just honestly the best thing about having a podcast is all
the different connections that I have made through this platform
and. I love you reached out a couple of months ago and shared a
little bit about some projects you're doing and a book that you've
written. And it has just been so fun to see the passion you have
for multilingual learners and where that's taking you and to get
to have you on the show today to share more about
that. Thank you so much. I couldn't agree more. I mean, in the
journey that I've been on for the past few years as well, making
those. Connections and realizing that our bubbles of schools are
so much bigger
than we think
they are. When you get out into the world and meet educators like
yourself and beyond.
Exciting. It's exciting the world we're living in in that sense
for sure. Well, let's begin. Do I need to share a little bit about
your educational experience and what you're up to
now? Sure. So I've been in education for 24 years. I'm currently
in English Language learner Teacher based out of Philadelphia, PA.
In addition to that, I'm an author and also a speaker. But I
didn't start out that way. 24 years ago, I started out as a high
school English teacher, was hired right out of College over the
weekend. And given what I lovingly called some of the most at
risk, toughest kids in. The building. And. I was freshman class of
students and here I am bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to
go and had just come off a great student teaching experience. And
I was given all these kids. That hated
school.
And I was like, what am I going
to do?
I was going home in tears. Why don't they like school? What did I
do? How can I attack this. How can I help them? So what I quickly
figured out was that I had a freshman class of students who didn't
know how to
read.
Wow. And they had gotten through school and had some feelings
about that. And so when I was putting this content in there in
front of them, they were really struggling with that. And the
behaviors that were coming from it were because of it. And so I
went back to school, and I continued to teach them. And I became a
reading specialist. So I got a master's in reading. And I learned
I felt unequipped at the time. Like, how am I going to help these
kids? So when I went back to school and became a. Reading
specialist. Then I felt like I had more tools in my toolbox. I
knew what to do when these students arrived at the high school
level. So as I was working with their students, I actually ended
up moving down to a middle school level. And I was a title one
reading specialist for a middle school for a few years. And I
really started to get curious about working with English learners
because I had this great grade level. Partner across the Hall,
Mike kinka, who was working with the elves in the building. And I
started to have elves in my reading groups. And I thought, how can
I help and support these kids better? So I went back to school
again, and I took a few years and got my certifications as an
English Language learner teacher. So really. 1st 17 of the 24
years I've been in education, I've been a support teacher. I've
always been working with students and teachers and administrators,
et cetera.
That's incredible. I love this and this really kind of hitting on
the topic we're going to be talking about today. We're going to be
talking about. A book that you've written called Take Me Home, and
before we get into that. It's clear even just by your story. Just.
How inspired you get by your students. I love that you see these
students, you identify why the behaviors are not just saying, oh,
they have behavior issues. You really went to the core of it, then
went on to get educated on how to teach them. I just love this how
those students are so inspirational to you. And that's really led
you to write this book. But how do you get there? How do you get
to that point where you're just having a. Connection with your
students is so strong, especially when you moved into working with
your English language learners. You're working with students who
don't speak English. Different cultures, different from all around
the world. Right in your classroom, it can feel really
overwhelming sometimes for some educators. So will you share a
little bit more before we dive into talking more about your book.
Of just some ways that teachers can build that same type of
connection with their students that trust, maybe share a few
questions. I know you have some essential questions that you
encourage teachers to ask. And just give us some insight into
that. Absolutely. The first thing I realized when working with
English Language learners is the best person to communicate with
about them is their parents. And so having teachers feel equipped
with resources to confidently communicate with their parents is
essential. And so using interpreters if the parent prefers the
language other than English or. Using apps if they're in person or
using great companies like Language based Services or propio One
or Talking Points or the Say Hi app, whatever resources you may
have, I always think you want to be Proactive, not reactive.
Right? So having that mentality of I definitely want to have a
conversation with this student's parents because they're the. Root
of information. To my students. And so I always start out by
reaching out to the students parents, via email and over the phone
and having a conversation about, where is your student coming
from? Are they coming from down the street? Did you just move a
neighborhood over? Are they coming from another state? Are they
coming from another country? Were they born here? What was their
formal education like, right. You want. To start to have these
conversations. What are their strengths? What are their worries?
