How to Embrace and Support Multilingual Students with Andrea Bitner

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You know, one in four across
the country now comes from a multi lingual

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fab and it's really important that I'm
just doing my due diligence in what I

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call exploring a movie and not the
snapshot of their life. Welcome to the

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Leader of Learning podcast. I'm your
host, Doctor Dan Krenis, and this

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is where I help educators grow their
impact as instructional leaders because my research and

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leadership experiences have led me to understand
that someone like you, regardless of your

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role or your title, can have
a tremendous impact on your organization. I

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chat with inspiring guests who are truly
making an impact as instructional leaders. Whether

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this is your first time listening or
you come back for more, I hope

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you've subscribed to this show on your
preferred podcast app so you don't miss any

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of the great episodes, topics,
or guests. Anyway, I'm so glad

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you've tuned in. Now let's get
started. Y Hey, Leader of Learning,

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Welcome into episode one seventy of The
Leader of Learning Podcast. I was

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even easier, go to the show
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listen to this podcast on and you'll
find the link right here in the show

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notes. My guest in this episode
is a passionate and inspiring educator concentrating on

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the vulnerable population of students known as
English language learners. Andrea Bittner is an

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English language learner educator as well as
an author and speaker, and someone who

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truly cares about high quality education for
students who are in this population. And

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as you heard her say at the
top of the episode, this is a

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population that now includes one in four
students. Anyway, I do want to

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get right into the interview so that
you can feel as inspired as I was

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talking to Andrea. So right after
these messages is my interview with Andrea Bittner.

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Welcome back, Leader of Learning to
another great episode with an amazing guest.

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I'm here with Andrea Bittner, whom
I've connected with for a while now

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as part of the Teach Better Entrepreneur
mastermind. I love learning from Andrea.

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But she is an EL educator EL
standing for English Language or English learners or

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English Language learners right, so they
might be called something a little different in

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your neck of the woods, but
an EL educator in year twenty three of

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her teaching career. She's an author
of a book called Take Me Home,

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which I would love for her to
talk a little bit more about in this

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conversation. As well, she's a
speaker, getting to teach el's daily and

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traveling the world, inspiring and supporting
many K twelve teachers and of course those

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English Language learners as well. Andrea, welcome to the show. If there's

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anything I missed about who you are, where you are, and what you

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do, please fill us in not
at all. Thank you so much for

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having me. It's great to be
here. So twenty three years in education.

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That's a little bit more than me, but we're getting up there.

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I guess first of all, i'd
like to know, have you always been

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a teacher of English language learners?
Now you know? I started out as

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a high school English teacher. I
was hired right out of college Westchester University

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over the weekend, bright eyed and
bushy tail at age twenty one, ready

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to go. And the first thing
that I was learned about school was that

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I was given classes graduated on a
Saturday. By Tuesday, I was a

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long term sub filling in for freshman
academy at a local high school. And

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the first thing I learned was that
those kids that I were working with hated

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school. They hated school. And
I always say that that first year for

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me, they taught me more about
education than I could ever teach them.

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And I was going home and I
was crying every night, and I was

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like, I just came out of
this student teaching experience with all of these

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students that loved school and were totally
engaged and ready to go. And what

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I quickly discovered their challenge was was
that they hated school because they were freshmen

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in high school who couldn't read and
it bothered me enough to go back to

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school. I continued to teach them, but I the following year. By

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that following year, I enrolled in
a reading specialist program and got my master's

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in reading, and I started to
work with middle school students then as a

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title one reading specialist, and I
did that for a few years. And

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while I was working with those students
at the middle school level, I started

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to work with English Language learners.
And then I started to get more curious

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about, well, how can I
equit myself to work best with English Language

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learners? So I went back to
school again and then I got a certification

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in working with els. And so
for seventeen of the twenty three years I've

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been teaching, I've been in the
support role, working as an English Language

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learner, teacher, title I,
reading specialist, etc. What do you

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think it was that allowed you or
had you kind of gravitate toward working with

