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Translating Audio/Videos to Spanish (NOT AVAILABLE AT THE MOMENT)

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Translating Audio/Videos to Spanish (NOT AVAILABLE AT THE MOMENT)

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AI voiceover feature translates spoken English into Spanish. The AI Assistant helps by generating titles, descriptions, captions, and translations automatically.

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In this video, I explore how AI tools from Screencastify can support teachers like me who teach in English but have Spanish-speaking students. The AI Assistant helps by generating titles, descriptions, captions, and translations automatically. Additionally, the AI voiceover feature translates spoken English into Spanish, adjusting translation speed based on audio clarity. I discuss how these tools are beneficial for creating lesson previews and sharing content with students. Join me as I delve into the practical applications of these AI tools in supporting diverse language needs in the classroom.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Please contact your campus Instructional Coach if to discuss access to to these resources.

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Translate ZEARN Content to Spanish Tutorial

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Translate ZEARN Content to Spanish Tutorial

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In this video, I share a workaround for translating content from ZEARN into Spanish to assist new commerce students.

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Translate ZEARN Content to Spanish Tutorial

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In this video, I share a workaround for translating content from ZEARN into Spanish to assist new commerce students. By utilizing a translation tool, I demonstrate how users can easily convert pages, including word problems and suggestions, into Spanish. While videos themselves remain untranslated, the text surrounding them can be effectively translated. The primary goal is to support newcomers in engaging with activities and ensure they do not fall behind in their learning journey. Join me as I explore this solution to make educational resources more accessible for Spanish-speaking students entering the field of commerce. Let’s bridge language barriers and enhance the learning experience together!

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To access Spanish Curriculum make sure you Select Arriba la Lectura in the upper left "Select a Program" drop-down menu.

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Log in to the HMH Ed platform. Select your country, state, and school district to get started.

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You can toggle between English and Spanish in some of the sections of the program.

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Look for the planet icon 🌐︎ to see what resources have Spanish available.

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Pilot Edition Texas OER K-5 Math, COVID Emergency Release (CER 2.0) | Texas Gateway

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The COVID Emergency Release Pilot Edition V2 K-5 Math is currently called Eureka Math TEKS Edition and was built based on Texas standards. Students develop conceptual understanding, practice procedural skills and fluency, and apply what they learn in real-world scenarios. All topics are linked across modules and grade levels to help students build an enduring understanding of math through rigorous instruction.

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Educator Home - login or access for educators

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Grades K-5 have Spanish Vocabulary that can be compared back to back with the English one.

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Chinook Middle School is breaking the language barrier with Microsoft Translator

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Reading Basics with Fifth-Grade Newcomers

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Supporting ELs in Texas (Parents and Families) 

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Supporting ELs in Texas (Parents and Families) 

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English Learner Portal-Parents And Families

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Supporting Emergent Bilingual Students in Texas

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Supporting ELs in Texas (Teacher Classroom) 

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Supporting ELs in Texas (Teacher Classroom) 

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Teacher Network Tool - Tango

Check out the new teacher-approved tool, Tango, on the Teacher Network page. Make step-by-step guides with directions with screenshots in seconds!

Newcomer Tool of the Month

Calling all new educators! Please access our Teacher Network Tool of the Month page to explore our selected resource for the month of March. Learn in depth about the resource highlighted and discover ways to implement it into your classroom as you see fit.

Date: 3.4.23

Introducing New Teacher Workroom Website

Introducing New Teacher Classroom Website A new website has been created to meet the daily needs of educators. From time keeping tools to procedure and planning resources, we have provided an assortment of exceptional applications to utilize. Provide us with feedback and suggestions for more resources today!

Date: 3.1.23

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Supporting Emergent Bilingual Students in Texas

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How to translate any website (For Spanish speakers)

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How to translate any website (For Spanish speakers)

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Supporting ELLs in the mainstream classroom

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Supporting ELLs in the mainstream classroom

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Learning a new language is an overwhelming experience for anyone - especially if you are supposed to be learning in that new language at the same time! Here are some ideas for helping students feel more comfortable in the mainstream classroom.

Create a welcoming environment.

You can do this by learning to pronounce students' names correctly, encouraging students to share their language and culture with the class, and adding books in students' languages (or about their native countries) to the classroom environment. Colorín Colorado offers a number of additional ideas in How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment.

