We have been talking a lot about building relationships together recently. When reflecting on this emphasis, at first, I was like, “Well, of course! It’s that time of year when we are building relationships!” And while that is true, it is maybe more true that learning a second language is literally all about building relationships … if you’re doing it right. I was having a lovely conversation recently, with two new friends and fellow educators, one of whom speaks Spanish and has her own beautiful journey for how she learned it. She described discovering Spanish as “unlocking connection”. I could not have said it better myself. Spanish TipWhatever amount of Spanish you know, whether that is simply “Hola” or “gracias” or “baños”... make a commitment to using it as much as you can. This is the most powerful internal shift you can make when learning Spanish, and with it, there will be no limit to how much you can learn. Below, I’ll explain a little bit about why it is so darn powerful. If you are ready to build your Spanish faster and get support in using it every day, join the Spanish for Relationship-Building course, starting in September 2024! The SongThis tip to speak with other humans, no matter how much or how little you know, is so important, that I build weekly challenges into my courses for class participants to use a specific aspect of what they learned in class with real people every day before the next class. I recently discovered Tengo tu Love by Sie7e (though the song is more than ten years old, which shows how cool I am). It is catchy, and it is clean – perfect for playing at school. Aaaand, I love the lyrics! It is a love song, all about how the singer doesn’t have a lot of money or good looks, but he has a whole bunch of other stuff that is more important. For example: Then the next line captures what language learning is all about! Talking is worth more than an iPhone. Preach! Talking in Spanish is worth more than a 365-day streak on DuoLingo, more than a 4.0 in Spanish on your high school transcript, more than a grammatically perfect sentence. Need more than a lyric to persuade you? Most people who say they aren’t “good” at learning a language have simply never had the opportunity or guidance to use the language they are using in meaningful interactions with other humans as they go. Conversely, I have seen students who are at the bottom of the class in their accuracy, but who soar at building relationships with Spanish-speakers, because they cast aside their fears of making mistakes and jump into speaking with others. It isn’t just that using a language essential to solidifying what you have learned. It is actually far more important than the “correctness” of what you are saying. The most important benefit of speaking with others from the beginning of your learning process, however, is that it sets in motion a virtuous cycle. I experienced this cycle, and I see it at work in students all the time. When you speak even if you don’t know everything… you get practice communicating even when you don’t know everything! This is important, because you never will know everything. You get comfortable communicating with what you have (which literally is all anyone can do). Too often people get caught up thinking, “I’ll start talking to people when I …” but the longer we put it off, the bigger and scarier a proposition it becomes, and the more opportunities for learning we miss out on. Plus, it is those people who you talk to, who see that you are trying, who are going to be your best teachers. They will teach you new things to say, they will good-naturedly point out when you make embarrassing mistakes (instead of getting offended), and will be the cheerleader you need to keep you motivated. So, committing to speaking from Day 1 is the best way to do it. Spanish Call to Action
Better TogetherIf you are eager to get your talking going in Spanish, build relationships, and you agree it is not something you do just at the beginning of the year, but that you do every day and it completely defines why you want to learn Spanish, enroll in Spanish for Relationship-Building, the only Spanish course built specifically to help people who work in schools build relationships with Spanish-speaking students and families. Starting in September 2024, this is a great way to start off the new school year!
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I have previously shared my soggy "meh" feelings about using surveys to gather data from families about the equity of your multilingual communications, and my whole-hearted support for having personal conversations with parents instead. January to February is the time I most recommend for conducting these interviews, because: a) families have had a whole semester’s experience with communication from school, b) you still have a whole semester to analyze responses, make a plan, and get the appropriate people on board before summer (when it will be to late to initiate systemic change). I’ve shared lots of tips related to interviews before. Today, let’s talk about how to generate the most useful information if you are relying on a team of one or more people to do the interviews. These are lessons I have learned the hard way, and I hope to save you years of subpar interview data. Tip of the WeekStandardize the wording of your interview questions with your team. At the same time, prepare your interviewers to be fluid in following up with parents and caregivers in order to draw out the most useful information possible. The StoryThe first year I did family interviews, I did them solo. It was a helpful experience for creating a clear vision and understanding of how those conversations can go. Because I naturally understood what I was trying to do, I intuitively asked follow-up questions of parents when I needed more clarity. Because didn’t have to communicate my purpose to anyone, I didn’t realize that asking follow-up questions is something I would need to name explicitly when I did bring others on. The second year, I added one person to the effort. I was generally happy with the usability of the information from her calls, because she took detailed notes. Yet there were instances when I read her responses where I wish she had prompted for more detail or clarity. For example, when one parent said, “I receive materials in English, but I can’t understand them,” I wish she had prompted with something like, “Do you receive texts and emails in English as well? And documents that go home? When you receive calls from people other than me, are they in Spanish or with a Spanish interpreter?” As humans, we often talk in broad strokes, and it is helpful to break down the information as much as possible in order to be able to take take targeted action in response to parent feedback. One of our questions was geared at inclusion. We asked whether their child had opportunities to see or share their culture at school. When one parent responded, “It’s fine for Fatima to share about her African culture at school” (essentially giving permission, rather than answering if this had been her experience so far), I wish I had trained my teacher to reiterate the question to get that information; I was glad to have mom's approval, but I also wanted to know what her experience had been thus far. Getting partial information, instead of the full picture wasn’t the teacher’s fault. She did a great job at what I had trained her to do, but I hadn’t trained her to prompt following parent responses. Training staff in how to prompt isn’t easy, but the best thing to do is to just start. Simply name why, when, and how. I wish I could say I got better at that piece immediately, but I didn't. It took a couple years of hitting this frustration for me to step back and reflect on how to improve it. Call to ActionOn Monday of next week, sit down to plan your parent interviews.
