Parents:
We have enjoyed connecting with many middle and high school families at parent/teacher conferences over the past two weeks. Baldwin Street Middle School and all elementary schools will host parent/teacher conferences throughout the next two weeks. Please contact your child’s EL or classroom teacher if you are not sure when your conference is.
We value the opportunity we have to collaborate with you at conferences. See here for some tips on how to make the most of your time with your child’s teacher (see here for the Spanish version).
Are you looking for assistance with housing, food, healthcare, legal advice, or another area? Check out our Community Resources list for local organizations that offer support. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, please contact your child’s EL teacher to help.
Teachers:
There are many ways to celebrate the rich language abilities that your EL (and exited EL) students bring to your classroom. Check out the article “10 Ways to Value ELs’ Language Assets” for some great ideas.
An important component of students’ identities is their name. It essential for school personnel to pronounce students’ names correctly. As this article states, “It sends a very important message—that your name and your identity matter, and we want to get it right… it says, ‘We want to get to know you, and we respect you.’”
The My Name, My Identity (mynamemyidentity.org) campaign seeks to support districts with pronouncing students’ names correctly. It provides resources, ideas, and research. Some of the strategies include:
- Ask students to teach you how to say their names!
- Have students research or interview family members to learn more about their names
- Write out names phonetically
- Use online pronunciation websites like Voice of America to research how to say a name
- Incorporate name pronunciation into the curriculum (e.g., diverse books and authors, use diverse names in math story problems, etc.)
- Provide phone lines for students to call in and record their name for recognition events like high school graduation
The book “Teach Us Your Name” by Huda Essa highlights this need in student-friendly language.
Thank you for your efforts to make all students feel recognized, valued, and accepted!