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whether they be students who struggled with
reading as a reading teacher, an interventionist,

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or students who I won't say are
struggling with but who are early on

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in learning a new language. Is
that like, what did you learn about

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yourself? You know, I think
I learned that the world was much bigger

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than the bubble that I came from. And so, you know, I

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was raised in a smaller town in
Pennsylvania, about fifteen minutes south of the

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Philadelphia Airport where I still live today, and I, you know, grew

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up in a very typical family with
you know, normal challenges and winds and

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all that good stuff. And I
had never really stepped foot even out of

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my state, you know, let
alone, out of my culture or out

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of you know, the norms you
know that I grew up with. And

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so I got curious about working.
I think we're even noticing that the world

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was much bigger than where we are. When I had this really good friend

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in fifth grade, her name was
Irena. She's still a friend of mine

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today, and she came from Russia, and she came to school and I

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remember vividly her learning English and we
were buddies and we used to play on

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the playground together all the time.
And that was the first and only time

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in my career, until I had
stepped out into teaching, that I had

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met someone from a different place with
you know, different values. And I

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used to go over to her house
and hang out with her parents and get

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to see, you know, different
perspectives on the world. And so I

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think that coming you know, from
that small town, you know, and

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moving into the mentality of the world
being much bigger is what really attracted me

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to I can help these kids,
I can work with these families and respecting,

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accepting and admiring them for who they
are and what they bring to the

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table. You've talked a lot just
in the first five minutes here about you

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know, how how when you got
started, especially in your career, and

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as it's gone by, how much
you yes, you've taught students, but

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how much they've taught you too.
I think that's so cool. It's kind

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of a theme I think so far
in your answers. Let's dive in a

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little bit deeper to you know,
working with English Language learn and some of

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the tricks of the trade. I
guess I first wanted to ask you,

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just out of sheer curiosity, a
couple of questions. First, what terminology

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is current and what terminology do you
prefer? Because we've had a lot of

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them over the years. I'm in
your eighteen teacher of teaching and being an

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educator, and I've heard them all
from ESL to el to MLLL is what

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really my district uses now multi language
learner. But I'm just curious about that

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and also how, in your expert
opinion, teaching English language learners has evolved

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over the years, because I think
what I've seen is it's kind of like

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special ed where it's gone from more
pull out and secluded and self contained to

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really more like mainstream and inclusivity.
And so I'm wondering if that's what you've

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seen too, So terminology and then
the changes over over time. Yeah,

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I mean, I couldn't agree more. You know, the term English Language

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learner, you know, even here
in Pennsylvania, it back you know,

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when we first started education, I
do believe it was e s L.

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Then they went to el L English
Language Learner, then the state decided to

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chop off and L, and then
they went to e L. And yes,

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I have also seen ML's MLL in
Texas. I believe they're called eb's

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Emergent Bilinguals. So as I've traveled
the country, you will see a variety

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of labels that you know they're placing
on students who are learning the language.

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But what I say to people is, no matter what acronym. You know,

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people want to place on that class
master label when they come in.

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Who you're meeting at that time is
a young person who's coming into your building

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with a gift. Their parents have
gifted them with the opportunity, along with

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their teachers, to become bilingual.
So it's a really great, you know,

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opportunity to work with these students and
families in our career. So yeah,

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it's always changing, but right now
I believe ML's or MLL's is what

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I'm seeing the most of Your second
question was in terms of how it's kind

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of changed over time, and I
agree, I'm seeing the same kind of

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changes over time. But what's really
awesome is that the intensity of what I

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call that educational lens and accountability is
coming onto schools now to recognize English language

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learners as having more of an asset
than a deficit. You know, when

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I worked with the young people from
Taking Me Home, one of the first

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messages they asked me to share with
people relates to what you're saying, and

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what that is is that being an
English learner is not a condition. You

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know, it's not even a transition. It's an expansion. It's an expansion

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of skills, and they're coming to
you ready. You know, with the

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set of skills, they have to
expand upon those to grow even more.

