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I recently took a class that used the text- Empowering English Learners for Classroom Success. In the text, Asgedom shares his story as a refugee, came to America, and later graduated from Harvard. His story is an inspiration.

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Confidence, hard work and determination is all just needed to achieve success and overcome failures

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Confidence, hard work and determination is all just needed to achieve success and overcome failures

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2mI-aqz4vo

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Now he is CEO of a Gaming Company but he was born a refugee in Sudan, lived in camp in Uganda with little to eat and traumatic circumstances. 

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Now he is CEO of a Gaming Company but he was born a refugee in Sudan, lived in camp in Uganda with little to eat and traumatic circumstances. 

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LINK--> https://wapo.st/35iMHB8

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Explained in one slide

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Three blogs by Emily Francis that tell her incredible journey from Unaccompanied Minor to Teaching Channel ESL Fab 5.

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Three blogs by Emily Francis that tell her incredible journey from Unaccompanied Minor to Teaching Channel ESL Fab 5.

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https://inspiringenglishlanguagelearners.weebly.com/my-journey.html

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The challenge of succeeding in school while also learning a new language is one Barko-Alva knows all too well — as a teenager, her family fled Peru due to social and political turmoil and immigrated to the United States.

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"Teaching with compassion and hope" has been the guiding mantra for Assistant Professor Katherine Barko-Alva as she developed William & Mary's first master's concentration in ESL and bilingual education. After launching this past fall, the program's first class of students will graduate in May.

Her ability to inspire young people to pursue a career in ESL and bilingual education, along with her research and service related to bilingual education, was recognized recently with the Latinx Leadership Award from the Virginia Latino Advisory Board, which advises Virginia Governor Ralph Northam on issues of concern for the Latinx community in Virginia. The award highlights the work of individuals "working toward the empowerment and progress of the Latinx population in Virginia."

The challenge of succeeding in school while also learning a new language is one Barko-Alva knows all too well - as a teenager, her family fled Peru due to social and political turmoil and immigrated to the United States. Though a strong student, she struggled to learn in her new classroom due to the language barrier. Despite being told that college was not for her, she graduated high school and enrolled in college with the support of a social studies teacher and a cohesive support system. She majored in English and planned to apply to law school, wanting to focus on immigration issues. However, through a chance opportunity working with bilingual families and students, Barko-Alva discovered that education was the key to support.

Building on her own experiences as a bilingual student, she has worked as a teacher, facilitator, advocate and now as a researcher and professor to understand the complex relationship between language and learning to develop new methods of teaching English language learners.

This past fall, she shared her story along with her research as the keynote speaker at the Virginia Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (VATESOL) annual conference. Two current School of Education students, Emily Chaumont '18, M.A.Ed. '19 and Emma Muñis '18, M.A.Ed. '19, also presented at VATESOL. Both students are completing the ESL dual endorsement program, which prepares students to teach in ESL and dual language settings in addition to a concentration in either elementary, secondary or special education.

In collaboration with Gladys Krause, assistant professor of math education, Barko-Alva is continuing to pursue research in dual language classrooms through a partnership with a local school district. In an elementary school where the student population is approximately half native English speakers and half native Spanish speakers, Barko-Alva and Krause have a unique opportunity to observe how students process learning in different languages within the context of core academic subjects (i.e., language arts, math, social studies, and science). The school offers a dual language program in which Spanish and English are each the language of instruction for half of the school day. Using data from her research in the district, Barko-Alva and Krause are creating methodology and learning techniques in order to understand the learning process in a Spanish-English dual language classroom.

The foundation of her research examines how teachers make sense of language use for academic purpose in dual language and ESL classrooms. She explores how teachers negotiate language practices designed to facilitate the integration of language and content during instruction. Understanding how students learn in their native language and applying that knowledge to comprehending English, also known as cross-linguistic transfer, is an important key in successfully educating bilingual students.

In addition to theoretical and practical study of language acquisition and instruction, William & Mary's program in ESL and bilingual education focuses on supporting students and families, as well as enhancing the additive impact that students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds bring to the classroom. Rather than diminishing the student's native culture and language, new teachers learn strategies for integrating content and language instruction in a way that values students' skills, languages and perspectives while broadening their knowledge in a new environment.

"I want to help bridge the gap between content and language knowledge as an ESL teacher," says Eliana Marrs M.A.Ed. '19. "Advocating for my students is also a key piece of the profession that makes me passionate about the field."