And so from that, then you start to gauge. Some communication and
some connections with the parents in addition to that in the
classroom. I'm a huge believer that everybody in the building
needs to know your English language learners are why? Because 80%
of their interactions are outside of
the El
classroom. And so you want to try to proactively again, set them
up for success. So I'm the teacher in the building that's known
for. I'm walking them down to the cafeteria team. I'm walking them
to the maintenance team. I'm walking them to the trans.
Transportation team. We're in the office. I mean, we're
introducing our kids to everybody. So they start to gauge that
comfort zone with the support of the L teacher for that first
meeting.
From there now I start to think, Well, how do we connect our kids
not only building wide, but school wide and district wide. And so
we are really intentional about creating opportunities for our El
students to meet each other. And so many times they don't even
know we have 31 different languages in my district. And hundreds
of students a lot of times they're not even sure that there's
another student who speaks kamai around the hall. Or maybe there's
a friend who grades up that also speaks vietnamese. Or maybe
there's a buddy down in first grade that also speaks Spanish. And
so we start to be really intentional about connecting our kids
with activities throughout the year within the building. Then we
thought big. Bigger. Let's connect them throughout the district.
So we wrote some grants. And we are able to take our kids on four
community experiences every year that allows them to meet other
kids within the district. And then we said, Well, Hey, let's think
even bigger. And then we created a countywide El summer camp. And
so we're really great about connecting our kids. So. That they
don't ever feel that isolation of being the only student in the
building that possibly speaks different
languages.
Can you hear me? Yes. Can
you hear me?
Okay.
It
froze for a second.
It's probably 1 second. Let me switch
internet. You're fine.
Okay. Are
you back? Can you hear me? Yes.
Are you back?
Okay. All I can
hear. Okay. All Right. Great. So. You pause right after in the
district. Yeah. So. After we connect our students district wide,
we started to think even bigger. And we thought, Well, how can we
connect our students? Countywide. So we created Summer countywide
El Camps that run for four weeks in the mornings, where we have
one host school, and everybody buses our students into that host
school for that summer. And we have teachers that run those. Camps
so kids can connect that way so. We are really proud of the work
that we're doing with connecting our students in all these
different opportunities. But in addition to that when I think
about the El students in the classroom within the building with
their teachers that they're spending time with. I always say it
doesn't matter if your student is an El student, a title one
student, a first grader, a 12th grader. Spending time in this
field for this amount of time, I've learned that all students and
families are looking for three things. They're looking to feel
respected. They're looking to feel accepted, and they're looking
to feel admired and. Ask their teacher if you can find ways to
show them that respect, that acceptance, that admiration. Not just
on their easy days, I say,
but
on their challenges.
Too
because you'll have kids that will work for you and you'll have
parents who feel that from you and will want to communicate with
you. So just really setting up all of these parameters, I think is
really important in the beginning of the year. In addition to
that, I always say to districts when I speak with them. Have you
been intentional about creating time for your El teachers to meet
with your students, content teachers, and team up because it's
really important that we go into the year with that mentality of
not a me but a we. Are a team. We have this amazing student with a
gift sitting in front of us. How can we work together to set them
up for success, make the accommodations they need that will fade
over time and keep checking in. And what will that schedule look
like. So really, all hands on deck, in that sense that we're
working together.
I love those ideas because. They really are just looking. In a
proactive way, I think that's when you will have success
throughout the year, when you take that time at the beginning of
the year, doing those exact same things, getting connected to the
parents. Of meeting with setting that schedule with the teachers.
All those things seem like a lot at the beginning of the year, but
I know I'm sure you probably have plenty of stories where because
you did that then when things came up down the road or you needed
to work differently with the teachers you're working with. You
already had built that kind of parameters. Like you're saying, you
already had that mutual respect going. On with parents and
whatever in that situation. Where it went, much smoother than if
it's the first time you're contacting a parent and you're having
to say, like, hey, we're having this issue, that type of thing. So
I love just kind of switching it and really looking at ways how
can we set our students up. For success. And what can I do?
Because. I love how you really looked. Beyond what's the next
thing we can do? Okay. We went from in our school to now in our
district to now countywide. I mean, that is so inspirational to
just be like, yeah, keep dreaming, write those grants, find those
ways. And I'm sure so much power in students seeing that there's
other students who speak the same language as them in the district
or in the area, or maybe even the families connecting outside of
school.