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And so yes, there is a
lot more accountability now on schools tied to

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you know, the federal government,
the local government, the local school systems

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to shift and take a look at
how these students are performing and how we

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can better support them and engage with
success with their families. This podcast is

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a proud member of the Teach Better
podcast Network, Better Today, Better Tomorrow,

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00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:24.559
and the podcast to get you there. Explore more podcasts at www dot

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Teach Better Podcastnetwork dot com. Now
let's get back to the episode. I

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really like what you said there,
and I would agree at least in my

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personal experience in my district. And
we have a former English language learner as

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our superintendent, and she is a
very fierce advocate for English language learners,

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and I think that has helped our
district, who has a very high population

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of English language learners, to understand
like you said, that it's more of

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an asset. And and and students
who already know multiple languages or are you

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know, learn learning a second language
really have an advantage. Uh. And

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and it's it's interesting to look at
that way, and I really appreciate that,

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you know, I'm a couple of
schools in my in my district,

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including mine, actually have dual language
programs, and it's kind of fascinating to

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think of multi language learners kind of
have a clear advantage in a program like

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that because they already know a language
and they've at least started learning another one.

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Where it's almost like the English speaking
students who are in the dual language

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program are slower at learning and adapting
to a new language and some new nuances

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and and things like that. But
it is pretty cool to see. I

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don't know if you see other program
like do a language programs like that out

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in you know, when you travel
and when you consult, But it's it's

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kind of cool that we have programs
like that. I think it's definitely another

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way of you know, not just
mainstreaming English language learners, but like really

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immersing them and your native English speakers
into the same program where they're getting you

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know, both languages and and lots
of different exposures to not just the language,

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but even like cultural aspects as well. Absolutely, and you know you'll

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see that, you know, in
the el program. We are working on

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reading, writing, listening, and
speaking. And so if you think about

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it in a dual language approach,
for students that are already speaking a different

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language at home, they do have
that advantage because they get that daily practice,

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maybe you know, the of the
listening and the speaking of that language

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at home if it's the language that
their parents, you know, also speak.

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If you're an English speaking student and
you don't have a family at home

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that is speaking let's say Spanish,
if you're in a dual language program,

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then you would be doing all of
that work at school. So that practical

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application is something that I think that
gives your English lie wage owners an advantage

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in that situation. Hey, Leader
of Learning, we'll be right back with

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Cheers to being more productive. Talk
to us a little bit about the

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work that you do, not just
in your classroom, but also with the

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educators that you speak to when you
travel and you consult. And because I'm

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curious, especially for my non el
teaching population who's listening, and I have

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a pretty big mix of classroom teachers, administrators, district administrators, even higher

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ed, what would we need to
know about what goes into working with this

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special population of students who have this
asset, like you said before, of

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having this like emerging, you know, superpower of learning a new language.

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You know, I think that's a
really great question and one of the first

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things you have to do, you
know, as a continary teacher, a

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school leader, an English language learner
teacher is team up, right, because

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no one achieves success alone. I'm
a huge John Gordon Fan I read a

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lot of his work and that's one
of the first, you know, pivotal

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points that he makes is that more
people you can involve in putting together a

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project or a brainstorming session, you
know, or working together towards a common

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goal, the more success that you
will have. And so for our English

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Language learners in particular, you have
to team up because your English Language learner

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teacher is going to be your point
person that's going to provide you with the

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most information about this student and family. No two English language learners are the

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same. You know, when I
was teaching at Interborough High School, you

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know, about a decade ago,
when I did the work that I was

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doing there, you know, I
had students who had across the border.