Here’s a free template you can use to structure the follow-up questions for your team. Examples of follow-up questions: Question: Are you receiving all school communications in Somali? Follow-up Menu: If unclear:
If doesn’t answer the question: Repeat the question. Reword if necessary. Question: How well informed do you feel about your child’s progress at school? Follow-up Menu: If unclear:
If doesn’t answer the question: Repeat the question. Reword if necessary. Question: How included did you feel in parent-teacher conferences in October? Follow-up Menu: If unclear:
If doesn’t answer the question: Repeat the question. Reword if necessary. Better TogetherSo many leaders know that their multilingual families aren't getting equitable access to information, programming, or people in their schools. But most get stuck when trying to fix it because they are over-tasked and under-staffed. Anne Truran focuses centrally on this topic to help educational leaders make progress faster without all the trial and error, so they can focus their energies on the many other challenges that deserve their attention.
Make this one problem solved without adding it to your plate. Bookings for Fall 2024 support are now open! If you are interested in creating systemic change at your district so multilingual families have equitable access to information, your schools can be compliant with federal law, and all your kids can get what they need, find out which one of the following pathways will work best for you:
2) Tell me about yourself, your school and community. 3) Get started on your best pathway forward to create real change for families and kids. I want to take a moment to acknowledge that even if you are still observing challenges with equitable communication for your families, you are not alone. You can and should give yourself and others grace. Take care of yourself each day. Acknowledge the efforts you make. And if it is right, get yourself some help. You don't have to do it alone, and it doesn't have to be so difficult and exhausting. Fast forward to "Better Together" below for more information on how to get help and community. Tip of the WeekPause to identify if there are barriers above you. Is there anyone higher than you who is not aware of or not invested in solving this problem? Perhaps they are a barrier in that they have actually been an obstacle to your efforts in the past. But maybe they are a potential powerful ally, who could be supporting you, but just aren't (yet). Identify who and why, so you can start chipping away at that barrier in order to: a) get their thought partnership, and b) hear “yes” more often when you make requests (for time with schools, PD for yourself, a new position, outside help, etc.). The StoryJust a couple weeks ago a friend introduced me to someone who I think we could call a local influencer in education. We had a brief chat, and when he found out what I do (i.e. multilingual family communication), he said, “Principals aren’t feeling the need yet. There just aren’t many [ELs], but numbers are growing slowly”. This person gets rave reviews from people I trust, so I have faith that this person does a lot of influencing for the better. And I think the comment above illustrates how even smart, “good”, educated people can be entirely out of the loop when it comes to multilingual family communication. He was trying to emphasize future need, but was reflecting back the lack of common awareness of the very pressing and urgent current need, no matter what the numbers are. I responded to him, “Part of my job is to show principals that not only is growth imminent, but in the meantime, the students that they have already are suffering while they aren’t making this a priority.” There is so much more I wanted to say, but for a passing introduction, I kept it short, with the promise to connect further. Like me, this comment might have you thinking:
Plus, who is to determine when the number is high “enough” to become a priority? It isn't principals. It is the DOJ and the DOE, and they say …
Have you encountered thought processes like this one in people you know and even admire? In my experience, higher-level positions are often unaware of the problem because it isn’t a part of their daily experience or responsibilities, and if they don’t hear about the problems, they understandably think all is well ... or similarly to the story above, they think that this isn’t a priority because the percentage of students is too low to merit attention. But your experience is more important than mine. Yours will lead you to the key that unlocks the barriers you encounter. Call to Action1. Take a moment to reflect on the barriers "above" you. You can fill this out to help you think it through, and receive your responses back in an email to yourself to revisit after break. I’ll take a peak as well, and reach out if I have any thoughts or suggestions! 2. If you meet regularly with your manager, whether or not this person represents one of your barriers, start sharing about the world of multilingual communication regularly. For example, create a standing “Section VI Compliance” agenda item where you tell them what issues arose this week, including any erroneous action and inaction that you are aware of. 3. When you share, recount the actual human stories about how staff members, families, and students were affected by the school's mistake. If you spent time cleaning up a mess, make sure you share the cost of that time. If you weren't able to work on really important A, because you were dealing with dysfunctional B, they should know about that wider impact. You can share steps you have taken to correct the issue, systemic problems you see, and the legal implications as well. If you need help backing up your legal claims, you can either a) get really granular and show them pages 37-40 of the DOE’s 2015 Dear Colleague Letter, or b) get really practical and use the checklist I created. The checklist is aligned with Dear Colleague letter, absent my own opinions on the matter, so you can be sure you are presenting text-based evidence to your higher-ups. It is a shortcut for determining where your schools are in or out of compliance. Just use the checklist, or also use the article that precedes it. (I like the article, but I am biased.) Better TogetherSo many leaders know that their multilingual families aren't getting equitable access to information, programming, or people in their schools.