Recruit "buddies" to help newcomers find their away around the school.

Students who speak the newcomers' first language will be especially helpful during the first few weeks, but English-speaking buddies are invaluable as well. Help your English-speaking students understand that newcomers may not be able to speak very much English at first, but that they will learn more as time goes on. Buddies may be able to help by:

taking newcomers on a tour the first day

showing students how to use lockers

sitting together at lunch

spending time together at recess

walking newcomers to their classes for the first few days

walking students to the bus.

Encourage your students to continue to use their first language.

Whether it's through speaking with family members at home, reading a book or an online newspaper in their native language, or listening to some of their favorite music, encourage students to keep their native language skills strong. Discuss the benefits of being bilingual, as well as some opportunities that students who are multilingual may have in the future.

There are academic benefits to maintaining native language skills as well. While students, parents, and teachers may feel pressure for students to learn English as quickly as possible, research strongly supports the positive effect of native language literacy on English literacy. Reading, academic, and content-area skills can often be transferred from one language to another, and it is generally easier to transfer those skills than to learn them while simultaneously learning English. Helping your students maintain their native language will in fact support their English language development.

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Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: Making Students Comfortable

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Learning a new language is an overwhelming experience for anyone - especially if you are supposed to be learning in that new language at the same time! Here are some ideas for helping students feel more comfortable in the mainstream classroom.

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An important first step in helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed is making them feel welcome in the classroom.

This will:

increase their confidence

make them feel more comfortable in the class

build a foundation for positive relationships with you and their peers.

Here's how you can get started!

The ELL student population includes students who were born in the U.S. and students who have immigrated from another country. For ELLs who have recently arrived in the U.S., they will face the challenge of learning a new language in addition to adjusting to an unfamiliar cultural setting and school system.

On a daily basis, ELLs are adjusting to new ways of saying and doing things. As their teacher, you are an important bridge to this unknown culture and school system.

In the same way that ELLs go through stages of English language learning, they may also pass through stages of cultural accommodation. These stages, however, may be less defined and more difficult to notice. Being aware of these stages may help you to better understand "unusual" actions and reactions that may just be part of adjusting to a new culture.

Euphoria: ELLs may experience an initial period of excitement about their new surroundings.

Culture shock: ELLs may then experience anger, hostility, frustration, homesickness, or resentment towards the new culture.

Acceptance: ELLs may gradually accept their different surroundings.

Assimilation/adaptation: ELLs may embrace and adapt to their surroundings and their "new" culture.

It is also common for students who are learning a new language to be 'silent' for a period of time, when they are listening to the language around them without speaking yet (much as a young child listens to language first before learning to talk). This is considered the first stage of language acquisition.

Patience and creating opportunities for small successes in speaking with you and peers can help build students' confidence. In addition, keep in mind that students' silence could also be a sign of respect for you as an authority - and not a sign of their inability or refusal to participate.

Students may also have experienced trauma or face different kinds of hardship in the U.S. You can better prepare yourself for this possibility by:

Learn more from the following:

This award-winning documentary highlights how the Dearborn, MI public school district is helping its immigrant students succeed. Learn more about this project and see related videos.

Getting to Know Students

Learn how to pronounce students' names correctly

Don't forget to smile and use positive body language!

A lot of communication happens through expressions, body language, and tone. Smiling and using positive body language can go a long way in making students feel welcome and comfortable, particularly if they are newcomers, as seen in the vignette shared by a teacher below.

Build relationships with students

Veteran teachers of ELLs always point to building relationships as the most important step in their work with ELLs. Not only does it increase engagement and support students' later academic success, it also provides invaluable information that can inform your instruction and family engagement.

In addition, it can help build bridges with students who may have particularly unique experiences, such as children in migrant farmwork families or Indigenous students.

See more ideas on how to build these relationships from the following:

Video: Showing students you care

Corpus Christi teacher Christine Price talks about the importance of showing students you care early on.

Identify students' strengths and interests

It's important to remember that ELLs bring lots of strengths, talents, and rich experiences to the classroom. Getting to know students' interests can help:

build rapport

engage students in learning

find connections with new friends.