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I had students that work students,
I had adopted students. I had students

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who had waited ten years for a
visa it came after their parents. I

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had students that had come before their
parents. And I had students who were

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born here in the US, and
most of them now are you know,

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one in four across the country now
comes from a multi lingual family. And

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so as the EL teacher, it's
really important that I'm bringing this information to

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the team, and it's really important
that I'm just doing my due diligence in

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what I call exploring the movie and
not the snapshot of their life. Because

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I had students who came in who
were already proficient in five languages. I

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had students who came in that were
wicked readers and writers but needed English language

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support with listening and speaking. I
had students who were the opposite that could

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listen and speak all day long to
English, but if you put a piece

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of literacy in front of them,
they really struggled. And I had students

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who were, you know, interrupted
education, who had come with traumatic situations

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and were working on all four And
so when I would bring that information to

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the team, that's the first thing
they needed to know. What is their

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English language proficiency level? What did
their former schooling look like before they came

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to us. Did they move in
from down the street, did they come

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from a state over, did they
move from a different country, you know,

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what did that look like for them? And the other piece too is

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what language did their parents prefer school
communication? Because not all parents prefer their

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first language, some of them prefer
English, and so a lot of communication

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needs to happen in the beginning in
exploring that movie of the assets and the

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challenges that the student is bringing to
the table. And the best person to

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do that to team up with is
the EL teacher and the team, and

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the best people to interview about that
are the students' parents and so providing communication

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resources to districtwide. You know,
how do you communicate with your English Language

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learner parents who do prefer a language
other than English. Are you calling them

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with your guidance counselor to interview them, to ask them their thoughts, answer

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their questions, find out their goals
with their student, hear about their prior

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school experience and any traumas that may
or may not have happened. And when

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you can gather all of that now
you can start to plan for instruction and

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making sure that everyone in the building
knows who your English Language learners are because

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eighty percent of the time they're not
with their YEL teacher, they're with everybody

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else. And so that's why I
really get intense about everybody in the building

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has to be on board with working
with our students and families. Just to

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second that everybody in the building has
to be on board with many of the

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or all of the initiatives that take
place in school, because it's hard to

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develop and implement initiatives when not everyone's
on board. I just had to throw

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in my two cents there. Sure, No, that's really fascinating. And

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as you were talking, I'm thinking
that I know for sure there are technology

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platforms and even student information systems like
power School who have kind of adapted over

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the years to I think helping schools
partner with families in this way. For

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sure, you can look in power
School if your district uses it to see

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and and you know, hopefully the
family themselves have have filled out that information,

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but to see what their preferred language
is. There are apps like parent

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Square and Talking Points and probably others
that allow teachers and schools to communicate with

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families in whatever language they would prefer, whether it's their native language or not.

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You know, basically, the teacher
or the school sends out a message

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and then it gets translated into any
language or not. You know, maybe,

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like you said, the family still
prefers to receive communication in English.

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As you were talking, I think
you answer this question, but I just

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wanted to make sure, like in
terms of of sort of the teaching model,

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the instructional model that's happening, you
know, predominantly at this point,

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is it that co teaching model where
for the most part, I think you

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said about eighty percent of the time, and I'm guessing that's an average that

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our English Language learners are spending in
mainstream classes with their you know, native

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English speaking classmates and colleagues, and
then a little bit of work just with

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the ELL or MLL teachers. You
know, it depends on their proficiency level

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of English and reading, writing,
listening, and speaking. Every state has

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different recommendations for dependent upon their proficiency
level and their screener or in the state

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of Pennsylvania, it's our Access Score, which is our annual exam for English

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Language learners to take that determines their
proficiency level during a given year. So

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depending on that will equal the recommended
amount of time that an English Language learner

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teacher needs to support those students in
the classroom. That can look different from

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state to state, but it can
also look different in terms of classroom support.

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For example, sometimes you push into
the classroom, sometimes you pull out

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in the classroom. At a high
school level, you could have scheduled classes

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where a teacher who is certified in
English and also as an EL teacher for

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a short period of time can serve
as the English teacher primarily until that student

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is right. I believe it's one
year until they're ready to go into the

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mainstream classroom. They have newcomer academies
in different states where students get to spend

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find an amount of time in the
newcomer academy if they fit that criteria.

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So it's really a case by case
basis in terms of the student's needs.