Yet often times these leaders are the only ones who see it, because multilingual communication has been segregated to them and/or their team alone. This makes it an uphill battle to fix a serious problem that everyone else thinks is going just fine. Anne Truran helps educational leaders advocate for their multilingual families and lead measurable change to the communication support they receive. To get support from Anne: 1) Schedule a free no-pressure consultation. 2) Tell me about your school and community. 3) Get your plan for creating a better experience for multilingual families, and better results for kids. Conferences. It’s one of the many things that all schools do, but all schools do differently. It is also a key moment in the school year for many things: collaborating on student academic effort, achievement, and behavior; creating trust between school and home; clarifying questions for the family; notifying caregivers if a student needs significant support and of what their student does well so they can receive affirmation at home. In the spring, risk of retention decisions are often shared. Conferences are big. The other thing about conferences, is that like it or not, it is when many of us start to solidify assessments about a students’ support system at home, and it is when as humans, we are really vulnerable to the confirmation bias: looking for information that confirms a belief or a opinion we already hold. This is particularly detrimental to the multilingual students and families we care for. If they don’t have equitable access to conferences, if they don’t sign up or attend in comparable numbers, it can lead some to solidify false beliefs: they don’t care about their child’s education, or they aren’t involved parents or I’m trying so hard, and they aren’t. In actuality, this is usually the farthest thing from the truth, but a staff member who hasn’t been in communication with a parent all year is unfortunately not unlikely to fall into this pit. It is a very very important time of year for our communication equity systems to work well, because it can shape opinions and beliefs of people in our school about our families, and therefore students, and therefore how they treat students and their expectations for them. Tip of the WeekMeasure multilingual parent-teacher conference attendance this season so you can not only know your rate of success, but you can show administration if there is a discrepancy between multilingual conference attendance and English-speaking conference attendance as a measure of the need for greater communication equity efforts. The StoryConference time was always a pain point for me in my role as Manager of ELL. It was plain to me every fall and spring that our conference system was failing students and families. Every cycle it was the same: I would roll out whatever system or set of expectations I had for granting conference access to multilingual families, and in the end, it would always end up the same way: chasing down teachers and administrators for the status of multilingual conferences so I could make sure an interpreter was present, not getting many responses, and in the end being unable to accept the possibility that our multilingual families wouldn’t have the opportunity to attend conferences, I would call them personally to schedule their conferences. Doing it this way was a problem for many reasons, including: lack of sustainability for me, lack of connection between classroom teachers and multilingual families, a lack of ownership over multilingual relationships outside the ELL department, inequitable access to this critical programming, it was hard for me to keep up with how each school did their conference sign-up. At one point in time, our schools switched to scheduling systems that meant I didn’t have visibility into their conference schedules anymore so I literally could not schedule families to attend conferences, because I didn’t know what time slots were free for which teachers. It was a nightmare, and every cycle I tried a new strategy to fix it, and to be honest, I saw almost no change. It always ended the same. It was also conferences that filled me with enough stubborn will and determination to finally crack the nut of communication equity at our district. One school had the expectation that each teacher would call each family assigned to them, to schedule their conference, and they tracked their attempts to call on a public tracker. I was checking this tracker, because I had not received an interpreter requests, and yet again, this was one strategy for chasing after the information I needed. In the course of checking for scheduled conference times, I noticed that more than on person had logged an attempt to call every single family on their assigned caseload except for the multilingual families … even though they had been trained on our telephonic interpreter service. Obviously, I had feelings about this. But what bothered me just as much is that it seemed that I was the only person noticing this, even though the admin team had presumably created this tracker for transparency and accountability purposes. The problem was, I was literally the only person looking at that tracker through the lens of multilingual equity. That was the moment I explicitly told myself, “This will not happen again. Next year will be different.” … and it was. There are many things I changed, most of which were system-wide changes and not just related to parent-teacher conferences. But it sure made parent-teacher conferences run more smoothly and more equitably for parents. Call to Action
Better TogetherSo many leaders know that their multilingual families aren't getting equitable access to information, programming, or people in their schools. But most get stuck when trying to fix it because they are over-tasked and under-staffed.
