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Serving Families Across Languages with Mayra Ramirez and Emily Post: Translation & English Learner Support in a Virtual School · GCA Unmuted: Voices of Virtual Education

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to GCA Unmuted, the podcast where we share the stories and strategies that show how Georgia Cyber Academy makes online learning work.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: When families speak different languages, schools have to speak with even more care.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: At GCA, translation services and English learner support are more than just tools.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're bridges that help every family feel seen, heard, and included.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm joined by Myra Ramirez, a family school partnership coordinator for special programs, and Emily Post, our ESOL supervisor at GCA.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Together, they help ensure that language is never a barrier to learning or connection in our virtual model.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about how GCA supports multilingual families, how translation and ESOL services work in a virtual setting, and how inclusive communication builds stronger partnerships between school and home.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, Myra and Emily, thanks for being here.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Can either of you share a moment where your work made a real difference for a multilingual family or an English learner?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a story or a moment that really jumps out at y'all?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, Halton, there are so many with this many families that I get the joy of building relationships with and students.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: But I think the one that really has stuck with me is one of our, he's in uh 12th grade this year, so he'll be graduating.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: And um, his mom is a limited English parent, which means that her English skills aren't, you know, as great as yours and I.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so this student was interested in the dual enrollment program.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: He heard about it, he was like, how do I get in on it?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I collaborated with our dual enrollment counselors um in the counseling department and was able to hand hold them through the application process from both GCA side for dual enrollment to the technical college he was applying to for the program.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: This is his third year.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: He's going to be graduating with certificates in computer technology or information technology of the sort.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm so proud that me being able to bridge that uh barrier of language from reading a document and filling out forms.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: I I eliminated that for them.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, this is possible for you.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's amazing.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the challenges for this family was obviously, you know, trying to make sure they're navigating different documents, understanding all the process and everything.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the challenges.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And how you how GCA responded was like you were there, you said, like holding their hand through the process.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: How do you think your support then impacted this family?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like this student, this family's connection to the school.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: How do you think it it impacted it?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Would you say um well for starters for the student?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: It he originally was like, I just want to do the accelerated career path.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: I don't really want to go to a four-year college.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I got to meet them in person in July after our professional development.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: And he goes, No, I'm planning on going to a four-year college and continuing this career path.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: And so being able to see that, and they're so appreciative.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, Thank you, thank you so much, Mrs.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: Ramides.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: If it weren't for your help and you helping us through this process, I would have never been where I'm at now and thinking of even considering a four-year college now.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's amazing.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whoa.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think that does this just put an exclamation point exclamation mark on the importance of what you do every day?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like this story.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: Very much.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: What what what what would you say?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Did you you mentioned like so many Halton, there's so many experiences.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: What what moment would you share, Emily?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was trying to narrow some down while Myra was talking.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's a lot of students that we just we helped them navigate US schooling and schooling in English and just seeing what their potentials are.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: But last year we had a student who it was his second like school year being a senior, but he had taken a semester off because he had an injury.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And he was at the age where he could have just stopped coming to school.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't have to graduate, he didn't have a plan yet, but he said, I came back because you guys kept checking in on me.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: You kept seeing if I was okay and not in a are you okay?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Can you do your assignment type of way?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was unenrolled.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: You were just checking to see how I was feeling.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And he came back and he not only graduated last year, but he exited ESOL his senior year, and getting to share that news with him and uh his teachers both went to his graduation, like just the joy and the celebration of working together, it's amazing.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, before I became the ESOL supervisor, I was an ESOL teacher here, and I still get emails from my students.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, we miss you.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Can we do a lunch group?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like the joy that they get from coming to an ESOL class and like learning and getting to be with other students whose cultures are different from theirs and whose home languages are different from theirs, but they don't see that.