SLPS TESOL ExcELLence Issue 9 May, 2015

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E1/2

Invitation to the Celebration / Way to go Gateway STEM ELLs!

3 Soldan ELLs Participate in a Student Summit on Race /

Inspiring Speech Touches Minds and Hearts of NCNAA

4 Rotary Club Fundraising/ TESOL PD Opportunity

567

Education Connection Monthly Highlight

Resources and Special Acknowledgements

Program Calendar

Newsletter 1

 

Invitation to the Celebration!You are invited to the end of year ESOL Program celebration May 15, 2015 at 3 Monkeys. In addition, we will acknowledge one ESOL team member who is planning to retire at the end of the year. We will also wish “Good Luck” to our colleagues (we know of 3 at this point) who will no longer be a part of our team for the next school year. We hope to see you all!

3 Monkeys3153 Morgan Ford Road St. Louis, MO 63116

Way to Go Gateway STEM ELLS!!!Senior Engineering Capstone

Presentations Submitted by Mr. Johnston, Gateway STEM ESOL teacher

From left to right, seniors are:Keshab Subedi, Puspa Biswa, Jimmy Nguyen, Chahana Sanyasi, Rabin Rai, Samad Muhammad,Mustafa Mohammad, Namiel Notice, Lachu Rai, Kielee Thomas, Brendan Dressman, Warss Abdulwahab, Christian Stinson, Ali Ali, and Jaquez Perry. Not in the photo is Jose Huaroco.

Our seniors in Engineering Design and Development presented their work on April 16 in the Gateway STEM library. Presentations were 10-12 minutes in length followed by questions from a panel of engineers. Many former and current ELLs participated in the project. Their families and friends were invited. The students, their projects, and mentors are listed below.

Samad Muhammad, Jimmy Nguyen, Rabin RaiCurrent FIRST spur gearboxes with motors parallel to the output shaft can take up too much space in the center of a FRC robot. We created a bevel gearbox which rotates the motors 90 degrees to the side and offer five mounting positions.Mr. Mark HollyBoeing retired

(continued on p.3)

Newsletter 2

Way to Go Gateway STEM ELLS!!!Senior Engineering Capstone

Presentations(continued from p.1)

Brendan Dressman, Jose Huaroco, Christian StinsonCarts for large competitive high school robotics competitions are typically heavy and awkward. We created a light weight collapsible cart that serves both as an adjustable height work stand and handy cart to move our robot though crowds and to the competition field.Ms. Marjorie MeltonM3 Engineering Group

Warss Abdulwahab, Ali Ali, Daniel NoticeIce sculptures are a common art form at fancy social events such as weddings and corporate celebrations. Their endurance is directly linked to room temperature which at outside summer events can be short. We designed a discrete chiller that prolongs the sculpture's life without detracting from the artist's work.Mr. Nathan HullBoeing

Chahan Sanyasi Keshab SubediMany trucks and cars have removable trailer hitches. We designed an electronic display for these receiver hitches when the vehicle is not towing a trailer.Mr. Lyle HardinCDG Engineers

Puspa Biswa Mustafa Mohammad Lachu RaiGardening is a popular hobby with frequent plant fertilizing needed for good results. We designed a convenient premeasured solid fertilizer plug that rapidly dissolves in a sprinkling can of water.Mr. Rick LodewyckCDG Engineers

Gateway Stem ELLs Win Business Showcase!

Submitted by Mr. Johnston, Gateway STEM ESOL Teacher

The YWCA hosted a Business Showcase yesterday that business students from Ms. Claxton, Ms. Cotton and Ms. Bonnell’s classes attended. They competed against The College Prep High School at Madison.

Teams had 5 minutes to present their business idea to a judge and then 5 teams were selected for the final round for cash prizes. All 5 teams selected for the final round were from Gateway. Yay!!!

Please congratulate these kids on some outstanding presentations.

The top 5 teams were

         Sport a Gram – Christopher Jones and Waiel Turner

         Al-Sumairrah Women’s Gym - Samira Abdulkadir and Humaira Ahmadi

         Mis Quinces – Rosa Macias – 3rd place finish $25 gift card

         Double Dare – Arbnor Dullovi, Leonora Dullovi, Ajdin Gorovic – 2nd place finish $50 gift cards

         Smell-Fone – Ronald Walter, Ramiz Khwaja, Karmin Wilson – 1st place finish $75 gift cards

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/guide/languages.shtml

Newsletter 3

Soldan ELLs participate in a Student Summit on Race

Submitted by Abrahatzion Z. Habtu, MSW, School Social Worker at Soldan International Studies High School and Dr. Stromsdorfer, Soldan ESOL teacher

