Code the Dream

Anyone who is in the field of education is well aware that there has been a huge push for STEM education in the past decade or so.  Recently, attention has been drawn to the fact that women are highly underrepresented in the field of STEM, and girls are not pursuing classes in science, technology, engineering or math.  This week, I discovered an article that made me realize that this lack of diversity is not just in regards to women.  The tech industry is made up of only 8% Hispanic workers, and only 7% black workers.  One organization in the city of Durham, North Carolina, is working to change that. 

In “Code the Dream in Durham helps immigrant and refugee communities give back and diversify tech world”, Anne Blythe visits a Saturday morning coding class filled with immigrants, minorities, and refugees from the surrounding communities.  The article describes successful students who have created apps or landed jobs with tech companies or universities after completing the program.  The program not only introduces the students to programming and coding technology, but it also connects them with mentors in the technology industry.

These students are not only benefiting personally from the opportunity to take these classes, but many of them are developing apps and programs that give back to their own communities.  One such program is called Student Action with Farmworkers.  A pair of Code the Dream graduates worked together to create a portal to help farmworkers find services they need in North Carolina.  In either Spanish or English, farmworkers and their families can find nearby health care, education opportunities, legal and immigration help, government agencies, housing and job information.

While this organization currently only exists in Durham due to the wonderful collaboration of some motivated people with a goal to help immigrant communities in North Carolina, I see no reason why it couldn’t serve as a model to be used in any town, anywhere.  If nothing else, we can take away the lesson that our English language learners have so much to offer.  Shouldn’t we offer them the opportunity of technology education so they can have a change at jobs in the tech industry?  I know it is a daunting task, on top of teaching English and everything else we are required to do, but it seems that incorporating tech into their lessons a necessity.

Read more about the program at www.codethedream.org

Surprising "Tech Essentials" of an ELL Specialist

This week I was thrilled to see an article come across my Google alerts titled “ELL Specialist: These are My ‘Tech Essentials’”.  I thought that I had finally found the perfect article that would give me all the answers on the absolute best ways to use technology to help my students learn English.  As I began reading, I was even more convinced that I had struck gold.  The ELL Specialist the article is referring to is the administrator for multilingual programs at Beaverton Public Schools in Beaverton, OR.  She is responsible for the education of 5,000 English language learners (ELLs), and those students speak more than 95 different languages.  This person obviously is an expert and has experience to know what she is talking about!

As I continued to read, I discovered that the entire school system is something called “Future Ready,” which means that the teachers and students are using technology in some form in every single lesson.  Teachers are expected to design lessons that are both innovative and engaging.  “Perfect!” I thought.  “They’ve definitely got to have some great tools to share with this focus on technology.”  I scanned down and saw three bullet points.  I was a bit surprised that she had narrowed her essentials down to only three things.  My surprise did not end as I discovered what those things are.

First, she named something that I had not heard of before, and we have not discussed in our CALL class.  Every ELL classroom in their district has something called Lightspeed Redcat audio systems.  This is an amplification system that is used so that teachers can use natural voices and not have to project so much throughout the day.  The justification is that it is important that ELLs are able to hear the teacher clearly.

The second essential was most surprising to me, mostly because I consider it a normal part of every classroom.  She named teacher laptops as another “tech essential”.  They are necessary for ELL teachers especially because of the need for creating lessons and presentations with lots of visuals.  Again, I certainly agree with this assessment, but was surprised to see it included because I feel like it should almost be a given these days.  I was looking for something a little more cutting edge.

Finally, she named iPads as another essential for ELL classrooms.  As I do not have access to these, or any one-to-one device for my students, I would have to agree that something like this would be ideal for my ELLs.  She pointed out that iPads are very useful to help connect students to their native languages.  They use Google translate to adapt the keyboard feature to put the English alphabet underneath the students’ native alphabet, which I think could be very helpful, especially for languages such as Ukranian that do not use the Roman alphabet. 

Overall, I definitely agree with her assessment that these three tools could be considered “tech essentials” for an ELL classroom.  I do admit to being a bit disappointed that they were not the magic solutions I was hoping for when I first came across the article.  As with any type of technology we try to implement in our classrooms, they will only be effective if we – the educators – are knowledgeable about how to use them effectively. 

English Learner Roadmap - California Leads the Way

This week’s article is not focused so much on tech as on improving educational programming for English learners in California.  As “State board: ‘English Learner Roadmap’ to aid 1.4M students” reports, the CA State Board of Education just approved a policy called the English Learner Roadmap, and since 1 in 4 students in California are English Learners, this is going to mean big changes.  Due to its diverse student population, other states often look to California for examples of how to support their ELs, so it is possible these changes may spread to other states in the coming years.  It seems that something like this has been a long time coming.  It will remove many outdated “barriers to bilingual and multilingual instruction,” and is in fact the first time in 20 years that a new policy like this has been created.

The English Learner Roadmap is a response to the voter approved proposition 58, which does several things:

       1. It includes a requirement that public schools ensure students become proficient in English.

2     2. It requires school districts to reach out to parents and communities for input in developing          
           language acquisition programs.

            3. It authorizes school districts to set up dual-language immersion programs for both native and non-      native English speakers.

With all of the research agreeing that dual language programs are the highly beneficial for all students involved, I am very encouraged that California is headed in the right direction with this policy.  It is also one of the states that includes the Seal of Biliteracy on its diplomas for graduates who have demonstrated dual language skills.  What a great advantage these students will have when going on to college and the job market!

Wondering why this matters for all students?  Check out The Many Benefits of BeingBilingual!