S10/E4: Collaborating with reluctant teachers in support of multilingual learners with Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld and Valentina Gonzalez

Highest Aspirations

How can we support or encourage reluctant colleagues to increase collaboration in order to support MLLs? How can we help educators unlearn the often negative perceptions of dreaded observations by administrators and fellow teachers so they can collaborate more effectively? Do schools that have effective collaborative practices in place retain more teachers?

We discuss these questions and much more with Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld and Valentina Gonzalez. Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld is TESOL professor at Molloy University , Rockville Centre, NY. Before entering the field of teacher education, she was an English as a Foreign Language teacher in Hungary (grades 5-8 and adult), an English as a Second Language teacher in New York City (grades K-3 and adult), and taught Hungarian at New York University. A Fulbright Scholar and sought after national presenter, Andrea is the coauthor or coeditor of 27 books on education and numerous chapters and research articles related to the needs of diverse learners.

Valentina Gonzalez is an educational consultant and content creator for Seidlitz Education. She is also a longtime educator serving emergent bilingual students and their families from around the globe. Her personal experience as an immigrant from Yugoslavia and language learner fuel her desire to advocate for multilingual children and support teachers with the best research-based teaching methods. Valentina is the co-author of Reading & Writing with English Learners: A Framework for K-5. Her work has also been published in numerous journals and professional publications such as Edutopia, MiddleWeb, TEPSA, Ed Week, and School Library Journal.

Subscribe to the show here: https://open.spotify.com/show/0W4CYdurgYRIwFGif3H6Qk

For additional episodes, blog posts and free resources relating to multilingual education, visit our community page: https://ellevationeducation.com/ell-community.

Visit our EL Community page for episode resources, related content and more.
Download the episode transcript here.