Mrs. G. Goes Back to School: Going Deeper with Multilingual Learners
It's definitely been a minute since grad school. I graduated in 2011 with my second masters in Reading Instruction at St Xavier University Chicago. I later took one class at the EdD level with North Central before dropping out of my program because I didn't win the full ride scholarship. Yes I'm a EdD drop out-your girl will not take out any more loans; I face financial barriers just like many of my students as a Latina educator trying to navigate the world of education myself. Limited resources. A strain towards upward mobility.
As of late, I've had full rosters of ELL learners (although I like to refer to them as MLL's-multilingual learners). Even without real notice in my AP Language and Composition sections. This is high stakes. Once discovered, my heart started churning in my chest. Blood pressure shot up a tad. For the past 3 school years with full rosters, I've leaned into my Latinidad, celebration of cultural identity, code-switching, Spanglish, a few strategies, and my mama instincts. With no language acquisition training, I decided to go back to school with some incredible colleagues (one my former student-how cool is that?) We're off to Dominican University Chicago online to snatch an ELL Endorsement! I'm pretty excited. Nervous about the coursework and commitment put honest, but I'm here fore it.
Going deeper in my advocacy work, my activism, la lucha for the Latino community. My students deserve that I get the ultimate best practices out there to press into reading and writing abilities, while preserving their cultural landscapes in the process. This is a version of equity and quality resources in my mind that our students are worthy of receiving. I need to be that quality resource, so here we go. Wish me good vibes y suerte! The next year and a half G is gonna be nose in the books, y alma deeper in the work. Para mi gente, this one's for you.