And when we plan those family events, I always say we incorporate
the four F family food, free and fun and. Making sure there is no
childcare required. Bring
the whole family,
making sure you have a location that's central most families can
at least get
to
school. Even if the location is elsewhere. So providing that
transportation to your families, from the school to that event,
having a ton of food. We've done things like pizza on the
playground, where
it's simple.
Pizza outside. The kids can play. They're having a blast. Our
older students at the high school level act as mentors. Come down
to help supervise those students. Now, I have access to your
parents who love meeting each other. And we can give them
resources right where we work with local libraries, where we
geared up for the summer. They're giving out library cards.
They're seeing what programs are available for the summer. Mr.
Softy, the ice cream chalk came outside. It was awesome. These
parents connect with each other because you're right. They don't
often get opportunities because they're not in school all day.
They're not being given that free education right now. They're
working or they're at home taking care of their family. So
reducing that isolation for them is extremely important as
well. Amazing. Those ideas are gold. I love it and simple about
this. All right, so let's move into your book. I would love to
spend some time sharing about this. Can you give us just a quick
summary. And share more about your heart and mission for writing
this. Yes. So Take Me Home is the true story of eleven of my
former students from almost every continent who give a first. Hand
look of what it was really like to become bilingual in America.
And it's written in English. And it also repeats in Spanish, all
within the same
book.
And the mission and inspiration came from it. Because about ten
years ago, I worked with about 40 different students at the high
school level. And they had about 25 different languages. And they
came from all walks of life. I had students that were adopted. I
had exchange students. I had kids that crossed the border. I had
kids that were born here. I had students that had waited ten years
for. A Visa and came later, after their parents. I had kids that
came ten years before their parents. And so we had this really
diverse group of students. And no matter where they came from or
what their proficiency level was coming into the classroom, we
knew that we had four years or less at that high school level to
give them an opportunity to have some free education and prepare
them to be a young, bilingual professional
in the world.
And so in the classroom, we had this big banner. And it said,
Education is opportunity. Education is freedom. What's your plan?
Because our kids knew that their only plan can't be I'm going to
return to my country right now, or I'm going to return to the
state I came from or a block over down the street. It can't be
that. And they knew that their plan couldn't be I'm not going to
be successful here. Because we would tell them your parents have
worked too hard to give you this gift, along with your teachers,
of becoming bilingual. And so we're going to work hard at this
plan, to develop it to get you on your next chapter of your life.
And so we went through this mentality. And I worked with these
amazing kids. And there was one particular family. I worked with
the Lopez family. And I had taught all seven of their children
over time. And it was all boys
and one
girl. And they happened to be from the country of salvador. And
I've traveled to salvador myself a few times to work with a school
down there. And so I knew this family for many years. And they all
went through this plan. And they all signed that banner. When they
graduated. And about a year after the youngest Nancy had
graduated, the only girl in the family I was teaching one day, and
there were a bunch of helicopters outside, and I thought, wow, I
hope everything's okay. There's a lot of helicopters outside
today. And about an hour after that, my principal came down to get
me to let me know that one of my students had. Been hit by the
train.
And unfortunately that student was Nancy, and she passed away that
day. And one of the most challenging parts that began that day
into the coming weeks was that mom and dad were still learning
English
themselves.
So when they received the call that something had happened to one
of the kids, no one on the local force spoke Spanish. And so they
could kind of put together that something was wrong, and they
could kind of put together that something. Had happened to one of
the kids, but they didn't know which one it
was.
And so they went up to the track. And they stood there for hours
calling and waiting and trying to figure out what had happened
until we could all get there to support them. And so in those
coming weeks. One of my jobs. In addition to the many experiences
we went through and the trauma that it caused not only the kids
but the community. Dad's, a pastor mom works alongside him. The
school, et cetera was for me to speak at her funeral. And so at
the time, I created this short little poem, and I called it Take
Me Home, and it was an homage to. Nancy's life story. And that
piece of paper sat on my desk after that experience. And I
continued to teach these awesome kids. And one day I looked at
that piece of paper, and I thought, Well, maybe something about
this could help someone, maybe it would be inspirational for other
teachers or kids in the country. So I set that out on a whim to
some pub. Publishers. And a couple of months later, this publisher
gets back to me and they're like, hey, Andrea, we really like your
poem, but we don't want you to write a poem. We want you to write
a book. And we're going to give you six months
to do it.