Families are also an important source of information and are often happy to talk about the activities that their child enjoys. They may also appreciate the fact that their child's teacher is taking an interest in the child's strengths and talents. (This is especially true in special education settings.)

Teacher Omar Salem describes a student who not only sings and dances but manages her own YouTube channel and edits all of the video she posts of her performances.

Video: Using parent letters to get to know my students

Albuquerque teacher Clara Gonzales-Espinoza asks her parents to write her a letter at the beginning of each school year telling her about the child's personality, interests, strengths, and anything else they think she should know. In this interview, Clara speaks more about this strategy and its impact on her relationships with parents and students.

Ensure that students have information about activities and clubs

Make sure that students have information about extra-curricular activities, sports, and clubs related to their interests. You can also encourage them to start their own club within the school.

ELL educator Christine Rowland notes, "Many students find involvement in school clubs and teams to be extremely helpful, as they are often experts in these areas, and they can provide a space where they more easily feel they belong."

Welcoming Students' Language and Culture

Invite students' cultures into the classroom

Encourage ELLs and their families to share their culture with you and your class. Show-and-tell is a good opportunity for ELLs to bring in something representative of their culture, if they wish.

Invite students and families to:

share photographs, visuals, or meaningful artifacts such as flags or mementos

tell a popular story or folktale using words, pictures, gestures, and movements

share information about important holidays or celebrations.

Looking beyond the classroom

Imagine that you are walking into your school for the first time as a parent.

What do you see on the walls?

If your first language weren't English, would you see signs in your language?

Would you see flags, maps, or books representing your home country?

Would you see your child's work on display in the hallway?

If you think more could be done to make families feel welcome, consider:

sharing some ideas with colleagues or administrators and taking small steps that you can point to as successes

looking for opportunities to celebrate all families and their languages, customs, and cultures, whether in the classroom or at a school-wide event

keeping a lookout for a special part of their lives that other families might appreciate getting to know.

See more ideas in the following:

Video: What happened when the students realized the Yemeni flag wasn't on stage

ELD Specialist Diana Alqadhi tells the story of some students who realized that the Yemeni flag was not featured prominently enough on stage before a school show.

Invite students' languages into the classroom

Label classroom objects to allow ELLs to better understand their immediate surroundings. These labels will also assist you when explaining or giving directions, and it gives peers an additional opportunity to learn some words in their classmates' language.

Start with everyday items, such as "door/puerta," "book/libro," and "chair/silla."

You may wish to ask students who can write in their first language or family members to help you with this project.

You can also invite students to teach the class some words from their home language.

Learn more about the resources available in students' home languages

Students benefit from support in their home language - what Dr. Fred Genesee calls their " most valuable resource." You have may have access to learning material in students' languages, or you may be able to find resources that support those languages.

Language access for multilingual families

In addition, it's critical to understand what language access resources you have available through your school and district, particularly for communication with families. Keep in mind that all families have a legal right to information in their home language. Family liaisons, interpreters, ESL teachers, or administrators may have more information about what language access resources are available in your district.

Video: What Do School Districts Need to Know About Language Access?

This helpful overview about what language access means for school districts is a great introduction to the requirements, best practices, and funding streams related to language access in public education. This interview features Dr. Jennifer Love, the Supervisor of Language Access and Engagement in Prince George's County Public Schools, Maryland.

Video: Language Access for Multilingual Families

What does appropriate language access mean for multilingual families? This interview also features Dr. Jennifer Love.

Ensure your students see themselves reflected in the classroom

Ask yourself if students can see representations of their culture, race, gender, and other aspects of identity reflected in your:

classroom materials and library

lesson plans and activities

classroom visuals (both in-person and virtual).

In addition:

Success in the Classroom

Encourage your students

Some ELLs may not answer voluntarily in class or ask for your help even if they need it. ELLs may smile and nod, but this does not necessarily mean that they understand. Offer one-on-one support and encouragement as much as possible. For convenience, it may be helpful to seat ELLs near your desk.

Assign a buddy

Identify a classmate who will make a good buddy for new students - someone who is friendly, patient, and a good communicator to be a buddy. This student can make sure that the new student understands what he or she is supposed to do during class activities. It is helpful if the peer partner knows the ELL's first language, but not necessary. However, remember to never use another student as an interpreter in any situation.