Since January 2015 Soldan ISHS along with 14 St. Louis area High Schools has been participating in the workshops on Student Summit on Race. These students want to make a difference in the race relations in our community and in our country. The workshops that we have been attending are all student led and they came up with the idea to have a Sibling School so that they can have a dialogue and express their opinions and experiences with each other. Parkway South became our Sibling School. Parkway North confirmed with us that they want to visit as well.Soldan ISHS is very excited to host these two schools because we want our visitors to see that Soldan ISHS is a great school and it is located in the heart of the Delmar Divide BBC Documentary (as seen on YouTube). We want to show our wonderful community and business partners that we have in the Loop. Presently we are getting ready for our visit. We will have 5 Parkway South and 9 Parkway North students that will visit our school. These students will pair up with our Soldan students and attend their 6th period classes (please see the list below). I know that you are going to welcome our visiting students in your classroom.

DURGINS JAZLEN OJOHNSON EXAVIER MKAMI DAMBERROBERTSON AUNYATELLEZ-ROSAS JORDY ANTHONYALI HAMDIBROWN DAISIA LHIGHTOWER RACHEL K

Inspiring Speech Touches Minds and Hearts of NCNAA Students!

Submitted by Donnie Harris, NCNAA Director

Derreck Kayongo, Humanitarian, Environmentalist, Business Visionary, and Founder of the Global Soap Project visited NCNAA As a child, Derreck Kayongo and his family fled from Uganda to escape the Idi Amin Regime. He spent 10 years as a refugee in Kenya before immigrating to the United States. From Africa to Atlanta, with nothing but a dream and tenacity, Derreck Kayongo beat the odds, earned an education, became a naturalized U.S. citizen, and served in leadership roles in some of the world’s most respected NGOs. In 2009, Kayongo and his wife Sarah started their own NGO, The Global Soap Project. The Hotel Industry throws away eight hundred million bars of soap every year into our landfills. Hotels in the United States alone discard an estimated 2.6 million bars daily. In juxtaposition, there are 2.4 million children that die globally due to lack of hygiene and sanitation. The Center for Disease Control states that this casualty rate could be mitigated by 47% if soap was made available to them. Kayongo, never forgetting the experience of homelessness and living in a refugee camp, made it his mission to help save the lives of millions of children in developing countries, one bar of soap at a time. The Global Soap Project works at the intersection of both of these issues to reduce waste and save lives. The Global Soap Project repurposes partially-used soap from hotels into new soap for vulnerable populations, including disaster victims, refugees, the homeless, and mothers and children living in extreme poverty. The World Bank has estimated that hygiene is the most cost-effective health intervention available.

(continued on p. 4).

Newsletter 4

Inspiring Speech Touches Minds and Hearts of NCNAA Students!

(continued from p. 3)

Six years later, the Global Soap Project has expanded operations from the basement of the Kayongo family to become a leading global health organization with large reprocessing facilities producing millions of bars of soap per year. The Global Soap Project has partnered with leading global health organizations like the Center for Disease Control, Partners in Health, CARE, and MedShare to distribute lifesaving soap and hygiene education in 32 countries on four continents. Currently, there are 1,500 hotels that are members of the Global Soap Project Recycling program in the United States alone, and the list of participating countries in Europe and Asia continues to expand. Kayongo has been recognized as a 2011 CNN HERO; won the Maxx Entrepreneurship award; received the Refugee Services Award; has been honored by Congressman John Lewis with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition; and has been featured in more than 20 news stories and on TV programs such as Fox News and CNN. Kayongo has worked with the American Friends Service Committee as Program Director for the Southeast Peace Education program, Amnesty International as the Director of the Southeast Region, and CARE International as a Senior Advocacy Coordinator for the Southeast region. He is also a regular columnist with The Huffington Post.

The Rotary Club Raised $1,811.02 for NCNAA!

Submitted by Mrs. Harris, NCNAA Director

Many of you are aware of the Night for Nahed Chapman New American Academy dinner fundraiser event that was sponsored by the Rotary Club of St. Louis which took place January 30, 2015. We are so thankful to announce that the check was presented to us yesterday at their monthly luncheon meeting. The Rotary Club raised $1,811.02 on behalf of students at NCNAA! Special thanks to Rotarian, Ed Harris, who sparked the idea and organized the event. We are forever grateful!

TESOL PD Opportunity

Registration for the 2015 WIDA National Conference Is Now Open

On behalf of the WIDA National Conference planning team, we are thrilled to announce that registration is now open! We hope you will join us October 15-17, 2015 at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, NV. We are especially pleased to have retained the rate of $595/person, and again offer a $100 discount to those who register by May 31st.

