Rachel Carrillo-Fairchild Rachel is a partner consultant with The Core Collaborative. Rachel brings with her 30 years of education experience. She has been a classroom teacher,mathematics coach, and resource teacher as well as a school leader. Rachel has designed and implemented district-wide staff learning in the areas of English Language Development, working with struggling learners, standards-based education, and Assessment IS learning. She has presented at national conferences such as ASCD, is the author of How to Reach and Teach English Language Learners, and a contributing author to Amplify Learner Voice through Culturally Responsive Assessment. Rachel’s 30 years in education and ability to engage and lead education professionals makes her a perfect fit as a partner consultant with The Core Collaborative.
Rachel earned her bachelors from Occidental College in Los Angeles, California and her Masters in Educational Administration and Administrative Services Credential from Point Loma University in San Diego, California.
Trenches story: She was the oldest, can talk about challenges in early adulthood being a member of 2 worlds, it’s about her identity as Spa-speaking Rachel vs. English-speaking. (Spa vs. English) when 14 y.o. her 19 y.o. brother died of leukemia. She gets a lot of qu’s from teachers about continuing to use Spanish at home. She was born here, started as a student w/ only knowledge of Spanish.
Teachers checked in on her. Lent a helping hand. T’s need to be reminded of impact they have on stud’s. Had been accepted to several univ’s. She did very poorly through HS. In dark place. Went to jr college for 2 yrs, got up scores. Parents were lowly educated father got 6 gr. edu, mother 2nd gr. She had t’s who helped her along, who knew her brother, family. P. E. teacher, principal, helped. Challenging time, struggled around 14-15. Community college then transferred to Occidental College. Encouraged her & brothers that education is the way out. Constant theme.
Talk about the design and implementation district-wide staff learning thru Core Collaborative: She does work in every state. Majority of her work is how she helps ELD teachers with MLLs. Brings in her experience of being an Engl language learner. Do we have clarity around what they’re expected to do? Why they are MLs? Give them clarity around ACCESS scores/lang.
acquisition. we want to engage our st’s more? Partner with them to know where they are with ACCESS Scores to not be stagnant or languish in their English learning.
Talk about your contributing chapter in Amplify Learner Voice through Culturally Responsive Assessment: For example, if you’re a WIDA state, how do we turn the Can-Do descriptors into self & peer assessment. See models, read about different scenarios. St’s who can track their own success. Disengaged st’s become engaged. School is something I do w/ my peers. PBL, give kids choice to demonstrate learning. Takes her down grading path, if something needs to be fixed, give them to opportunity to resubmit work. Have awareness of assets st has, instead of the gaps? Start your teaching from there- honor what st bring w/ them. Give MLs sense of confidence. What does the st have solidly in place? Even she was guilty of assuming students’ levels in English. We need to celebrate what they know from home country. What do they bring w/ them? Can they show what they know in primary language?
Was approached by Josey-Bass about how to Reach/Teach ELLs & Common Formative Assessments for ELLs,they approached her at ASCD. It’s about the changing population, demographic. She believes it’s universes’ way of putting her in right direction. As a teacher, had started doing PD, applied to present at natl. conferences. Was doing a session on MLL strategies. It got her thinking “maybe I could write a book on this topic”. Approached it from the domains of language. Ask kids to listen, speak, read and write every day. How do I get MLLs to demonstrate their learning? Assessing the content, how to differentiate their assessments? Where am I formatively? ACCESS only comes 1x/year. How can we make adjustments?
Upcoming speaking engagements? Has worked with BOCES in CO, annual conference sessions with them around MLLs. Efficacy of Lang. Learners-are they getting a little taste about what it means to be successful? They need opportunities to build efficacy. How do we keep MLLs from throwing in the towel?
The Core Collaborative is currently planning sessions during the 23-24 school year in Hawaii, COSA (Oregon), Michigan, Idaho and SAANYS (New York State) but those dates are still being confirmed. Putting in proposal for ASCD.
She also presented the same session in Alaska this past January, at CISC (Curriculum and Instruction Steering Committee for the California County of Superintendents) in February, and at the Utah Instructional Leadership Conference in March.
Discuss the bulk of Core Collaborative– It’s a group of teachers, fmr admin. North star-student empowerment. Connie Hamilton, PA Bloomberg, etc. Amazing panel of thought leaders. Self-empowered learners, how do we hook st’s into the learning? Boils down to clarity. It’s about st’s being in the driver’s seat when it comes to their learning, why am I learning xyz. They can be about to say “I’m there/not there yet”. She’s proud of where kids ARE taking ownership of their own learning. She wants MLs to be able to pass ACCESS, take ownership of the test. They’re all about student efficacy, self-empowerment. Culturally responsive assessment, criticality. How does that experience help me grow/become a better learner? If we can come up w/ models of success, we can share with st’s about what the expectations are. Partnering w/ teachers/teams on how to do this. We often hear a great idea & overwhelm ourselves. Take small steps. Start w/ 1 thing. Take 1 unit at a time. The students’ learning should feed teachers’ learning.
Out of everything: podcast title gets her thinking about James Nottingham’s Learning Pit. We need to have perseverance to get out of the pit. We need to view ourselves as learners/teachers. Podcast title gives up permission to admit we’re grappling w/ this. this is tough! It’s ok to be in the trench! Come up w/ one small thing/change we can make! Don’t have to solve it all at once! May take 1,3,5 yrs. Pick something you’re really passionate about, give it a try.
Where can ppl find you online? https://twitter.com/RachelELAuthor https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-carrillo-fairchild-4284b618/ Twitter/IG@ RachelELauthor FB:RachelELauthor YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@CoreCollaborative
View this episide on YouTube: https://youtu.be/l_kl9oprSXQ
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