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: They just see their friends and they learn so much from each other, and I learned so much from them even now.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's full of joy and excitement over here in the ESOL world.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like all of our students and our families, like I feel like they all work together, and I know Myra gets to experience a lot of that, and I'll talk to kids and they're like, Oh yeah, my mom was talking to Miss Ramirez.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like they know Myra and they love to see her at testing.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's awesome.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: What are the biggest needs then that you see that y'all see among multilingual families at GCA?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: One of the biggest ones as also being a person of color and having a multicultural background is representation.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: And not just in seeing someone who looks like me, but someone who understands my culture, who knows my language, because I mean, there are I am of Mexican descent, and so there are Mexicans of various color frames.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: So that doesn't just mean that just because I'm brown with black hair, brown eyes, like just someone who is going to understand that the key components in, for example, again, my culture and the Mexican culture, it's family first, family always, family last.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so being able to understand where our students are coming from with their backgrounds, why some of them might be having, you know, absenteeism issues, issues, or, you know, why they're here some days and not other days in class, or why is there a specific time frame during the day that they're not engaging anymore?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: So why are they not here on Friday afternoons?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, Wednesdays uh afternoons and such, because maybe what's going on at home or what's traditional for them, they're still practicing even here within the States.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: And that impacts academics, social, and emotional well-being for these kids.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and something else that we've really been talking about a lot, I feel like the past three years we've been pushing this, Myra, is um our newcomer families.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And those are families who have been in the US for three years or less.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: And just making teachers and staff be aware, like, hey, this family is new to the US.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: This is the culture they come from.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're seeing that a student is not asking questions or a student is not volunteering on the mic, it might not always be because they don't know it, or it might not, it's not disrespectful.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's what they came from.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're not going to volunteer and answer, they're not going to just raise their hand and give you the answer.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because some cultures, that's not acceptable.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so just helping our staff learn that our kids have cultures and our kids have stories, and they bring all of that to the classroom.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And we want them to as well.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, what would y'all say then?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: What what does GCA do?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: How does GCA ensure uh that you know what language isn't going to be a barrier for communication, for learning at GCA?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: What is GCA doing to make sure that our families, our students feel supported and they don't feel like that language is a barrier for communicating the day-to-day stuff and then for learning the content?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: So something we do differently than a lot of schools is almost all of our English learners are served in a scheduled class model.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: So most schools will serve their English learners by having an ESOL teacher or an ELD teacher push into a classroom or pull students out for a small group for X amount of minutes a day.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but because of how we do scheduling here, we're able to schedule that scheduled class period.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: So kids that are EL served go to an ESOL class every single day at the same time, and they get to be in that small class with their ESOL teacher where they get to work on language skills, they get to practice, but they also get to ask questions.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, my teacher said this, and I really have no idea what she was talking about.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or we have this project coming up and it makes no sense.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: And because it's in a small group, the ESOL teacher is able to really unpack things that are going on with them.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: But we also we let the kids talk about what's going on in their lives.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of times if there's a cultural or religious holiday that a student's celebrating, they'll bring it up in an ESOL class because they know it's a safe space to talk about what they're doing.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we've had students in class have well wishes for fellow students, for Ramadan, for Diwali, for Hanukkah, and it's not what they celebrate at their home, but they know that their peer does because it's been talked about, and they're willing to interact with each other's cultures in that celebratory way.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that just makes such a safe space for our students to feel like they can learn because their social emotional needs are being met, and they've got the space to learn and to have trial and error with English, where they know they're not going to be made fun of because everybody else in the room is having trial and error with English.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so is this scheduled classroom uh separate from the content uh classroom that they're going to?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So um in middle school and high school, it's essentially an electives block.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then um for our primary and elementary students, it takes place of one of their champ labs.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um so just instead of going to that champ lab class, they go to the ESOL class.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: I see.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And is that also extra uh like learning and support for uh English as well?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what they're doing in there too?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: It is so um you break down English language learning into like four domains listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so that is what it's focused on in the ESOL class.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the students all take an annual test every year that kind of levels them into what is known that they can do in English language.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um so our teachers are really able to help students grow up to that next level of English language development based on that.