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But every place has different recommended amounts
of times to service those students until they

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exit, and the exit criteria is
important to consider as well, because that

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can differ from state to state.
Fascinating stuff, it really is, and

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you know, I know that,
and I will leave all political beliefs out

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of this statement, but it's just
what I see. The evidence is there

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that more and more students are are
coming into our schools all the time in

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these situations where English may not be
their first language, and and it depends

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how fluent they how fluent they are
in English when when they come in,

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and it has become a very big
responsibility and a very big priority, uh

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for schools to educate these students and
and and have them adapt and assimilate.

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I'm going to say as quickly as
possible. It's it's probably not the best

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way to put it, but you
know, but in order to really succeed

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in in school, I never really
got to know him well enough to hear

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a whole lot of his stories.
But as you were speaking, I was

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thinking to my grandpa, who came
to this country when he was ten years

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old. And I think you even
alluded to the fact that sometimes parents come

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over and then their kids come years
later, and that's what happened to him.

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And he worked so hard, especially
at learning the language and losing his

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accent pretty quickly. That I mean, obviously he was much later in life

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when when I got to really know
him. But I could never tell that

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he spoke a different language when he
was younger, and that he came from

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a different country. It was like, it was always really fascinating to me,

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like I can't believe that. I
just I could never tell. And

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they, I'm sure they didn't have
you know, English as a second language

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programs or classes or anything like that
when he you know, this was we're

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talking like the nineteen twenties and thirties. So yeah, yeah, absolutely,

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And you know, speaking about the
fact that you couldn't hear you know,

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whether he didn't have that accent,
that's a physical piece because if you come

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over to a new place like the
US as an adolescent, the physical muscles

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in your throat have already formed your
accent. You have an accent. I

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have an accent. People hear me
and they know him from Philly, right,

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So it's it's impossible. What I'm
trying to say is it's impossible for

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you to quote unquote us it.
If you come over as an adolescent,

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your throat has formed, your muscles
are there in the way you've learned to

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make sound, so it won't change. But if you come over below an

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adolescent age, those muscles are not
fully formed, and you do start to

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acquire a different language. That's why
you don't keep that accent that you started

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with when you were younger. And
so I found that really fascinating. It's

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one of the first things I ever
learned when I went to English Lineage learner

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school when we started the program years
ago. Well, I know is he

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did used to tell me stories about
how kids would make fun of him when

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he was younger and he hadn't quite
lost enough of his accent. But I

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guess back in the twenties and thirties, part of gym class was actually boxing,

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and he used to use like legally
speaking or whatever you want to call

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it, Like in school, he
used that as a way to fight and

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get back at these bullies so to
speak, who would tease him about his

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accent. I always that was a
great story. I was used to like

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hearing that. And plus yeah,
plus he played on the football team and

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they like didn't wear helmets back then, probably, and he used to like

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he used to use that as an
excuse to take his aggression out on some

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people I think too. All Right, So I really want to know about

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this book, now take me home. I have it pulled up on Amazon.

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It looks amazing, sounds amazing,
and I know that it includes some

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really cool stories. So what can
you tell us about that book? And

357
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and I asked you this off the
air. I don't know if you're comfortable

358
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sharing on the air. I know
you're working on a new one too,

359
00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:53.559
So if there's anything that you could
tell us about that early project, that

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00:27:53.599 --> 00:27:59.480
would be awesome. Sure, so
take Me Home as a true story and

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based on eleven of my former English
language learner students who are now in their

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late twenties and early thirties, and
they give a first hand account of what

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it's really like to become bilingual in
America. And this story was born out

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of an experience I had over ten
years ago. I was working, like

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I mentioned earlier, with about forty
different students at the high school level,

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with about twenty five different languages,
and as I mentioned before, they come

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from all walks of life, adopted
students, exchange students, crossing the border,

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students born here, students, etc. And I worked with one particular

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family at the time, the Lopez
family, and I had taught all seven

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of their children over time, and
they happened to be from the country of