And if you come back with something that we like, we're going to
take you on and publish. And that's why I started to 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. So many people in
my experience as a support teacher have had assumptions about our
English language learners, and I started to feel like it was part
of my mission to debunk some of those and help people understand
just how amazing and diverse these students are. And so I went
back and found eleven of my former. English learners who were now
in late 20s, early thirty s. And I said to them now that you are a
young, bilingual, professional, out and living in the world and
you can look back on your school experiences, what were they
really like for you? And so from those conversations over months
after. We came up with Take Me home. And so we are really proud of
it. We changed the students names to names of strength. So we have
names like grit and Fuel and Surgeon Bolton Charge. Nancy is known
as Shine in the story. I was able to go back and interview mom and
dad. So we tell all their stories and we weave her stories through
it. And we're really proud of the work it's doing. It's been read
around the country. It's been read around the world by educators.
By support teachers by El students. I just got a call last week.
It's being read in Kansas by 100
seniors.
So it's really changing perspectives and shedding light on how
awesome these young people are.
Wow. That's incredible. Andrea. I love how going back to. Your
first point you made just seeing your students as so inspirational
and really giving them that spotlight to shine is so powerful.
We'll put a link for sure in the show notes because I know anyone
listening is like, Let me get my hands on that. That sounds
amazing, especially if you're working with high school ells. It
sounds like an incredible project to use and read through the book
and then have students really give them an opportunity to share
their story as well. I'm sure there's different ways that
teachers. Could use that in that type of way, too. But stories are
so they're just so powerful. And I love how you really talked
about how you really looked at different students you had and the
different paths that they took to get into the United States. And
you had students from many different backgrounds in different ways
that some born there some cross. Over the border. Some waited for
visas. I'm sure that you saw. Just many of your students. They
faced different challenges. Of assimilating. To the new country
that they're living in versus preserving their own culture. How do
you feel like or do you hit on this in the book of just how some
of the students they navigated. This tightrope. I call it this
living in between of like you're kind of a foreigner in your new
country. But then if you go back to your and visit your old
country, you're kind of a foreigner there as well. So there's just
so much that kids endure. And acclimate and assimilate and. Face
as they walk through these different. Seasons of life. And it's
just incredible to see. Just how incredible our students are and
what they face and what they are able to get through. So hit it on
that point, Andrea. Just how the students kind of walk through
that of adjusting to the new culture, but also still preserving
the culture that they left.
Absolutely, they did. And one of the stories that you're talking
about makes me think of one of the young men in the book, his name
is Embraced. He was born here in the US, in wilmington, delaware,
and his family was from. South America, and he said he always had
this sense being at home. That they'll be speaking Spanish, and
then going to school and speaking English. That the world was much
bigger than wilmington, delaware. He always kind of was instilled
with there's a lot more to the world than just what's here on our
block. And so he said he always felt like he had a secret party
trick because. He could flick back and forth between English and
Spanish whenever he wanted to. But he didn't realize. Those
differences within his culture, within his language, within his
experiences until about third grade. And that's when I've noticed
as well like that social awareness starts to set in in general and
so kids and even with that I work with now that I teach right
around the end of second, middle of third grade. Will start to
notice that they have that secret party trick that they can do
something that other
kids
can. And they'll say that to me they'll say, Miss B, I can do
something my friends can't do. I can speak
mandarin and I'm like.
Isn't that awesome. Or on the flip side, they'll start to go. My
mom's. English. Isn't that
good.
And they'll start to notice that. And I'm like, okay. And I'll say
to them, Well, that's great. You have an opportunity to practice
yours all the time. Or they'll start to say, My mom and dad really
need me to help them speak a lot. I have to go to a doctor's
appointment, or I have to go to order at a restaurant. So those
types of things will start to affect. Their thoughts on the
differences between the two worlds. They also navigate it in terms
of simple things. And I don't say simple in a way that's not
respectful. But
holiday differences.