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that's what they focus on in an ESOL classroom.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like a ton of support we're offering uh in that way.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are what would you all say then are ways that we deliver translation and interpretation support to families, whether it's live or in written form?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: How do we do that?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: So that's my wheelhouse.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And um we here at GCA, we have a variety of vendors and staff on board that are multilingual.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, we have a higher number of Spanish-speaking bilingual staff from our family engagement team having family engagement liaisons who speak Spanish, uh, myself, who's a family school partnership coordinator, our attendance department has Spanish-speaking attendance specialists.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: We have Spanish-speaking enrollment and record specialists, and our Spanish teachers also are able to sometimes be able to help fellow teachers within their grade bands to be able to support those families and students with their needs, you know.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, building those collaborations within GCA is so important and knowing, hey, we have Vivian in attendance in the attendance department.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: She'll be able to help with this new family or this returning family, and um, being able to navigate that.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: And with our vendors, we have vendors who are translating formal documents from special education documents to our GCA letterhead documents from attendance letters, emails from your FELs, emails from your teachers, um, you know, any type of document that is in English and is sent to me, staff is letting me know hey, I need it in Oromo or I need it in Urdu, I need it in Spanish because here at GCA, we serve over 18 languages.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: We have a variety of languages that our family speak.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: And our vendors are able to support us in having translators and interpreters for those languages.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: And if we don't have a vendor in that that has that language, then we can reach out to one of our other vendors who's like, yeah, we got you in um with, you know, uh this language that I had never even heard of.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's Sierra, it's a Sierra Leone language called Crio.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it took me forever to figure out which vendor was able to support us in having an interpreter for um our family.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_02: I also serve um as an in-house Spanish-English interpreter for our special programs, from making phone calls and having actual face-to-face um virtual meetings with our parents for special education, for ESOL meetings, for student support team meetings.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: I am there for our families in building these relationships and breaking down those walls.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: That is the language that impedes parents from knowing why is my kid receiving this service?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_02: What are the benefits of them receiving the program and services and accommodations that they're gonna be getting?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: And how can I support them here at home?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: What can I be doing to be able to better support them?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna brag on Myra for a second because some other things that she does to support our families that she hasn't mentioned is she um we see all of our ESOL students face-to-face every year for access testing.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: And um, if they're new for a Wida screener.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: And Myra is at a minimum of three access testing sites, if not more, greeting our families and making sure she gets that face-to-face interaction with the families that she works with.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and she also has a parent English class that Myra and Jenny work together to help our parents learn English and build those skills so that they can be more equipped to help their students.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And the react the feedback that I've gotten from parents about Myra and the work that she's doing, our families love her.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we offer a um English literacy class where we're helping our parents of English learners, but it's open to all of our stakeholders.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's open to our learning coaches, families who live within the house, other parents who live within the household of students who are enrolled.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: My neighbor needs an English class.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: Have them register.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: We got you.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we're able to offer these services to them and being able to help parents better support their kids and and to continue to break down those walls that are impeding them from, you know, um knowing and getting to know what us our school systems are like.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because, like Emily said, our newcomer students and their parents, they are coming from something that is either totally working and they are on top of their academics, or they're coming from a country that is just not doing well academically, right?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: I had the experience when I was younger during my mother's um immigration process.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: She was um told to leave the country, and that meant she wasn't leaving her kids, so she took us with her to Mexico.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was in the same role some of our English learners are in, where I yes, I understood Spanish, but I didn't know how to speak it very well.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I was surrounded by kids who and made fun of me for not knowing how to say a specific word the right way, or because I had to have a lot of support from the teacher to be able to even make a 70 on my homework assignment, or have to modify my curriculum because I wasn't caught up to what they were doing or understood the language to know, well, this is what you're trying to read from this text.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so I put myself a lot of the times in our students' shoes, in our parents' roles, because I saw the struggles my mom had trying to teach me who English was my first language and her trying to tell me all these things in Spanish because on top of being having been an English learner, I and a Spanish learner.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: My mom is also an LEP parent.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: I still to this day am my mother's interpreter from medical appointments to school calls for my younger siblings to sometimes even communicating with her own bosses at work.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so I understand where our students and parents are coming from and what they need.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have that first team.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: I had a I had an experience similar to Myra.