Be Part of an ELD Archipelago

Anyone who first becomes an EL teacher quickly realizes that there typically aren’t that many other EL teachers in a school or district. This means there are rarely people around you who know what your job entails, what you teach, and how you teach it. We often don’t even have classrooms, but closets instead! How many of you have had to teach in the hallway or cafeteria instead? I know I have! There are exceptions, of course, border schools in Texas, Arizona, California, and some parts of large cities all have large populations of English learners, so they have a need for many ELD teachers in a building or district. However, this has not been my experience. Instead, I have usually been the only ELD teacher. The regular classroom teachers don’t understand what we teach, so it makes us feel like outsiders, like islands. But, I have a new theory for the case of all the islands of ML teachers that exist in this world.

What if, instead, we were a group of islands like the Azores or Indonesia? We could be an archipelago–each island with its own knowledge, flair, and skills, but also who shares all of this with each other. This website is meant to be that place. I will be putting out content to share my 23+ years of ELD island experience and forming an archipelago on social media. In addition, I will be conducting professional development for all levels of EL expertise, but especially for newer teachers and content teachers. Generally, I will be the facilitator, but not the only source of knowledge.  I can learn from you as much as you can learn from me. I hope you’ll join my EL Archipelago by signing up for my mailing list where you’ll get freebies, be the first to know about new content, and access to private groups. Alternately, click here for my Facebook Group ELD Archipelago.