ELD
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Epiphany: Co-teaching is NOT a Panacea
Arguing in my head has led to a lot of Aha moments in my life, but I just had one that takes the cake. Often I have seen it argued that we are assuming that our students are dumb because they cannot complete the work because of their language level. However, it’s not that the Continue reading
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Success
Success comes in many forms. At times success comes after a lot of hard work and time dedicated to a particular event or objective. Sometimes success just happens because the right pieces fall together. That was today. Today’s success was a mix of well thought out planning, and great students coming together to make a lesson Continue reading
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Comprehensible input
All the time I hear from teachers the same question over and over again; “How do I teach vocabulary to my EL’s?” And every time I walk into their classroom, check out their materials, methods, and strategies, I notice that it isn’t vocabulary that they are missing. In fact, they usually have that part down Continue reading
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VIP Kid 2 Week Update
As of today, I hit my 14th day with VIP Kid, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. So today I thought I would post an update and share some tips for those who are thinking about joining or have recently joined. 2 Week Update After my first week, I was certified at Level Continue reading
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Creative Homework Solutions
Involving parents in their children’s homework is a great way to build parent participation in both their children’s lives, but also in the school, especially when they are unable to come during scheduled events. However, there are some serious considerations you need to think about before assigning homework that involves family members. In this post Continue reading
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Individual Learning Plans
Over the past few weeks we have received many new students. Some from other countries and others are from schools in MN and the greater United States. One of the hardest things to judge as an ELL teacher is how to support students when they first arrive from other schools. MN doesn’t have one reporting Continue reading
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To wrap up the year, I thought I would reflect on the things that have impacted my teaching the most. From the strategies learned and tested to the sociopolitical atmosphere currently stressing the foundations of what education is. These are the things that for good or bad I have taken away from the 2017 year. Continue reading
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Why the word Rigor irks me.
This blog wouldn’t be called The Life Argotic without me taking on some buzzwords. So this will be my inaugural buzzword debunking. I’m fairly certain it won’t be my last. Education is full of them. Every time I hear the word rigor, I cringe and brace for whatever is coming next following that word. Why? Continue reading
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Why you shouldn’t call them the WIDA "Standards"
One thing that I think EL teachers need to get better at is explaining our profession. However, one of the largest organizations for teaching English, WIDA, doesn’t make it easy when they decided to call their framework of instructional tools, “standards”. What is WIDA?WIDA stands for the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment. It’s a consortium Continue reading
The Life Argotic 