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up in Lebanon.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so the school that I went to, social studies and science were taught in Arabic, but I did not speak Arabic when we moved to Lebanon.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I was pulled out of Social Studies and Science for three years to learn Arabic, which is how I became passionate about our newcomers and the English language world, because I know what it's like to not know a language and to lose content because of not knowing a language, which is part of why we don't do a pull-out model here, because we don't ever want to take something away from our students just because they're learning a new language.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great segue.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: So then if we aren't pulling our students out of the content, how are we supporting English language learners academically in our virtual model?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: How are we So all English language learners in the state of Georgia have something called a TPC, it's a testing participation committee.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um think of it as the English learner version of an IEP or a 504.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: So this document explains the students' access scores to their annual testing, um, elaborates on what they can do in terms of English language proficiency, but then it also has their accommodations and modifications on it.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so those accommodations are things that the student has for classroom testing, for state testing, so like Georgia Milestones, those accommodations are on there.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um but then modifications are things that the ESOL team thinks and knows will be beneficial for the student learning English when applicable in the classroom.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: So we're working really hard with our teachers so that they have a lot of quick tricks up their sleeve to make those modifications happen easily and it not be extra work on the teachers and not be extra work on the students.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's something we've worked really hard to provide for our staff and our teachers here, and that we continue to do.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: So some of the accommodations that are modifications that our students have are um sentence frames, and that's for writing and speaking, and that allows our students to focus on sharing the content that they know versus.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Having to come up with the entire structure of an English sentence when they're relaying information.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so we've taught our teachers you can put it on the slides, you can put it in the chat.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: There are a ton of different ways you can do that.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's not rebuilding an entirely new assignment.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you mentioned sentence frames.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any other strategies that you know of that helps students build language confidence online?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: So in our model, like are there any other specific strategies that you say, hey, you know what?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: This totally helps build confidence.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um we we love wait time.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um I know that's a really hard one for teachers because teachers don't like the awkward silence.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: But something that I really encourage, especially with our students who are still growing that speaking skill, let them practice what they're saying off mic before they unmute themselves.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because that way they've practiced it one, two, three times, and then they can say it and they're confident in how they're saying it, and they are less likely to trip over their words.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um we also for students who it's their first year year, we let them work more closely with um uh a dictionary that has English to their home language so that they can translate those words as needed.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Myra, how do you build and and I imagine uh other than the fact that you know you've done this yourself, you f have firsthand experience doing it.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: But and I imagine that helps because I imagine you maybe share the share your story with families, but how how do you build trust and partnership with families that speak another language and you're trying to do the services that you are with the translation and interpretation services?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: How would you say like you really build trust and partnership with these families?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: Listening to them, hearing them out, and letting them know that if I don't know the answer to what they're asking, I'm going to do my very best to find it in someone who works with GCA.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: And if I need to go outside of GCA, then I can do that too.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: Because GCA also partners with so many community helpers, so many programs and services through our counseling department with our social workers, with our counselors, that like I said, if I can't find it with an answer within the school, I will go outside and try to find it for them.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: But I assure them, I hear you, I understand.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Now let me let me get back to you to let you know, hey, here's your answer.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, like, hey, we're gonna have to bring some other people in, but I will be with you along this journey from beginning to end.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: They they feel like they're they're they're heard, but then they also feel like you're not gonna abandon them, that you're gonna be there and you're gonna figure it out regardless, no matter what.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: What systems then would you say um does GCA have that make sure families in school-wide communication, you know, are uh taken care of?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like what systems do we actually have in play?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I think you mentioned some briefly or before when you were talking about our translation and interpretation stuff.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: But can you just tell us again, like what systems does GCA have in place that like make sure these families are taken care of in terms of communication school-wide?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, yeah.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: So during our enrollment process, families are um led to fill out what's called a home language survey.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: During that survey, they will identify um one of the questions is to identify their preferred language that they would like to receive communication from the school in.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so immediately, as soon as they're you know going through the enrollment process with GCA, we are trying to identify these families so we can have supports in place for when they're attending their open house meetings, for when they're attending their strong start orientations, from when they're walking into virtually their classroom on that first day of school.