Anne Truran helps educational leaders in multilingual communities set up communication equity systems and practices so families can get what they need, feel a sense of community, and school staff can feel proud not only of what they do, but how they do it. To get support from Anne: 1) Schedule a free consultation. 2) Tell me about your school and community. 3) Get your plan for creating a better experience for multilingual families, and better results for kids. Learning a language is super contextual. What I mean by that is, the words you need and learn are entirely dependent on the situation in which you find yourself. Context is why you have to ask your doctor to explain terms she uses and doesn’t think twice about. It is why someone who is a 5-star chef is going to know different jargon from an printmaker, and a printmaker from an aerospace engineer. Context is the entire reason I felt insecure about my Spanish when I started teaching, even though many people had described me as “fluent” by that time. It is also the reason why I decided to agree to start teaching my co-workers Spanish, even though I balked at the idea in the beginning. Let me explain. Spanish TipStart noticing the things you say that are your own form of "educator jargon" that you likely don't notice because they are obvious to you in English ... but you wouldn't know the same "easy" terms in Spanish. The StoryI started taking Spanish in school, as many people do. Though I got good grades, no one would say that I “spoke Spanish”. I finally began speaking was when I started spending summers in Central America and Mexico, first as a volunteer and then as a staff member for the non-profit that changed my life trajectory. (More on that in a future email). I was given increasing levels of responsibility that correlated with my level of Spanish proficiency, and after college, I was hired to teach literacy and all the first grade subjects in Spanish (except Math was taught in English) to native Spanish-speakers at my school 12 miles north of the Texas-Mexico border. By this time, I was both proud of where my Spanish had gotten, and also terrified that someone would spot me as an imposter. My fear that I didn’t have strong enough Spanish to do the job I was hired to do intensified immediately when I started having parent conversations: on the phone, during conferences, etc. I recognized immediately what had happened: I had become really good at the vocabulary and using language in the context I needed to operate in that non-profit setting. I could buy a bus ticket, get off at the right bus stop in the middle of the countryside, set up host-families for volunteers, explain our meal rotation plan, and get to know people really well. I knew vocabulary that seemed advanced: “fundraiser,” “non-profit organization,” “youth leadership” and “counterpart”. But when I started working in a school, there was vocabulary that didn’t seem as advanced that I just didn’t know: “report card,” “field trip,” “dismissal” and even "bathroom break". I knew that this had nothing to do with how advanced or not advanced these words are. They are all just words, none more difficult than another. The thing is, they are used within specific contexts. Because I had lots of experience with the language of my non-profit, I had gained a lot of proficiency, and because I had not taught nor attended school in Spanish, there was a whole set of vocabulary I had never been exposed to before. Of course I didn’t know it! The thing is, I still didn’t know that what was happening to me was normal, and even inevitable when acquiring a second language. As a result, I was very self-conscious about asking for help from the plethora of people around me who were native Spanish speakers. What a missed opportunity! Six years later, when I found myself in Missouri, and multiple co-workers asked me to teach them Spanish, I was resistant to the idea. Again, I didn’t feel like I had earned the right – after all, I am still learning Spanish every single day! How could I be a Spanish teacher? But people kept asking. So I reflected on my own experience, and remembered how there was all of that specific vocabulary that was essential to my success speaking Spanish in a school that, as wonderful as my Spanish teachers were in school, no one ever taught me. It was then that I realized that I did have something to offer all those colleagues who were asking me. I could teach the Spanish that they needed in schools, that no one else teaches. That is when Spanish for Educators was born: first with a bunch of my own colleagues, in a rented basement. Then I began to specialize further when asked to teach a course for office professionals at a neighboring district. Spanish for Teachers, Spanish for Office Professionals, Spanish for Nurses and Counselors … and now, starting in January, Spanish for Relationship-Building. These are all classes you can either bring to your district for a private course or, when available, you can join a public course. I quickly discovered that I love teaching Spanish to educators, because I am able to see people, even if they have never taken Spanish before, start to have meaningful conversations at school and feel good about what they are able to do. Relationships start to happen, and people’s eyes open to what they are capable of when they have the right words and the right practice. That is amazing. Call to ActionAs you go about your work each day, write down specific things you want to learn how to say. In fact, if you would add yours here, I will refer back to it when making micro-lesson videos in the future. I promise, just writing them down will help. You might not know how to learn how to say them immediately, but you will start to notice trends, you will start to pick things up around you that you normally missed, and you will become more conscious of your goals, which will make you a more effective student of whatever approach you take to learning Spanish. And sometimes, you’ll be able to simply look up a word and call it a quick win. Better TogetherIf you have Spanish-speaking families at your school or district, but not a lot of Spanish-speakers on staff, and you would like staff to be able to welcome and include families with more grace and joy, Spanish for Educators is the answer.
Classes include Spanish for Office Professionals, Spanish for Teachers, Spanish for Nurses & Counselors as well as Spanish for Relationship-Building, which is suitable for staff in any number of roles. You can enroll staff members the September cohort of Spanish for Relationship-Building a public course for all roles in schools, no matter where you work, to help you build relationships with Spanish-speaking students and families. If you want to learn more about a private Spanish course for your district, just book a free no-pressure call to learn more. Un abrazo, Anne Between 2019 and 2022, I was stuck. All-caps bold STUCK. Gathering data to measure progress toward goals had been drilled into me all the way back from my teacher training and every year since. From grades that are percentage-based, to trackers that calculate percent mastery, to attendance measures, to me, goals and tracking progress were synonymous with percentage. Yet, I had no idea how to even begin doing that with measuring communication. Today, I want to share the breakthrough that got me out of my rut. Tip of the Week*** This tip is much longer than usual, but I promise it is worth your attention. *** Don’t measure translation and interpretation usage as a percent of a total. Set a discrete goal using the number of students combined with anticipated activities. Below is a list to show you what I mean. Goal for phone calls placed with an interpreter: Consider the number of students in combination with the calls expected that quarter
Goal for in-person or virtual interpretation: Consider the number of students and activities anticipated that quarter
Goal for documents translated: Number of documents expected to go home
