ABOUT US
During the summer of 2015, Superintendent of Littleton, Massachusetts Public Schools, Kelly Clenchy and ESL Coordinator of West Bridgewater Public Schools, Amy Somers-Quealy joined forces to create a tangible way for educators to have access to SEI/ESL training and materials. The ESL Teacher Trainer website not only assists educators in understanding the requirements set forth by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education under the RETELL initiative, but more importantly provides easy access to training through video modules and documents that increase teacher knowledge of effective SEI pedagogy. So often teachers are inundated with new responsibilities in and out of the classroom; however, the ESL Teacher Trainer website provides anytime anywhere solutions to instructing the largest growing group of students in the United States, English Language Learners. State and federal legislation requires public schools to provide an equal education to all and to ensure that ELLs are achieving academically. Yet, despite federal mandates, such as NCLB: No Child Left Behind that requires ELLs to show academic and linguistic proficiency, ELLs have had low achievement, consistently scoring lower on standardized tests than their native English speaking peers (Bridglall & Han, 2009). Research shows that providing a culturally appropriate environment, and utilizing students’ native languages and cultures as a foundation for their education and acquisition of English will help ELLs achieve academic success (Drame & Xu, 2008). Therefore, it is critical that current educators possess competency in SEI pedagogy and practice. Thus, the ESL Teacher Trainer website was born.
Teacher preparation must have three goals in order to promote equity and social justice in schools, including: raising academic achievement of all students, preparing students to live in society, and assigning students to inclusive classrooms that engage in rich academic curriculum and discourse (Cambron-McCabe et al.., 2008).
During the summer of 2015, Superintendent of Littleton, Massachusetts Public Schools, Kelly Clenchy and ESL Coordinator of West Bridgewater Public Schools, Amy Somers-Quealy joined forces to create a tangible way for educators to have access to SEI/ESL training and materials. The ESL Teacher Trainer website not only assists educators in understanding the requirements set forth by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education under the RETELL initiative, but more importantly provides easy access to training through video modules and documents that increase teacher knowledge of effective SEI pedagogy. So often teachers are inundated with new responsibilities in and out of the classroom; however, the ESL Teacher Trainer website provides anytime anywhere solutions to instructing the largest growing group of students in the United States, English Language Learners. State and federal legislation requires public schools to provide an equal education to all and to ensure that ELLs are achieving academically. Yet, despite federal mandates, such as NCLB: No Child Left Behind that requires ELLs to show academic and linguistic proficiency, ELLs have had low achievement, consistently scoring lower on standardized tests than their native English speaking peers (Bridglall & Han, 2009). Research shows that providing a culturally appropriate environment, and utilizing students’ native languages and cultures as a foundation for their education and acquisition of English will help ELLs achieve academic success (Drame & Xu, 2008). Therefore, it is critical that current educators possess competency in SEI pedagogy and practice. Thus, the ESL Teacher Trainer website was born.
Teacher preparation must have three goals in order to promote equity and social justice in schools, including: raising academic achievement of all students, preparing students to live in society, and assigning students to inclusive classrooms that engage in rich academic curriculum and discourse (Cambron-McCabe et al.., 2008).