Carly Spina has 15 years of experience in Multilingual Education, including her service as an EL teacher, a third-grade bilingual classroom teacher, and a district-wide Multilingual Instructional Coach. She is currently a multilingual education specialist at the Illinois Resource Center, providing professional learning opportunities and technical assistance support to educators and leaders across the state and beyond. Spina enjoys connecting with other educators and leaders across the country and beyond and is an active member of the multilingual education professional learning community. Her first book, Moving Beyond for Multilingual Learners, was published in November 2021 by EduMatch Publishing and is available on Amazon.
Trenches story: biggest moment was when we call selves advocates, we poor ourselves into things 150% of capacity. Have to do it within boundaries. Left little to herself, family. Mental capacity went to a rock bottom. Pulled $ out of wallet, lunchroom didn’t want staff to support students. Went on with her day. She didn’t have $ to feed her son because of that. Needed to get better at asking for help.
Talk about your blogging for TB & book Moving Beyond for Multilingual Learners: She writes mostly about supporting MLs. This community is fastest growing one in U.S. Look at nurturing mindset that’s inclusive. Even if you don’t have EL endorsement, her posts can springboard discussion. We talk a lot about particular students. Her book is a little of everything. She felt like ML(ELL) field had a band aid approach to everything. It was just “add a visual”. How can we help them navigate grade-level content? How do we serve families & connect with diff. agencies? Every chap. starts with “moving beyond…” Chapter on supporting students with academics, SEL through multilingual lense & community engagement. Chapter on self-care since there’s one of us for the entire school.
Walk me through your role as multilingual education specialist at the Illinois Resource Center, are you still able to get into schools much and if not, what do you miss? She is still in schools, but it’s a step removed from working with kids. Helps teachers stretch their practice. Uses co-teaching concepts. It’s a dream job. Attended a state-wide conference at IRC as a teacher. Wakes up honored to have this position. Has contract with IL State Board of Ed. Webinars for EL teachers.
Pd you consult with districts on: Popular topics she works with district on is looking at MTSS Structures. Making sure they’re linguistically, culturally responsive. Are PD options being
provided by ppl who have EL endorsement? Utilize diff. data sets, etc. LTELL (long-term Engl learner)- students who have been in EL program 5 or more yrs. Look @ lang. growth for these students. How can we elevate their lang learning opportunities? Plan instruction through 4 domains of lang. Nystrand (2016) did study, HS CR average 14-52 sec. for students to speak during a class period to talk about content.
Out of everything? every single person has their own language journey Even if it’s monolingual. We all have experiences that shape us. It’s hard to quantify what students a x proficiency level “should be able to do”.
Where can ppl find you online? movingbeyondformls.blogspot.com https://movingbeyondformls.blogspot.com/2022/09/tabletop-tools-inspired-by-tiktok.html links different tools people can use/templates.
Twitter @MrsSpinasClass carlymspina@gmail.com
View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uxLXaS59gt8
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