Preceding the WIDA National Conference, pre-conference institutes will be offered on Wednesday October 14th. Post-conference sessions will occur on Saturday afternoon October 17th. Please visit WIDA’s conference website to learn more about sessions and keynote speakers: Dr. Pauline Gibbons, Dr. Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, and Drs. Manuel and Kathy Escamilla.

Registrationyou may register yourself or multiple participants using either the paper form or online registration. As a reminder, online registration may be completed only by paying with either Visa or MasterCard. WIDA requires a mailed paper registration form to accompany payments by check. Both are available on the conference website.

We look forward to welcoming you to the 2015 WIDA National Conference in October! Registration questions? Send an email to conferences@wida.us.

Identifying which of the four language domains is involved in a lesson is an important first step in developing

effective and clear language objectives for your instruction and assessment of learning. Identifying the listening,

speaking, reading, and writing demands embedded in the teaching and learning of lessons will also provide the

basis for ensuring that your lessons provide frequent and diverse opportunities for practicing and developing skills

in each of the domains.

When creating language objectives, a jumping off place is with these six, easy questions (adapted from a webinar

from Jordan Meranus and Allison Balter; slides can be found here):

1) What content objective am I using?

First, think through your content objective—what language will the students need to understand the content and

what language will they need to demonstrate their understanding?

2) What domain(s) do you plan to focus on?

What are you asking students to do in the lesson? Are students in your lesson discussing with a partner, doing

individual reading and summarizing, debating? Identifying the language skills a learner will need to complete

activities will also help you build in necessary content and language scaffolds (e.g. what words will students have

to know to be able to speak, listen, read, or write about the subject)

3) What levels are your students?

Knowing your students’ language proficiency and content knowledge levels is crucial to language objective

planning. This will serve as guide for creating language objectives that are appropriate for building upon

their existing linguistic repertoire.

Once you have thought through these three questions, you’ll be ready to hone in on further developing and

clarifying language objectives.

4) What will a student have to do, or what is the language process required in the lesson?

What will a student have to show, or do, in the lesson (e.g. identify, evaluate, describe, list, interpret,

develop, compare/contrast, give, create, critique)?

5) What are necessary supports?

What are scaffolds that would help support students throughout the lesson to better meet its language

objective (e.g. vocabulary development tools, visual diagrams, listening exercises, etc.)?

6) Is there a strong connection between the language objective and the content objective?

Make sure that your language objective is supporting the goals and purpose of the content objective. Remember,

language objectives re supposed to help promote and encourage language development within the larger context

of lessons and units.

Newsletter 5

Resources for Language Learners

Languages of the world - Interesting Facts about Languages The resource was submitted by Mr. Bailey, Dewey ESOL teacher

To learn more about different languages, please click on the link below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/guide/languages.shtml

Congratulation on Your Great Accomplishment!

Our program is proud to announce that on April 16, 2015 our ESOL Program Director, Alla Gonzalez Del Castillo, successfully defended her doctorate dissertation entitled “Cognitive Coaching as a Form of Professional development in a Linguistically Diverse School.”

This study describes elementary teachers’ perceptions of cognitive coaching in a linguistically diverse school. Employing qualitative research methodology, this basic qualitative study investigated three elementary mainstream teachers educating linguistically diverse students and one coach, who used cognitive coaching techniques. The results of this study indicate that teachers, who participated in cognitive coaching, (1) reflect on their practice more and on a deeper level, (2) intentionally plan their instruction, (3) adjust their instructional plan in response to their students' needs, and (4) value their work with the coach. In addition, cognitive coaching is linked to more responsive teaching, especially with linguistically diverse students.

Newsletter 6

C A L E N D A R O F E V E N T S

Date Event Time LocationThursday, May 7 ESOL Parent Committee

Meeting3:30PM-4:30 PM ESOL Office, Building 1

Thursday, May 14 ESOL PD Committee Meeting

3:30PM-4:30 PM ESOL Office, Building 1

Thursday, May 21 ESOL Leadership Committee

3:30PM-4:30 PM ESOL Office, Building 1

Tuesday and Wednesday, May 19-20

Summer School Training 4:30PM -7:30PM College Prep at Madison (1118 S. 7th Street).

Friday, May 15 End of the Year ESOL Program Celebration

Starting at 4:30 PM 3 Monkeys,

3153 Morgan Ford, St. Louis, MO 63116

Monday, May 18 ESOL Parent Meeting (NCNAA and Centers)

5:30-7:00 ESOL office, Building 4

Friday, May 22 Last Day of School

Newsletter 7