*Goal for texts and emails translated: I highly encourage you to figure out how to get this automated, if it isn’t already, so that you do not have to track this goal. Often times, these metrics are not even transparent inside digital platforms, so automation is the best way forward here. The StoryThe problem for me, being stuck on measuring progress in terms of percent, is that there are so so very many communications going out to families all the time, from so many campuses, initiated by so many individuals, through so many methods, many of them not trackable, I had no idea how to set our goals and measure progress toward them. Texts and emails are often completely opaque. It is impossible to know how many teachers sent home a half-sheet on any given day, much less quarter. And even school administration itself might be sending things home that you have no idea about unless a parent flags it for you. Even if staff are supposed to log their parent calls … they probably aren’t (as a teacher, I didn’t document calls unless it was about a sensitive subject). How do you know if you are 20% or 80% toward a goal if it is literally impossible to know what 100% even is? That is where I was stuck. One spring, I sent out an email on a massive email thread of all the ELL Coordinators for my region, asking for help. I got crickets … which I took to mean that others were in the same boat as I was. Except for one. Bless this woman, for being so generous with her time, to talk with me on the phone and discuss this problem. When I asked her how you are supposed to measure percent when you don’t know what the total is, she said, “You can’t.” Ha! This was the woman that I and my counterparts looked to as the be-all-end-all of ELL Coordinators, and she just confirmed my fears. But for her, it was not a dead end. She spoke of having the coordinators at her various campuses be in administrators' and teachers’ ears all the time to ask them, “Did you get that translated?” or “Have you requested interpreters for that event?” This was an incredibly freeing moment for me, and it allowed me to get creative. I wasn’t able to use the same strategy she was, because at the time, we were an ELL department of two, so we didn’t have ears in all the meetings or hallways to remind others when we overheard conversations. We could only be in so many places at once. She also described looking for discrepancies. If a campus had 200 multilingual students, but had only placed 3 calls with an interpreter recently, then something was off, and she could then bring it to the admin team. That got me thinking. I thought more in-depth about each thing I was trying to measure: phone calls with interpreters, in-person interpreters, and translations. Some of those correlate with student numbers, but not all and not entirely. I realized that if we cross-referenced multilingual students with the school calendar and what exactly was happening in a given quarter, that would allow us to set goals … and track our progress toward them. And guess what – when I implemented this method along with the many other pieces of the framework I teach:
The amount of information families could understand from the school increased tremendously, as did their personal touch points from a wide variety of staff. After all, ELL teachers are not the only adults who care for their children all day. Call to ActionDo an experiment. 1. Select one campus. 2. Get the number of students whose parents require a language other than English and get out their school calendar. 3. Look at the upcoming quarter, and attempt to set a goal in each of those categories: 1) phone interpretation, 2) in-person and virtual interpretation, and 3) document translation. 4. See how smoothly or roughly the process goes. Write down what worked and write down what you need to make it more effective. For example, maybe you prefer this to be a collaborative process with building admin in order to ensure you have the correct information when setting a goal (e.g. they may have made changes to events you don’t know about) and increase their buy-in (no one likes to be given a goal they had no say in). Faster TogetherSo many leaders know that their multilingual families aren't getting equitable access to information, programming, or people in their schools. But most get stuck, like I was, when trying to fix it because they are over-tasked and under-staffed. I spent years and dozens and dozens of hours in trial and error trying to fix this problem.
I help educational leaders in multilingual communities set up communication equity systems and practices so families can get what they need, feel a sense of community, and school staff can feel proud not only of what they do, but how they do it. Get support so you can skip all the trial and error and go straight to the part that works. It can look like coaching for full-service consulting. 1) Schedule a free consultation. 2) Tell me about your school and community. 3) Get your plan for creating a better experience for multilingual families, and better results for kids. Have you ever been in the grocery store, where they are playing music and all of a sudden a song from the top 40 station when you were in middle school comes on … and even though you haven’t heard this song in years, you find yourself moving and singing along to every word? Me, too. There is something about music that sticks with us. It can transport us to another time and place, a memory of who were were or what we were doing when we heard that song. Spanish TipBeing intentional when playing music is a great way to foster relationships with both students and families. By simply playing music dear to your students and/or their parents and caregivers, you can completely transform their experience in the moment. In some cases, it may even spark conversation – even if not immediately, then later. Imagine a scenario where a parent hears you playing one of their favorite family songs; they may not approach you in the moment, but it is pretty likely they will peg you in their mind as someone they can approach next time they need to talk to someone at school. The StoryEvery time I hear Mariposa traiconera by Maná, I immediately flash back to the many bus rides I took back and forth on the Panamerican highway through the mountains of Costa Rica when I was working for a non-profit during the summer of 2006. The radio station played that song what seemed like once out of every five songs, and forever more, that song marks that time, place, and feeling for me. It was a great summer! So even though I'm not a huge fan of the song, it brings up the feelings of friendship, adventure, and independence from that summer. When a person finds themselves permanently living in a place completely different from the one where we grew up, how powerful might music be in bringing up those comforting memories? One year, when I was interviewing parents about their experience at our schools, one mom shared that her daughter no longer wanted to listen to Mexican music. She was only interested in hip-hop. Our schools would often play R&B and hip-hop during arrival to start the day with joy and energy in a way that was familiar to 98% of our student population. But there were some students who were getting left out. This mom asked if we could sometimes play Mexican music at school; she thought it might help her daughter come to invite it back into her life. I texted all my multicultural parents and asked them for two songs that were family favorites and kid-appropriate. I then created a youtube and Spotify playlist and shared it with all our campuses and asked them to pull songs from it for any time they were building a music playlist, whether for arrival or a school event. Some of them did, including the campus where that particular student went to school. One year later, her mom reported back that her daughter was again enjoying Mexican music at home with her mom. I loved that. I have no idea if the school including Mexican songs in its playlists made the difference, but I can’t imagine it didn’t make a difference -- to her and others. It is something we should have been doing all along. Call to ActionPut together a playlist of school-appropriate Spanish language songs tailored to your age group and play it at some appropriate time. Maybe you create a calm one for a calm part of the day or an upbeat one when you want to bring the energy up.