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and along the way, you know, during this process, um I'm the one identifying them, which means I'm either placing calls or I'm sending emails.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: Can you confirm that this is the language you requested?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because again, sometimes technology or our fingers are too big for the telephone screen or the mouse clicked the wrong thing.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I've had families who speak perfect English and they're like, oh no, that was accident.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: I don't speak Arabic.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay, I got you then.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: Let me let me go ahead and remove that identifier on your student's account.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so we have that process.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, our family engagement liaisons are our heartbeat.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: They are such an integ in being the family's first primary point of contact.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe they didn't feel comfortable identifying that they need documents and oral communication from the school in Spanish, but they're gonna tell their FEL who's called them and done that welcome call and said, Welcome to GCA.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to be the person to guide you through these first few weeks of school and be able to answer any question that you have.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, mom, dad, grandma, aunt, uncle, whoever is the legal guardian or the lonely coach of that student is gonna feel more comfortable and be like, so I don't really speak English very well, or I prefer someone to call me in Spanish, even though I do speak English perfectly well, but I prefer someone calling me in my first native language, which is Spanish or Arabic.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so having that process set in place and having our FELs be that first person that families get to talk to and receive more one-on-one support helps us be able to set things in place.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_02: One of the needs that I had identified was during some of our meetings, one of our specific vendors was not able to support us with video conferencing.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so I made it one of my goals to be able to find a vendor who would meet us in our Zoom platform to be able to accommodate video conferencing for our families because facial and body language are so important when it comes to interpreting, because you can tell that parent had a confused look on their face.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think they understand what a re-evaluation data review is for special education.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, hey, can we rephrase that differently for the parents so they know what this meeting is about?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because you using big jargon isn't helping, and their face looks confused.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's that's great.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, what what would y'all say then?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: What can other schools learn?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, whether other online schools, other traditional brick and mortar schools, what can they learn about how GCA supports uh language access, you know, and also English language learners from an academic side, from like just a communication side of things, everything we've talked about so far.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: What would y'all say?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know what, other schools they could learn this about how we do this.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, something that it feels obvious that other schools don't do, because I've heard from families that they don't, we work really hard to make sure our families know that we value their home language and we value their culture, and we are at no point going to try and replace that.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: But since their student is in a school where the academics are taught in English, we just want to help their student be successful in that environment and keeping the home language.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: We want them to work together in that.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I talk to parents and they're like, wait, I don't have to stop speaking our home language, and please don't stop.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Please never stop.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that simple fact sets us apart.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I feel like um I my both my children are in an in-person brick and mortar setting.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I I am heavily involved.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: I am at those Title I meetings for their school because they are also a Title I school.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: They're enrolled in one.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so one of the things that I feel that um some of our bri um brick and mortar schools can start is growing their ESOL programs and seeing that need and and seeing the data and the evidence that's going to back that need because our students, for example, my children's school, they have one ESOL teacher for three schools, for three elementary schools.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: We have a wonderful team of five ESOL teachers serving our K through 12 grades, you know, and so having one for having one ESOL teacher for an estimated like 1800 students for the three schools, right?
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: That may not be their number of English learners, but that's still a lot that they have to carry and lesson plans of you know that they have to create and understanding that interpreter having interpreters the same way, they have one interpreter for the whole county for the whole school district.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: I interpreted for 52 video conferencing meetings just for the 2024-2025 school year.
• 32:19
  unknown: Wow.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: And that's only for Spanish, right?
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: So be having one person for a school district that is probably way larger than GCA, that's a lot.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's a really big load that that person is having to carry and try to be there for the parents and their students, and making sure that those families and students are receiving the services and programs and are aware of everything that that school district has to offer.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: So just do y'all think there are any systems and practices that you guys have mentioned or have forgotten to mention yet that could be a model for these other schools, whether they are virtual or brick and mortar.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because it sounds like one of the things is like maybe take the program a little more seriously in the sense of have more staff.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: So uh have more teachers committed to the ESOL side of things.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that could be one thing that you're saying, like, hey, this is one model that you could follow is just having more people.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are there any other like systems or practices you would say?
