'Tis the Season for TAMALES!

     Being a teacher is one of the greatest jobs ever! 

This week I had the greatest opportunity to share my family Christmas tradition with two second grade classrooms. I shared with my students how my family gets together every Christmas and make tamales for our Christmas Eve dinner tradition. We read the wonderful written and illustrated book "Growing up with Tamales" by Gwendolyn Zepeda and illustrated by April Ward. This wonderful story not only shares with students the ingredients needed for tamales, but also reflects how in our culture the chore assigned to you, in the making of tamales, is based on your age!
Our students loved the story! Students were able to create a graphic organizer comparing and contrasting their life to the main character's life!

Now, the highlight of the day was making the tamales after reading the story. I brought all the ingredients to prepare the tamales in the classroom! Students watched me prepare the masa...but a Hispanic student in the classroom modeled for the class how to prepare it and wrap it!
Each and every student made and ate their own tamale....I think out of two classes only 5 students did not want to eat it :)

I think the best part of this experience was giving our Hispanic students the opportunity to share a little bit of their culture, food, and language with the rest of the class! They felt really special! 

Preparing the Masa

Karen showing students how to make a tamale

Students making their own tamale

Students enjoying their own tamale

The most amazing book to teach about tamale making!

ESL Resources for Classroom Teachers

     I love the beginning of a school year. New staff, new classroom decor, new ideas...a fresh start!
As I was planning my year for my ELL (English Language Learners), I realized that in order for them to reach their highest potential, I needed to do more.  You see, I teach students whose English language is not proficient...for all language domains. My job is to help them develop linguistically and at the same time excelling academically...what a CHALLENGE! You might notice that I too need to develop my writing skills! This is because I faced the same challenge my students face....Language Development!  I was born in Guatemala and lived there for 15 years of my life. When I came to this country I didn't speak, read, write, nor understood English. Thanks to a very good ESL program at the high school I was enrolled, I was able to learn English and achieve my goal in life...BE a TEACHER!
So I decided, to better serve my students this year, to partner up with classroom teachers. I believe that in order to support my students learning an effective partnership between core and language teachers, is a must! 

     My first small step was to invite classroom teachers to my classroom and share a few resources. 

• I shared what an ACCESS for ELLs is (Assessing Communication and Comprehension in English from State to State).

• I shared the CAN Do's for ELLs, and  

• ELD standards/Language Objectives, and other resources!

     I'm hoping that by sharing this very important topics, our students develop even more not only linguistically but also academically!  

I'm looking forward to see our students grow this year!!

Teachers adding student's names to their CAN DO charts

Myself! Explaining how we use the ACCESS scores

Diana Tirado Explaining CAN DOs

Teams trying to decipher each letter for ACCESS

Teachers trying to decipher what ACCESS stands for!