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Barko-Alva recognized with statewide Latinx Leadership Award

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School of Education assistant professor, Katherine Barko-Alva's ability to inspire young people to pursue a career in ESL and bilingual education, along with her research and service related to bilingual education, was recognized recently with the Latinx Leadership Award from the Virginia Latino Advisory Board.

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More on Carol's Blog: bit.ly/SalvaBlog

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One of the most powerful conversations that I've had this year is with musician/artist, Emmanuel Jal. His story is powerful and the life that he leads now inspiring.

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Carmen Arga Deedy is one of my favorite story tellers. Her story as a Cuban who immigrated to Decater, Ga in the 1960s is inspirational! The blend of cultures created a unique voice in children's literature.

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Carmen Arga Deedy is one of my favorite story tellers. Her story as a Cuban who immigrated to Decater, Ga in the 1960s is inspirational! The blend of cultures created a unique voice in children's literature.

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https://carmenagradeedy.com/about/

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One of our featured speakers at #MIDTESOL16 was Sonia Nazario, award-winning journalist who wrote Enrique's Journey http://www.enriquesjourney.com/about-sonia/bio-2/ Enrique's story is one too many of our ELLs can relate to. One of our members, Jamie Cardwell, used the book with the newcomers in her summer school. She wrote an article about how she used the book and how her students connected with Enrique's story http://midtesol.org/summer-school-connects-to-students-backgrounds/

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"From a refugee camp to Harvard" is Mawi's story. Today he's a motivational speaker and trainer with his own programs for students and teachers. I've used both his Of Beetles and Angels autobiographical book and The Code: The 5 Secrets of Teen Success with high school ELLs. http://www.mawilearning.com/store.html

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http://www.greencardvoices.com/videos/
There are TONS of videos of immigration stories from MANY different countries.  All the ones I watched were very interesting.

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Listen to @TanELLClassroom tell @rchids about his family's harrowing experience as refugees and how that shaped his path as a leader in education.

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Tan Huynh is an ELL teacher in Laos. His story of how he ended up in Education is an interesting one. Never intending on becoming a teacher, Tan felt a pull to the profession. In his 10 year career, he has tried to go in other directions but just kept getting dragged back to teaching.

Listen in to what Tan has to say about starting out as a Teach for America teacher in New Orleans, his background and how he was one of the last boat people (South of Saigon) and ended up in Pennsylvania, his studies at Dickinson College and his Mother's perspective on the fact that he is an educator, his journey back to the part of the world where he came from, his current teaching assignment, his name and the proper pronunciation of it, making sure kids (particularly ELLs) fit in and feel at home, being so much more than teachers (service to the community), what motivates him, his thoughts on what is the most important thing he has learned so far as a teacher, and what he might say to others to help them find motivation.

You can listen to the Podcast here.

You can connect with Tan on Twitter (@TanELLclass) and at his website ( www.empoweringells.com).

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Ep 48 - Tan Huynh: "Start with questions and continue with questions."

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Tan Huynh is an ELL teacher in Laos. His story of how he ended up in Education is an interesting one. Never intending on becoming a teacher, Tan felt a pull to the profession. In his 10 year career, he has tried to go in other directions but just kept getting dragged back to teaching.

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Newcomer Family's Perspective is told by Valentina Gonzalez 

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Newcomer Family's Perspective is told by Valentina Gonzalez 

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In this podcast, with @DerekRhodenizer@ValentinaESL describes assimilation difficulties experienced by her family but also shares the strength and support she had at home.

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DEC 7 2015, 8:41 AM ET

Inspiring Memoirs Tell Journey From Child Farm Worker to Academic

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As a child migrant worker in the 1940s and 50s, Francisco Jiménez would spend 12 hours a day, seven days a week in the California fields, missing the first two months of school every year to help his parents during the harvest season. Decades later, this renowned scholar and professor would be chronicling his inspiring journey, highlighting that despite difficulties, education is a path forward.

Jiménez has shared his family's life and struggles in four award-winning memoirs aimed at young readers. In the last of the books, "Taking Hold: From Migrant Childhood to Columbia University," published this year, Jiménez describes life as a graduate student at the Ivy League school and how he initially felt out of place as his classmates discussed their "academic achievements and interests, foreign travels and alma maters: Harvard, Yale, Princeton."

Despite feeling like he didn't belong, Jiménez stresses in his books and to his students that academics changed his life. "Education helps to level the playing field. In other words, education prepares us for a more fruitful and fulfilling life and a more active and productive involvement in our increasingly diverse society."