371
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Alsalvador. And I've traveled to Alva
Salvador myself a few times to do some

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work with some schools down and so
there were all boys and one girl,

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and I started with Serio and worked
my way down to Sarahio Junior down to

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Jeffrey. There was a Jeffrey from
Las Vegas, all the way down to

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Nancy, the only female in the
family. And so at that time we

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had this huge classroom banner, and
our classroom banner said, in my room,

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education is opportunity, education is freedom. What's your plan? Because our

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kids knew that no matter what their
prior life experiences had been, their only

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plan could not be I'm not going
to be successful here. Because at the

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high school level, we had a
few years to work with them for their

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free time in education, and we
knew that we would remind them often that

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mom and dad have given you this
gift of the ability, along with your

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teachers, to become bilingual, and
we're going to figure out what this plan

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wants to look like for you.
And so every year, our seniors would

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have this alumni day where our alumni
would come back and they would bring our

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seniors a T shirt and on that
T shirt it would say wherever they were

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headed next. We didn't care if
it was college, university, military,

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trade school, vocation, workforce,
YouTuber, whatever it was. We were

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there to celebrate that they had finished
this chapter of their life's plan. They

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were given the opportunity to sign that
banner to say they had graduated from our

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program, and the alumni were there
to share with them about what was waiting

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for them in this bilingual professional world. And so we went through this watcher

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plan mentality together and we had a
lot of success, and all of those

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young family, the Lopez family I
mentioned before, graduated with that mentality.

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And about a year after Nancy,
the youngest one, had graduated, I

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was teaching outside and there were a
bunch of helicopters outside one day, and

397
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I thought, well, I hope
everything's all right. There's a lot of

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helicopters outside today. And about an
hour after I had that thought, my

399
00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:49.559
principal came down to get me to
let me know that one of my students

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had been hit by the train,
and unfortunately that student was Nancy, and

401
00:30:55.680 --> 00:31:00.480
unfortunately she died that day. She
had a pair of headphones on and she'd

402
00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:03.359
made a decision to walk along the
inside of the track and she didn't hear

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the acella and it came and it
clipped her from behind. And so it

404
00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:11.279
threw our school community into a huge
sense of trauma with these awesome kids and

405
00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:15.240
teachers and her family. And one
of the most challenging parts of that day

406
00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:19.200
was that mom and dad were still
learning English themselves, so when they got

407
00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:22.359
the call that something had happened to
one of the kids. No one in

408
00:31:22.440 --> 00:31:26.519
the local force spoke Spanish, so
they could kind of figure out that something

409
00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:30.680
was wrong, and they could kind
of figure out that something had happened to

410
00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:33.599
one of the kids, but they
didn't know which one it was, and

411
00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:38.319
so they stood there for hours waiting, trying to figure out which one of

412
00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:42.440
their children had passed away. And
so in the coming weeks, we worked

413
00:31:42.440 --> 00:31:47.839
with immigration to be allowed to have
Nancy's brother come back and bury her,

414
00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:51.599
which he was denied. We worked
with the local school community and mom and

415
00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:56.319
dad to bury their daughter and navigate
the language barriers and the funeral process and

416
00:31:56.359 --> 00:32:00.240
the Latino community. And the dad
was a pastor, so the church would

417
00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:02.480
come and sit with them every evening, and so we were supporting the family

418
00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:07.599
during this experience. One of my
jobs also at that time, was to

419
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:10.839
speak at her funeral, and so
I wrote this short poem and I called

420
00:32:10.839 --> 00:32:15.119
it take Me Home, and it
was homaged to Nancy's crossing into the US.