Faster TogetherIf you would like to rapidly improve your Spanish so that you can make families feel welcome and wanted, foster trust and build a personal relationship with them, I have a virtual Spanish for Relationship-Building course coming up! The course is perfect for beginners or those who took Spanish back in high school but don't feel capable of conversational Spanish. Just stay tuned to these emails to know when it is open for enrollment!
For years I was stuck on how to measure usage of communication equity at our schools. I was training staff, but without a way to measure, I couldn’t hold people accountable in a very meaningful way. I mean, just saying, “Hey, you forgot to translate that permission slip” is okay … but if that’s all I could ever do, I would always be chasing my tail. Measuring communication equity has many pieces to it, but let’s start with one. If you use a telephonic interpreter service, they probably set you up with an account number and pin numbers (unless they collect the caller's name). When someone calls a parent with an interpreter, they call the service, enter the account number for their district, and then the pin for their campus or team. The trouble is there is no way to disaggregate when it is the ELL team calling or a non-ELL staff member calling, and that matters for the purpose of building a culture that all of our families are all of our families. Tip of the WeekSet up an ELL pin with your telephonic interpreter service so you can disaggregate ELL team calls from non-ELL team calls. (If your service collects the specific name of the staff member placing the call, you don't need to do this.) Why? This allows you to audit whether your entire school system is providing equitable communication to families. If there were 14 calls placed using Ralston Middle School’s pin in October, you know those calls were genuinely placed by Ralston MS staff and not by ELL staff. Bonus TipTo show your non-ELL staff that building relationships with multilingual families doesn't have to be intimidating or overwhelming, share with them my 4-week Multilingual Relationship-Building Challenge. They'll take simple steps each week that only take a matter of minutes to build relationships across language lines, gradually building up to a phone call. The StoryAfter adding the ELL pin to our telephonic interpreter service, in my very first quarterly check-in with one of our elementary campuses, I shared their multilingual communication metrics for the quarter. The purpose of this check-in was to see and strategize around was their staff providing in-person interpreters when appropriate? Were they calling multilingual families with interpreters? Were they providing translated documents? I was able to share with that admin team that while we had a goal for 13 calls to be placed to multilingual families that quarter, in fact 19 calls had been placed. They had surpassed their goal in their very first quarter! I was celebratory! But the admin team was quiet as crickets, looking at their screens with a little side-eye. I wasn’t sure if I had made it clear that this was a good thing when one of them asked, “Is this Ms. Muna calling?” (Ms. Muna was their campus ELL teacher.) and I said, “No, I am able to disaggregate calls that Ms. Muna makes versus calls that you and your staff are making with interpreters. So you can be confident that this truly is your staff calling families!” That’s when heads started to nod and people leaned forward in their seats. Nothing invests partners like some encouraging success! Conversely, I met with the admin team at another elementary campus. They had a different size multilingual population, so their goals were different. At our first quarterly check-in, I shared that while their goal was 3 calls to multilingual families that quarter, none had been made. This was an important metric for them to be aware of. We were not fulfilling our promise to all families. Despite having a very small and doable goal, their staff was not taking on that very light lift to make sure families had equitable access to information and programming. The crucial thing is, even though I had known that was the case the year prior, I had no evidence because calls that my team and I made to families at that campus were made using the campus pin. So when auditing calls, it may well have appeared that the campus had placed 10 calls home and had surpassed the goal when in reality, it was just the ELL team. After creating an ELL pin, I could confidently and clearly present data to campus leadership. Instead, we wanted classroom teachers, office staff, nurses, counselors, and admin to all be connecting with all families … not just the ones that speak English. In short, adding in that ELL pin was a game changer. It brought me clarity and confidence when partnering with administrators, and it gave administrators clarity and confidence on when they needed to make changes and when they had real cause to celebrate and appreciate their staff’s efforts! Call to Action1. Contact your telephonic interpreter service. Ask them to set up a new pin. This one will be just for your ELL team. 2. Instruct your ELL team to use the ELL pin always. Even if they are calling a family at Ralston Middle School, they should not use the pin for Ralston Middle School … they should use the pin for the ELL team. This will make audits of communication and conversation with your school partners far far more effective. Faster TogetherSo many leaders know that their multilingual families aren't getting equitable access to information, programming, or people in their schools. But most get stuck when trying to fix it because they are over-tasked and under-staffed. I help educational leaders in multilingual communities set up communication equity systems and practices so families can get what they need, feel a sense of community, and school staff can feel proud not only of what they do, but how they do it.