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like you like, uh, I I I think mentioned Emily mentioned the whole like um we don't pull them out of the content.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Would you say that?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: So uh let uh I'll let you talk about that.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: But y'all, are there any systems practices y'all think of in terms of a model?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I love that we don't ever take students from content from something else in order to help them learn English.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: But something else that I was thinking of, um that TPC plan I was talking about, the state requirement is that one administrator, one English language development teacher, and then one content teacher sign it.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: At GCA, we require any teacher that works with the student to sign it.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's so important because that gives the teacher such a good understanding of where their students are coming in in terms of language proficiency.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you have a student whose language proficiency is in that beginning zone, they're probably not gonna understand what you're talking about in geometry, they're probably not gonna know those words, and so you need to know oh, the students not doing well in my class, not because they don't get geometry, but because I'm using all these words in this brand new language for this student.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so I have to figure out how to work with that student.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: And all of our teachers who work with English learner students know these things about their students, and I think that makes such a big difference because we require all of them to sign the document and look at it.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: And um one other thing that came to mind is um for my side of things with communication to parents, GCA does a magnificent job in providing a variety of services from our website having WebLot to be able to translate into the variety of languages we serve.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: So if a parent has a question and you know, a teacher says, Hey, go check out the website, it'll have the answer for you.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: They are able to translate our website into that language for their native language or preferred language.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, again, we have bilingual and biliterate staff.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: We offer Spanish parent meeting recordings.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: We used to offer them live, um, but we've moved to a more um virtual setting where they get their English recording and their Spanish recording all in one place, whether it's the calendar or through our champ chatter.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so they're getting the information that is presented in English for our Title I required meetings in Spanish.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: And those meetings provide tips and strategies that they can use at home to support their students.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: We also um have Blooms.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: We try at GCA, I feel like um we have made every single effort to try to have an app or a software or a program that is going to be accessible for that is going to provide accessibility for our families, not only parents, but students as well, from Canvas having the immersive reader where it will translate text in our Canvas platform where students they're accessing Canvas daily for their modules to access their live classes.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: Our parents being able to also have a Canvas observer account, they have that accessibility, um, that feature to translate the text and then tell their student, hey, it says you have a missing assignment.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go get it done.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, um Blooms being able to send targeted message or messages to the whole district, even though I may program it and schedule it saying, join us tonight for our district town hall, it's going to translate for that Spanish who requested Spanish.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: Unete a nosotros esta noche para nuestra reunión de whatever, right?
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: So we have made every single effort into providing um and eliminating into eliminating that language barrier for our families through a variety of services and and programs that we offer, again, from our website to our apps, um, to the software that our students are using.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that's a great point about the website and then also the immersive thing in Canvas.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's so cool.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: This will fire y'all up, most likely.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: But what would you say to someone who thinks, you know what, virtual schools, they can't build strong connections with these families that speak other languages.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: They can't, yeah, they they can't help these students, they can't help these families.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what would y'all say to someone who says that?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: Come join us.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: Come join us.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: Walk a day in my shoes, and I'll show you that we can.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: We um every now and then I talk to new families.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: What brought you to GCA?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, oh, we know so-and-so from our religious center, and they said they felt so supported at GCA.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're getting more English language learner students and more families with limited English proficiency because they're going back to their friends and talking about all the things that we do to help their child succeed and help them feel included.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: What a good compliment uh that people are coming out being like, yeah, come on.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: So action, speak louder than words, words.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: So final thought here what's the biggest lesson or just a lesson that comes to mind that each of you have learned uh from supporting these families across different languages in in our school setting?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what's a lesson y'all have taken away?
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: Don't underestimate our students or parents.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: They are capable of so much more than what they may present via a camera or through an email.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: Love that.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_02: Russian.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: Never assume.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know what a family has been through, you don't know what they're currently going through.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you communicated with them via email, sometimes emotions come off differently in email.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you were communicating on the phone, but the family does better with written.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: Always give multiple ways to talk to someone so that you're not assuming you can get a better picture of a family and a student.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's so strong.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's big idea, right?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: When schools invest in language access and culturally responsive support, they don't just reach more families, they build stronger communities.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks again to Myra and Emily for joining us.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if this episode helped you see family engagement and a new light, be sure to subscribe and join us next time on GCA unmuted voices of virtual education.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again, Emily and Myra.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_02: No, thank you, Halton, for having us.