421
00:32:15.599 --> 00:32:19.160
So I let that poem sit on
my desk for a while, and

422
00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:21.839
a few months later I saw it
sitting there, and I continued to teach

423
00:32:21.880 --> 00:32:25.119
these great kids and I thought,
maybe somebody could be used, maybe this

424
00:32:25.160 --> 00:32:30.240
could help someone, this part of
this story. So I send it out

425
00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:32.480
on a whim to a bunch of
publishers, and this one publisher gets back

426
00:32:32.480 --> 00:32:35.799
to me and they say, hey, Andrea, we really like your poem,

427
00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:37.839
but we don't want you to write
a poem. We want you to

428
00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:40.880
write a book, and we're going
to give you six months to do it,

429
00:32:42.359 --> 00:32:44.720
and if you come back with something
we like, we'll take you on

430
00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:47.799
and publish it. And I started
to think to myself, well, I

431
00:32:47.799 --> 00:32:52.759
don't just want to tell her story. I want to tell all their stories

432
00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:57.839
because they're so different. And a
lot of my students had experiences where assumptions

433
00:32:57.839 --> 00:33:00.880
were being made about them, where
people thought, if you were an eel,

434
00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:05.319
they're all the same. And so
I took that opportunity and I went

435
00:33:05.359 --> 00:33:08.640
back and found eleven of my former
students who are now in their late twenties

436
00:33:08.680 --> 00:33:14.319
early thirties. I interviewed them over
a period of about six months, and

437
00:33:14.359 --> 00:33:17.799
we created Take Me Home. It's
told in the first person through their perspective.

438
00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:22.400
We give a chapter to each student. We cover almost every continent and

439
00:33:22.440 --> 00:33:28.039
almost every experience we could think of. And it's written in the sense of

440
00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:30.920
their names were changed to names of
strength, so we have characters like Volte

441
00:33:30.960 --> 00:33:37.759
and Charge and Embrace and Shine,
etc. I was also able to meet

442
00:33:37.799 --> 00:33:42.119
with Nancy's parents, who I still
talk to today and get her perspective on

443
00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:45.279
coming to the US, so she's
included in the story as well. And

444
00:33:45.559 --> 00:33:50.400
it is written in English and it
repeats in Spanish, all within the same

445
00:33:50.400 --> 00:33:54.200
book. So that's my long winded
version of our work that we've done so

446
00:33:54.319 --> 00:34:00.279
far, and it's really making a
great positive impact changing hearts and minds all

447
00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:06.680
around the world. That's really cool. It's i mean, obviously a sad

448
00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:12.000
story there, but really awesome how
you and the rest of those students were

449
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:15.239
able to tell her story and their
story. You know. I hear a

450
00:34:15.239 --> 00:34:21.920
little bit of like Freedom Writers in
there with Seed Folks, which I know

451
00:34:22.039 --> 00:34:25.159
is still a fairly popular book that's
read in schools, and I know for

452
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:31.280
sure that some schools have picked up
your book as well and studied it with

453
00:34:31.400 --> 00:34:36.880
staff and students. So really awesome
stuff. Anything you can tell us about

454
00:34:36.920 --> 00:34:40.000
the next project, you know,
the next project I'm going to start working

455
00:34:40.039 --> 00:34:45.559
on this summer. I'm still doing
great work and will continue to do great

456
00:34:45.559 --> 00:34:49.639
work with Take Me Home all around
the country with teachers and educators, not

457
00:34:49.679 --> 00:34:52.079
only in terms of reading it,
but in terms of going out and talking

458
00:34:52.079 --> 00:34:55.840
to teachers, which has been awesome. But the next project is going to

459
00:34:55.920 --> 00:35:01.039
be a very similar style. I'm
going to be interviewing about thirty different people

460
00:35:01.880 --> 00:35:08.559
with a variety of topics and creating
their true stories to again help people gauge

461
00:35:08.599 --> 00:35:13.559
perspective of what it's like to be
the many students that we see in our

462
00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:19.840
classrooms. Awesome, Well, thank
you for the work you've done, the

463
00:35:19.880 --> 00:35:23.880
work that you are doing and will
continue to do, including this upcoming project.