Food differences bringing foods to school that maybe other kids
are unaware of. Clothing differences. Right holidays. They're not
willing to celebrate that. Maybe some of their friends do. So they
start to have to navigate. All these different touch points along
their school career. And sometimes it can be really challenging
for them. And so we try to do our best to provide opportunities to
highlight those differences and to help them be proud of those
differences. And to allow their friends to be a part of those
differences in learning more about them. And we do things within
the classroom to promote that like people who are proud of me,
bores are in my classroom. And so we say to the kids, make a list
of five people in your life who you know are proud of you. And
then we send that list home, and parents will email me. Pictures.
So I've got aunts and uncles and grandmas and grandpa's and
teachers within the building and cafeteria workers and maintenance
staff and whoever is in their life, right that matters to them are
now watching them. And we built this beautiful board in our
classroom. And the kids promote conversation from it. In addition
to that, we have Bring a friend to Class Day, where they're
bringing in their monolingual peers. Because their friends always
say, I don't want to come to your room. I want to come for group.
And I laugh. And I'm like, Well, I work with, I always say, the
best and brightest in the building. And you're one of the best and
brightest, too. But you have to be invited by one of my students.
And so bring a friend. A is a big deal. What does it do? It
bridges that light, that gap of understanding. So now they're in
the classroom and they're looking and they're showing them these
pictures of the people that are proud of them. And. On those
boards are everything you're saying. The language differences, the
cultural differences, the clothing differences, the food
differences. And it's promoting conversation in a
safe
place where our kids get to feel
proud.
And so in addition to that, we put a lot of literacy into our
program to promote those diversities. We're reading stories.
Called I Am an English. Learner Stories. We just read last week.
We just read Yosebalingue last week and starting to bring that
awareness of look at all of these pieces of the world that are so
much bigger than you that we're incorporating into your daily life
within my building. My principal took it upon himself to put the
flags from all of the different kids and their cultures. Within
the building on the wall. So they run the length of the
walls in the
hallways. And then they've got the countries on top of them. So as
kids are walking down the Hall. That's promoting awareness and
conversation. Oh, there's morocco. Our kids were so excited, they
came running. And did you see my cambodian flag? Is there? Yeah, I
saw it. So I could go on and on. But I really think these are just
ways to promote positivity and conversation in respect to those
ideas. Wow. And again, Andrea, I think this is such an episode
that's just so filled with golden nuggets, because those are
really simple things. I mean, I love that idea of bring a friend
and really breaking down those barriers of that mystery. What
happens in there? Why do you have to go to her all that talk
instead of make it this amazing thing, like, sure you get to come
say because. You are at Spring, A Friend Day and creating a safe
spaces for students to feel confident and excited to share about
their superpower and about their culture. And then in a way that
is just a really positive space. I love that so incredible? We're
running out of time? So. I want to quickly talk to you about. Your
book. You share about eleven different students that you taught
with. What personal lessons or insights have you gained about the
human spirit, resilience, and the pursuit of dreams? Anybody who's
worked with multilingual learners sees that in these students and
these families that have overcome so much. Many very young
children have overcome so much and you see that in them, that
spirit in them that they are going to do big things. And it's such
a blessing and honor to get to support them and help them in this
journey. But share a little bit about that. As you had your
students share their stories. What were some of your takeaways
from
that. There were a few, I think one of the biggest conversation
pieces we had throughout their experiences was that lack of
language never equals lack of intelligence. And they had to
navigate that in many areas and experiences through their life.
And I think that's really important for people to take away that
point when you meet someone learning for. The learning English for
the first time. Treat that period of their life like an asset, not
a deficit. It's not a handicap. This is something that's going to
grow over time and something else I think they've really
experienced was that no one achieved success alone. Island living
is no fun. And you need to have. A group of people around you
through your time when. You're learning this language? Who what I
have called binocular thinking and not microscope thinking. And so
through these conversations with them, it was easy to see that
they had people around them who could see the long term future,
who could see where they were headed and were willing to go with
them. And through the day to day survival, some of. Them needed in
order to get
them
there. And so just having that binocular thinking, not that
microscope thinking is so pivotal for our kids. I can't tell you
how many lunches we would have with some of our kids, where they
would just be tears. And I can't do this. And I want to go back.
And we'd say, you can do it just one step at a time. One. Day at a
time. And here we are years later, seeing these successful young
people. That we're extremely proud of. So I think those are some
of the things that really hit home from the
talks that we had.