If you are bringing in a consultant or speaker, planning ahead can make the day moresuccessful for the audience and everyone. In this document, I’m sharing from myexperiences as both an organizer and a consultant/speaker who has visited schools andeducational support centers across the nation. This document includes tips for organizing the professional development months before, weeks ahead, during the actual day, and reflection after. You can download it here.  organiz ..read more

By Valentina Gonzalez, 2024 Much like a first impression, the first few days of school lay the groundwork for the rest of the year. They help to create a foundation and atmosphere. Traditionally these days have been used to set up the “rules” and for compliance. But instead, I offer you a few more community and relational techniques to start the year with students. You can adjust these to meet your students’ age level, but mostly they can be accommodated to fit K-12.  These were chosen because they keep a focus on multilingual learners’ needs by building community, encouraging interact ..read more

The other day as my husband and I took a stroll behind our house, I found a small patch of dandelions at various stages. At first, I didn’t know that the late stages of the dandelion that we commonly blow and make a wish are the same plant that blooms a yellow flower. While some call dandelion weeds, I delight in their beauty and whimsy.  After I blew and made a wish I realized just how much dandelions and teachers have in common.  Each is resilient. Teachers adapt to new leadership and new learning spaces, and dandelions have been known to grow all over the place!  Teachers ..read more

As we wrap up 2023 with a big beautiful bow, I am looking forward to 2024 and hoping to meet you in person in 2024.  While a large majority of the work I do is directly with schools, these are a few upcoming, OPEN to the public opportunities where we might be able to connect.  January 12, 2024: Keynote Speaker AMTESOL: Mississippi January 26, 2024: Keynote Speaker IABE: Idaho March 19, 2024, Designing Success for Multilingual Learners ONLINE May 9, 2024: Keynote Speaker MABE: Michigan  Reach out for more information or have a look at the additional services ..read more

Download the PDF below.  Language surrounds us in everyday life. The big and small day-to-day interactions with family members and caregivers can offer valuable and authentic opportunities for language development. Caregivers often ask how they can help support their child's language development at home.  ​Many caregivers have been under the impression that using the target language at home is the best or only way to help their child acquire the new language. They are often surprised to learn that first language is foundational to additional language acquisition. Therefore, speaking ..read more

Accessing prior knowledge is an important element of instruction especially when serving multilingual learners. It doesn’t have to take long, but when implemented it can stimulate thinking and help new learning stick too.  ABC Brainstorming is one way to access prior knowledge, and it can also be used as a culminating activity. ABC Brainstorming can be done in small collaborative groups or it can be done individually. I have found it most effective when introduced first individually for a few minutes and then in small collaborative groups.  This brainstorming technique is a structu ..read more

Click the image to download the PDF with live links to each platform.  ..read more

This is a monolingual brain. This is a brain on multiple languages.  In a globalized society, it is a disadvantage to understand and speak a single language. Nations work together to solve problems as well as communicate and work alongside one another. Therefore, one who is able to speak and understand multiple languages has apparent advantages in communication over one who can not.  Let’s examine the brain,  languages, and how this plays out in our classrooms.  Monolingual people can become bilingual or even multilingual! The brain is a magnificent organ. And scientists ..read more

The F-Word. Fidelity & Why it May Be a Fallacy for EL Instruction Buzzwords in education are like mosquitos. They are here for a while and during that time they become very annoying. Lately, many educators are hearing one certain F word frequently in regard to programs and curriculum.  FIDELITY  This f-word has been rather annoying over the past year or more as I’ve traveled and worked with teachers around the nation discussing instruction and second language acquisition. If you look up the word fidelity in the dictionary, here are some examples of what you might find:  ..read more

What is advocacy? Am I doing it?  Many educators find themselves asking these questions.  Advocacy sometimes sounds big and scary and many educators think they can’t do it. But actually, advocacy is incorporated in daily actions sometimes big and other times small.  Advocacy encompasses increasing awareness about multilingual education, initiating change for multilingual education, educating colleagues and others about multilingual education, supporting and defending multilingual education, taking action to create change in an effort to increase success for multilingual learne ..read more