464
00:35:23.960 --> 00:35:29.840
It's always really cool for me anyway
to hear about this stuff. It's

465
00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:35.519
not something that I have a lot
of expertise in, and so I love

466
00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:37.760
learning about it, you know.
I mean this is called leader of Learning,

467
00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:39.840
right. We're helping people grow their
impact as instructional leaders, and I

468
00:35:39.880 --> 00:35:45.360
think this is such an important piece. And it's not just because I wanted

469
00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:49.039
to make sure I got this out
there too. It's not just because our

470
00:35:49.159 --> 00:35:52.519
multi language learners, along with our
students with disabilities, are those subgroups that

471
00:35:52.559 --> 00:35:59.000
everyone is so concerned about you know, making the mark on their state tests.

472
00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:01.679
It's because we're really trying trying to
get them to be successful, not

473
00:36:01.800 --> 00:36:06.960
just in school, but at the
next level and like you said, wherever

474
00:36:07.360 --> 00:36:12.639
they choose to go after leaving our
programs. So thank you for your work,

475
00:36:12.679 --> 00:36:15.239
Thank you for your time. Please
share with the audience as well where

476
00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:19.440
they can connect with you. Of
course, I will let the listeners know

477
00:36:19.519 --> 00:36:23.079
that Andrea's book Take Me Home,
as well as her website and social media

478
00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:27.760
contact information will be in the show
notes. But where can everybody find you

479
00:36:27.800 --> 00:36:30.639
if they need you? You know, the best place to find me is

480
00:36:30.719 --> 00:36:34.840
via the website, which is andreabitnerbooks
dot com. You can also connect with

481
00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:38.960
me directly on LinkedIn or we're still
calling it Twitter now or Twitter as well,

482
00:36:39.519 --> 00:36:44.079
but they are probably the three best
places. The website, LinkedIn and

483
00:36:44.159 --> 00:36:46.559
Twitter, you can follow our journey
and learn more about the work that we're

484
00:36:46.559 --> 00:36:51.800
doing with schools. Awesome. Thank
you so much for your time and the

485
00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:55.599
amazing information. Amazing work. I
know you and I will continue to stay

486
00:36:55.599 --> 00:37:00.119
connected, but I really appreciate you
getting this out there for for the listeners,

487
00:37:00.559 --> 00:37:04.559
and yeah, just thanks, I
really appreciate it. Oh. Thanks

488
00:37:04.559 --> 00:37:12.880
for having me. Well that's it
for this episode. Thank you so much

489
00:37:12.880 --> 00:37:15.679
for listening. If you haven't done
so yet, don't forget to subscribe to

490
00:37:15.719 --> 00:37:20.960
this show on your favorite podcast app. If you enjoy the content covered on

491
00:37:20.960 --> 00:37:23.320
this show, I want to ask
you to do this one thing for me.

492
00:37:23.760 --> 00:37:28.800
Please share it. The biggest favor
you could ever do for me is

493
00:37:28.840 --> 00:37:32.440
to please let others know about what
I'm doing and how I'm helping educators grow

494
00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:37.039
their impact as instructional leaders. I
hope you can share this podcast with other

495
00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:43.119
educators, leaders, friends, or
anyone you think would love listening and learning.

496
00:37:43.639 --> 00:37:46.119
If you're interested in leaving a positive
rating and review of this show,

497
00:37:46.400 --> 00:37:51.719
links to do so are always in
the show notes for every episode. For

498
00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:55.079
more information about me or this show, and to access the great content that

499
00:37:55.159 --> 00:38:00.239
I share, please visit my website
at Leader of Learning dot com. That's

500
00:38:00.280 --> 00:38:04.639
where you can find my online courses, YouTube channel, blog, how to

501
00:38:04.679 --> 00:38:07.760
connect with me on social media,
and even ways that you can support the

502
00:38:07.800 --> 00:38:14.519
show like donating or purchasing Leader of
Learning merchandise. Thanks again, and remember,

503
00:38:14.840 --> 00:38:17.880
no matter who you are or where
you are, you are a Leader

504
00:38:17.920 --> 00:38:19.400
of Learning,