From late summer through September, a young Jiménez and his family worked in the strawberry fields in Santa Maria, Calif. They'd then travel 250 miles to San Joaquin Valley to pick grapes through the end of October. A month later, they'd be at a migrant camp in Corcoran picking cotton by hand until late December while living in temporary housing like tents. Jiménez and his family crossed the border into the United States from Tlaquepaque, Mexico when he was four in 1947, an experience he chronicles in his widely read book "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child." He came with his parents and older brother Roberto.

"We crossed without documentation ... we came here for the same reason that many immigrant families come to the U.S.: looking for a better life for their children and their children's children," said Jiménez, 72, who now serves as director of the Ethnic Studies Program at Santa Clara University and teaches in the university's Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.

In an interview with NBC Latino, Jimenez said that when he was in sixth grade, he met a Portugese-American teacher, Mr. Lema, who helped him learn English during his lunch hour. Though Jiménez would not stay in the school long, he said the kind teacher "planted the seed" for him to want to become a teacher.

Jiménez became a U.S. citizen when he was in his 20s. But his life took many turns before that. When he was young he and his family were caught by "La Migra" and deported, which he writes about in his award-winning sequel to "The Circuit" called "Breaking Through." The family endured many hardships and much struggle but were able to re-enter legally thanks to a sharecropper who became their sponsor.

In his third book "Reaching Out," Jiménez writes about his hard decision to leave the family to attend Santa Clara University. While he was there, his father abandoned the family and returned to Mexico. Despite the poverty and the difficulty of these family experiences , Jiménez did not abandon his schooling.

In his latest book, Jiménez says that praying and staying in touch with his family and future wife, Laura, helped him cope with his graduate studies at Columbia.

Jiménez was motivated to write memoirs because he wanted to "document the experience of many, many immigrants who come to this country and have contributed tremendously to the cultural diversity and economic vitality of the United States."

Today, an estimated 11.7 million Mexicans live in the U.S., down from 12.8 million in 2007, according to a Pew Research Center report. Hispanics made up a significant portion of the workforce in 2014, federal statistics show. They accounted for 48.3 percent of the 25.7 million foreign-born people in the U.S. labor force last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The agency includes undocumented immigrants in their foreign born reporting.

Across the nation, Hispanics are making progress when it comes to educational attainment. The number of Latinos enrolled in two and four-year colleges more than tripled between 1993 and 2012. But Hispanics still lag in obtaining a bachelor's degree compared with other groups. Jiménez has used his personal and academic experiences to urge young Latinos to transform their lives through education, the way he was able to do.

He emphasizes to his students at Santa Clara University - including those who are undocumented - that they will contribute even more to society by getting a good education. In 2002,Jiménez was named U.S. Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Two of Jiménez's three sons have followed in his footsteps and are college professors. The youngest, Tomás, 39, teaches sociology at Stanford. His writing and research focuses on assimilation, immigration, social mobility, and ethnic and racial identity. His award-winning book, "Replenished Ethnicity: Mexican Americans, Immigration, and Identity," is focused on how contemporary Mexican immigrants impact established Mexican Americans. "Academics always study immigrants looking at how they change to adapt to a place. I wanted to take that idea and instead look at how an established population adapts to those changes," Tomás Jiménez said.

Growing up, education "was always heavily emphasized in our family, both implicitly and explicitly. ... It was about the process, about doing your absolute best, not just about the grades you'd earn," Tomás Jiménez said. There were lessons that he and his brothers learned beyond what was taught in their classrooms. One summer, the elder Jimenez took two of his sons to Sequoia National Park. On their way home, they stopped at a vineyard outside Fresno and took a look at the workers drying grapes.

"My dad said, 'this is where you come from.' He emphasized that you treat everyone with respect, including people without high status jobs," Tomás Jiménez added. "We grew up with a justice consciousness. ...We were taught to recognize the common threads of Italian and Mexican experiences," said Tomás, adding that his mother is of Italian descent. "These experiences were woven together in the conversations we had in our house about immigration, about being poor, about speaking another language."

Francisco Jiménez has had quite a journey from picking vegetables and fruits in California fields to the hallowed halls of academia. But through his memoirs he exhorts young Latinos to aim high and use education as a way to transform one's life.

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Inspiring Memoirs Tell Journey From Child Farm Worker to Academic

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As a child migrant worker in the 1940s and 50s, Francisco Jiménez would spend 12 hours a day, seven days a week in the California fields, missing the first two months of school every year to help his parents during the harvest season.