To get support, just schedule a free consultation, tell me about your school, and get your plan for improving the experience of multilingual families and results for kids. P.S. Want your team to build relationships with multilingual families without feeling intimidated? Whether they are experienced in working with multilingual families or you want them to start, have your team or colleagues participate in my Multilingual Relationship-Building Challenge. When I tell people that I teach Spanish for educators, most people think the benefit of the class is learning some basic language skills, and that’s how I thought about it in the beginning, too. But after teaching a few different courses, I have started to see that learning Spanish skills is the obvious benefit, but not the only one or even the most important one. I have come to see that when staff are able to speak Spanish directly with families, they are able to build trust and connection in a way that is hard to do when the only communication they ever have is through a third party interpreter. They also build empathy for all multilingual families as they gain experience in learning a new language. Finally, they become allies in making sure multilingual families have equitable access to programming and services; they join the group that says, “Hey, have we thought about interpreters for this event?” or “Is someone making sure these permission slips are getting translated?” But there's one more thing that is powerful about educators learning Spanish. And that is what today’s tip is all about. Spanish TipInvite parents to speak to you (or if not you, your staff who are learning Spanish) with the use of a visual that can be hung or placed on a desk. This visual becomes not only an advertisement that Spanish is welcome and included in the space, but that Spanish and Spanish-speakers are an asset to the community. It transforms parents and caregivers from being only receivers of language service into providers of language service in a mutual endeavor. The StoryI have a student in first grade who cannot speak directly with or understand his mom: she speaks Spanish only, and he speaks and understands English only. His sixth grade sister acts as interpreter at home. He recently said to me, "I wish I had an English mom". This breaks my heart! While this is an extreme example, language loss across generations is more common than most realize. I’ve been researching why fewer and fewer U.S. born Latinos are fluent speakers of Spanish, and why the language is disappearing across generations faster than in other language communities. I had my own speculations as to why that might be, but was interested in what others said about it. While there is no one reason, there is one that stands out to me as something we, as educators, can do something about it, no matter what state we live in, no matter what the local politics, no matter what kind of bilingual program our school does (or does not) offer. In a 2022 article in USA Today, Lourdes Torres (a professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at DePaul University) was quoted as saying “Spanish can be exceptionally stigmatized in certain parts of the country, and linked, because of political discourses, to toxic identities, identities that are constructed as criminal… First generation parents, for example, suffer a lot when they get here because they don't speak English or they don't speak English well,” said Torres... “And they don’t want the same thing for their kids. Instead of promoting bilingualism, often, parents— to save their own kids from the agony that they had, the discrimination that they felt because of the language— they push them to just learn English.” The article continues, “The loss of Spanish is not due to an individual problem of Latinos not wanting to learn or maintain the language but rather the 'really hostile context in the U.S. against other languages, especially Spanish and indigenous languages, languages that aren't considered prestigious, and the people who speak it,’ Torres said.” That is where educators learning Spanish comes in. Will it change everything? No. No one action ever can. But might it change something for someone? I think it could. If I am a parent who immigrated from Honduras, for example, and I find that my child’s school both offers consistent and reliable language access and there are multiple people in the building who are making an effort to learn and speak Spanish with me, might it change how I experience life as a Spanish-speaker in the United States? Probably at school, it will. Will it change how I frame bilingualism to my child? It might. If I am an educator learning practical Spanish, and not only using it with kids and families, but inviting them to be a part of my language journey, might I play some small part to shift their experience of bilingualism in the school community? I might. Is that enough of a reason to embark on some language learning that also brings me joy and allows me to have a genuine exchange with a parent, or a newly arrived student? I think for both of us, it is. In the same USA Today article, Laura Muñoz (asst. Professor of history and ethnic studies at the University of Nebraska) shared, “We assume that this failure to maintain the language has something to do with us – with the way that we were raised, with the inability of our parents to succeed at teaching Spanish – when in fact there are so many other pressures coming at both the parents and the children,” Muñoz said. "When I think about Spanish language loss, the big word is lástima.” (Lástima means "a shame".) Since the blame does not actually lie with parents, let’s reclaim the power of our role as educators and enormous influences on our children’s destinies by modeling something different than what the broader forces are doing. So, while translation and interpretation is critical to respecting the civil rights of families, learning Spanish has a part to play in changing the environment our students and their families find themselves in, in such a way that might support language preservation and a connection to their heritage. Call to ActionDownload this printable for your staff who are learning Spanish. They can print it and fold it on the dotted lines and prop it on their desks where families can see it! If you have multiple languages, they can display it next to this resource (publicly available on the internet, but I am not sure who originally made it), to notify families of their right to an interpreter and allow them to indicate their preferred language. Faster TogetherI teach public (open to multiple districts) and private (exclusive to a single district) Spanish for Educators professional development series. You may select a course of Spanish targeted at specific roles in the building or targeted relationship-building with students and families.