Learn more about ways to increase peer interaction and collaboration in these related strategies.

Ask the class how they can help welcome new students

Ask students to brainstorm ways to help ELLs in particular. You may wish to make a list of ideas on how to welcome new students at the beginning of the year so that students have these strategies in mind if a student comes with little advance notice.

Be vigilant about health issues, dietary concerns, and allergies

Students may have specific health issues or dietary restrictions due to health, cultural, or religious reasons. Be sure that you learn all essential information you need to know about student health and diet from parents or guardians. For ELLs, be sure to confirm and clarify this information with the help of interpreters.

If you learn information about a student that would be helpful for other staff to know, particularly regarding health or food allergies, talk with administrators about how to keep the child safe. In addition, be sensitive to cultural or religious norms, such as fasting for religious reasons.

Keep an eye out for signs of culture shock

Moving to a new country and leaving a familiar life, relatives, friends, and language behind can be traumatic for children in the best of circumstances. Those challenges are compounded if children have experienced trauma, violence, or upheaval. Learn more about how culture shock can impact students in the classroom and affect student behavior so that you recognize signs if newcomers act out.

Encourage students to take ownership of the classroom culture

Ask students to answer the following questions through drawings or written responses.

How can I be a good classmate to others?

What are examples of unkind or disrespectful behavior in the classroom?

To support ELLs in their discussions of these questions:

Encourage students who speak the same language to discuss their ideas in groups.

Provide scaffolded materials such as graphic organizers, sentence stems, and sentence frames.

Use a picture book to talk about different kinds of behavior with students.

Create a shared set of classroom expectations together

Return to your earlier discussion of what a respectful classroom looks like.

Brainstorm ideas on possible class rules based on that discussion.

Streamline the list of class guidelines or rules.

Add any rules or guidelines that are missing.

In order to establish appropriate consequences for disrespectful behavior, you may wish to come up with ideas with the class or determine those consequences yourself.

Post the final list classroom rules in the classroom.

Translate the rules into ELLs' native languages so that they can keep the list handy and share it at home.

To see an example of this proces in action, take a look at ELL expert Carol Salva's process for developing a community contract each year.

Help your ELLs understand expectations for the classroom

ELLs may need some extra support in understanding expectations for classroom behavior. Helping them understand these expectations can avoid misunderstandings, discipline problems, and feelings of low self-esteem.

At the same time, it's important to remember that students bridging two cultures may need guidance which behaviors are appropriate in which setting (such as eye contact, physical proximity, etc.). If you have questions, talk with a cultural liaison in the school to learn more about appropriate responses and ideas for helping students navigate a new culture. You can also learn more about cultural norms of your students, particularly related to schooling, to help inform your approach.

Here are a few strategies that you can use in class:

Use visuals like pictures, symbols, and reward systems to communicate your expectations in a positive and direct manner.

Physically model language to ELLs in classroom routines and instructional activities. ELLs will need to see you or their peers model behavior when you want them to sit down, walk to the bulletin board, work with a partner, copy a word, etc.

Be consistent and fair with all students. Once ELLs clearly understand what is expected, hold them equally accountable for their behavior.

Post a daily schedule. Even if ELLs do not yet understand all of the words that you speak, it is possible for them to understand the structure of each day. Whether through chalkboard art or images on Velcro, you can post the daily schedule each morning. By writing down times and having pictures next to words like lunch, wash hands, math, and field trip, ELLs can have a general sense of the upcoming day.

Finally, remember ELLs can make unintentional "mistakes" as they are trying hard to adjust to a new cultural setting. They are constantly transferring what they know as acceptable behaviors from their own culture to the U.S. classroom and school. Be patient as ELLs learn English and adjust - and remember that you will learn a lot from this experience too!

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How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment for ELLs

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An important first step in helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed is making them feel welcome in the classroom. This will: increase their confidence make them feel more comfortable in the class build a foundation for positive relationships with you and their peers. Here's how you can get started!

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A good way to keep track of a Newcomer's essential skills.

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A good way to keep track of a Newcomer's essential skills.

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It has some good material in it like vocabulary and tips.

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It has some good material in it like vocabulary and tips.

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A quick video on how to use Google Translate in the classroom.

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A quick video on how to use Google Translate in the classroom.