Making Sure English Learners Have a Voice

<p><strong>Featured guest: </strong></p><ul><li>Kara Jankowski, Dayton-area English Learner teacher<ul><li>Kara Jankowski teaches 4th and 5th grade English learners in West Carrollton, Ohio, and is a member of West Carrollton Education Association. In her five years as a teacher, she has taught students from over 30 different countries speaking ten different languages. As a member of <a href="https://ohea.org/one/#:~:text=Ohio%E2%80%99s%20New%20Educators%20%28ONE%29%20is%20a%20unique%20community,career%20educators%20in%20their%20first%20years%20of%20teaching.">Ohio's New Educators (ONE)</a>, she enjoys meeting other educators across the state and hearing their stories. </li></ul> </li></ul><p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p>"Our English Learners are a growing population in the state of Ohio, but they often are ignored, and it's so important that we, not speak for them, but let their voices be heard. I think English learners teachers like me play an important role in that. Because they speak a different language and maybe can't always access information about school, they aren't always the first families to step up and say, 'hey, this thing is unfair;' 'hey, we should change this at our school.' So we need to make sure when there are concerns, or whatever it is they want to say, that they are truly heard and that we're including them in the conversation."<ul> <li>1:15 - English Learners (EL), English as a Second Language (ESL), Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL): Many names for one job, teaching students who primarily speak a different language at home besides English</li> <li>1:50 - A day in the life of an EL teacher</li> <li>2:50 - English is a difficult language to learn and sometimes the rules don't make sense, but making connections to other languages helps</li> <li>3:45 - Common misconceptions about EL teachers</li> <li>5:40 - The kind of person who makes an excellent EL teacher</li> <li>7:00 - Communicating and engaging with families of English language learners</li> <li>8