If you want to learn more:
Let’s make it so the Spanish-speaking students and families at your school don't feel like Spanish is “less prestigious” -- rather, it is gold. I know that building relationships with students and families is important to you. That alone makes you good at it. Building relationships and trust with families who speak a language other than our own can feel more intimidating. That mere extra twinge of overwhelm can sometimes be enough to prevent us from taking small steps at the beginning of the year, which later become habits, and time passes without a strong relationship with parents until eventually a moment arrives when you need that relationship. And that student needs you to have a relationship with their parents to get them through a moment in their life. There are ways to build that rapport easily and without the overwhelm, even if you don’t share a language, even if you don’t have a ton of resources provided to you by your district. And oh, it is worth it, especially for multilingual parents and caregivers. Multilingual families are often of cultures that value relationships more than our own – where stopping by your house to talk is the norm, and an emailed survey to gather feedback is not. On top of that, when operating in an unfamiliar culture in a language they don’t speak, relationships become exponentially more important. Spanish TipKeep a bank of “Spanish notes home” so you can easily handwrite positive notes in students’ folder, at the top of an assignment going home, or just on a slip you give to them for their parent. Of course you can send a text too, but if you can trust the student to put a paper in their parent’s hand, then I think handwriting still has a greater effect. Write down your name and phone number if you want them to recognize your texts and calls in the future. BONUSJoin my Relationship-Building Challenge for one bite-sized action to take each week for four weeks to build trust and rapport with parents across the language barrier. Just click here to participate! The StoryIn 2011, I started teaching in a two-way dual language immersion school for the first time. It was a new school, a new city (Austin, TX), new curriculum, and though I had always taught in Spanish prior to that, this was the first time I was switching students with another teacher (students did a half-day with the Engilsh immersion teacher and a half-day with the Spanish immersion teacher) and had to work and coordinate with someone else who had their own way of doing things. It was a lot of firsts, and this year was almost (emphasis on almost) as hard for me as my first year teaching at all. However, I was a lot more versed in parental relationships by that time, and I leaned on that a lot with handwritten notes home and calls home after school. (I still owned a flip phone at this time, so this was old school. I had no nearly the tools available to connect with parents as there are today). One student, Mariana (not her real name), was extremely bright and a fast learner, but there were little behaviors that I could tell could become a big problem over time, mostly involving her relationships with other girls and her response to corrections by me. I lacked a lot of confidence in my new setting and made a lot of mistakes, but what I did do well was to make sure to share with her mom all of the wonderful things about Mariana, that were true, investing in that relationship should things become more challenging down the line. Then one day, after returning from an absence from school, Mariana presented me with a doctor’s note. When I looked at it closer, I could see that the date had been changed from not yesterday to yesterday. This wasn’t the work of a 6-year-old, and this is the moment where I needed to call on the relationship seeds I had planted with mom. Mariana’s mom came to school that week for something unrelated, and I brought her into my classroom while the class was in Specials and broached the topic of the changed date on the note. Mom confessed she had changed it and in reality had taken Mariana out for a fun day on the town because there had been a lot of personal family stresses, and she wanted Mariana to have a day without any stress. Ok, I said. I understand why you wanted Mariana to have a day free from stress and to bond with her. Let’s set aside the fact that she missed a day of school for a second, and just look at the doctor’s note you sent her to school with. What message are you sending to Mariana about honesty? At 6-years-old, if Mariana lies, it probably won’t be that high-stakes or even that well-executed. But fast-forward to when she is 16. What will her honesty be worth at that age? What will the stakes be then if she has learned that dishonesty is acceptable? I felt quite nervous having this conversation. I was still in my mid-twenties and had no kids. Who was I to be saying this to mom? She easily could have taken it personally and been offended. But instead, mom nodded slowly. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have lied. I shouldn’t have set that example for Mariana." Though up to then I wouldn’t say there was anything stand-out about my relationship with Mariana’s mom, from that moment on, she opened up about a lot of private details that were relevant for me to know as Mariana’s teacher. She volunteered to chaperone on field trips, she invited me to Mariana’s birthday party, she talked to me as a thought-partner when trying to address something difficult with Mariana at home. This continued the next year, too, when I looped with Mariana’s class. After I was no longer her daughter’s teacher, we even met up for lunch a couple times as friends, and are in touch occasionally to this day. But if I look back to what made that turning point conversation more likely to go well (not to take away from mom’s incredible grace and maturity in that moment), the small things in the beginning were much more important than they originally appeared. It hadn’t taken a huge lift: just showing in small ways that I noticed the positive things about her daughter. Spanish Call to ActionFirst, Make a copy of this Spanish Notes Bank. Use it as-is or add to it over time as you learn new phrases or get help from others! Keep this somewhere easily accessible so you can pull it out in a pinch to quickly jot down that message to the parent. Note that the notes were written by me (a human), and not Google Translate. Thus -- you can be confident in these messages. ;-) Then, sign up for the 4-week bite-sized Relationship-Building Challenge to build trust and rapport with your Spanish-speaking parents now, so you and your students can look back on a more successful, enjoyable, and meaningful year later. Faster TogetherIf you have Spanish-speaking families, but not a lot of Spanish-speakers on staff, and you would like to be able to welcome and include families with more warmth, Spanish for Educators is the fun and effective answer to your problem.
Classes include Spanish for Office Professionals, Spanish for Teachers, Spanish for Nurses & Counselors as well as Spanish for Relationship-Building, which is suitable for staff in any number of roles. A Spanish for Educators is the only professional Spanish language course that focuses on the most frequent role-specific exchanges between staff and family, and that addresses the barriers that often prevent adult educators from using the language they learn in a class setting, such as: fear of making mistakes and appearing unprofessional, fear of starting a conversation, and overwhelming jobs that make studying unfeasible. If you want to learn more about practical role- or purpose-focused Spanish courses, just book a free no-pressure call to learn more. |
Anne TruranI taught, coached, taught again, founded an ELL program and taught and coached some more. From the border to central Texas to the Midwest. Now I work with schools to improve communication and connection with multilingual families. Archives
May 2024
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