Technology for English Language Learners

     Hello everyone! I hope that everyone is having a good week so far. Mine has been going fine so far and continues to look very similar to the previous ones. My school district is still completely in a virtual setting. I have gotten quite used to this type of setting, but I would rather be in person with my students. Virtual learning has been difficult for my special education students, but they have working very hard. During virtual learning, certain online resources such as Epic! Books, Quizziz, and UJU brain breaks have been super beneficial for my virtual classes. I am always trying to learn about new online resources to incorporate into my classroom and that is why these articles I came across were very informative.        The first article I read this week talked about some great online resources for educators to use that can also be very beneficial for English Language Learners. The first resource mentioned was Padlet.  According to the article, Padlet is an awesome source

  Happy Monday everyone! This week my district has professional development days both Monday and Tuesday for all staff. We had many sessions meant to prepare us for starting a hybrid teaching model soon. It was a nice way to start the week! This week I came across a very interesting article that came up in my google alerts. One article I read discussed common mistakes when working with ELLs and what teachers can do instead to fix them.   One common mistake mentioned in the article is that teachers often times have low expectations when it comes to English Language Learners. The article mentioned that many content teachers do not get creative when it comes to putting modifications and strategies in place to help ELLs. Some modifications and accommodations that teachers should put in place for ELLs are: ·          playing subtitles during videos ·            asking students to create a video instead of presenting in front of the class ·            finding out content using resour

       Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope everyone has been having a great week and is looking forward to Halloween this weekend! This week at school has looked the same for me with teachers continuing to teach virtually from inside the building. We were starting to prepare for a hybrid model starting next Thursday, but our school board had a meeting tonight and decided to not begin the hybrid model just yet. So, we will continue teaching virtually from our school until further notice! I think that at this point our students are starting to feel comfortable with virtual learning and making progress with the programs they are being taught. So, I am happy in a way that another big schedule change won’t be happening anymore. This should prevent less confusion for students and their families.        This week while looking through my google alerts, I came across two very interesting articles about language learning applications. The first article I read was about new language learning app ca

       Happy Wednesday! I hope you all are having another great week! This week has been very similar to the last one. This is the second week that the teachers in my district are back in the building and we are preparing for our students to start a hybrid model in the beginning of November. Today, I started working on the schedule for my special education student based on how many minutes of support they need when they are back in person. Even though we are transitioning into a hybrid model, students still have the option of remaining completely virtual. So far, only four out of my twelve special education students are coming back in person. I am extremely excited to meet some of my students in person soon!      This week I came across a wonderful article about a determined, kind teenager. This article was about a teenage student named Palo Gupta who created a program that helped his ELL classmates improve their English skills. This student noticed that his ELL classmates were strug

         Happy Wednesday! I hope you all are having a great week so far! This week at school was the first step to prepare for going hybrid in the beginning of November. This past Tuesday, all the teachers in my building were required to come back to school and teach virtually from our classrooms. Starting on November 5 th , our students will come back to start a hybrid model at school. Students also have the option to remain completely virtual as well. I am excited for this change, but it is going to be incredibly difficult to teach in person and virtually at the same time, as well as meet all my students’ special education minutes during the 3 hours that they will be in the building. What a crazy time! One positive thing about this week is seeing my colleagues in person again. Since I am new to the school, I have also gotten the chance to meet other teachers that I had only seen over google meet which has been really nice.        Like I said in my previous blog post, I want these pos

      Hello! My name is Natasha Peachey and I am currently an elementary special education teacher. Due to COVID-19, I am currently teaching virtually. I work in a very diverse area, and therefore, multiple students who attend the school I work at are English Language Learners (ELLs). One of my goals for this blog is to post new information I research as well as my own experiences working with ELLs and how I can better support them in the classroom. Another goal for my blog is to discuss researched information and my personal experiences about technology usage in the classroom to support all students including ELLs. I have created google alerts so that I can read weekly articles on these topics and share the information so that it will hopefully be beneficial to you!      For my first blog I want to discuss a very important topic; why incorporate technology into the classroom? Today, multiple districts all over the world have access to technology usage in the classroom. Many distric