Latest / The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District / Episode #4: Maeghan Bowman, Assistant Director of Multilingual Learners

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Episode #4: Maeghan Bowman, Assistant Director of Multilingual Learners · The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District

• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Recess Podcast.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your superintendent, Dr.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Alan Spicciotti, the proud superintendent of the Auburn School District, and we're here to share the stories of the people and programs that make Auburn such a special place.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've enjoyed kind of working our way around the district and pulling back the curtains so that our uh community, even our staff, um have a chance to see some things that uh maybe aren't available to everybody.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we have some really incredibly talented, thoughtful people doing great work for our kids and families in this uh big district with 24 schools and almost 18,000 students.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm proud uh to be the one that gets to feature those stories.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna have a good time today.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: My guest is Megan Bowman, who's the assistant director of multilingual learners in the Auburn School District.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Megan.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I have learned a lot from Megan.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: She does presentations to our administrators, um, and you're gonna find her fascinating.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna jump right in.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds good.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so the question I love to ask all my guests to start off tell me about your favorite teacher.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: My favorite teacher was Mrs.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: O'Brien, and I don't remember if she was fifth or sixth grade, uh, but I distinctly remember her because she was always smiling.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: She walked around and she would chew gum all the time.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thought, like, I don't know, as a fifth or sixth grader, I just thought that was so cool.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um wait a minute.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: The the students are not allowed to chew gum, I I assume.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: But she was an adult, she could do what she wanted.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm picturing like Pete Carroll as a sixth grade teacher.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty much.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty much.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh she I remember her not only because she was cool, but because she was um the first teacher and maybe the only teacher who really made me feel smart.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like that was the first time that I like felt like I really knew what I was doing, and that like maybe I was one of the kids in the class who really got it.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was awesome.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: She helped me diagram sentences, which is not something we do anymore, but that's what she did.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And she used to stand on a chair to be able to reach the top of the whiteboard.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And she was just, she was just she exuded love and support for all of her kids, and we all felt like she individually saw all of us.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was amazing.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: I love these stories and what a powerful example of uh believing in kids.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I had a teacher in in middle school who got me to see talents that I had that I wasn't aware of.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: So uh thank you, Megan.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: My guest is Megan Bowman, our assistant director of multilingual learners.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: And let's get into that topic right now.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we have a diverse audience of maybe educators and community members.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Can you explain what a multilingual learner is?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um when we reference that in in this discussion, I think we are um going to focus on those kids who qualify for multilingual services, which means they qualify um for support in English language development specifically.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um but the term multilingual learner really um expands to encompass a lot of kids if we're looking outside of services.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's our kids who are um living in a multilingual household, which is actually like 44% of the kids in the Auburn School Districts.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, and I'll bet that comes as a surprise to many in our audience.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you're saying uh 44%, which is approaching half of our students, live in a family where another language is spoken.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And and there may be a variety of of uh use of English or non-use of English, but a language uh at least one language, and sometimes it's more than one, I've come to learn.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's really something.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's uh it's pretty it's pretty amazing.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh our multilinguals are also our kids who are um going to be in dual language programs, our high schoolers who are in heritage language programs, our native English speakers who are in foreign language programs.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the term multilingual learner really encompasses a lot of our kids if we expand that definition.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And without getting too technical, there are levels uh within the program.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Can you just give a kind of a layperson explanation of that?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um for multilinguals who qualify for our services, uh, they we serve the very beginner kids who have no English exposure whatsoever.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then we go all the way up to those kids who um are really at the same English level as our native speakers.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So there is this huge range when we talk about multilingual learners.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: It definitely does not define one specific kid.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And you've helped to educate me and and all of our staff uh about multilingual learners and families, um cultures of our students from all over the world.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: I I think a um a common trap that educators fall into is like we really we want to do no wrong.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so um if I lack confidence in serving students, we'll we'll say ML is a shorthand for multilingual learners.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: I I feel like, hey, I want them to have the best experience and I want them to have a teacher who is ML certified.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, we have those.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but what we're learning is uh as we think about such a large part of our district uh qualifying for ML, we think about wanting to be inclusive in all parts of our school.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um a student may have an ML teacher for certain core subjects or for language, uh, but we'll also be out and about.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: We'll also have principals and counselors and district administrators who are a part of their educational experience.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really important that we learn.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And um Megan and and uh Peter Lamb and other incredible educators have been helping us to um to learn and and grow and really be a great school district for all our kids and families.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Can you, you don't have the you know, that half hour that you have uh on many months of the year with our all administrator group, but could you just in a in maybe one example share uh something that's helpful to know about our ML students and families for the audience?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think the most important uh or most helpful thing to remember as educators is um, Alan, like you said, we all want to do what's best for kids.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes when we are um faced with how do I support this kid, we make generalizations, right?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um we do that as a natural part of our brain, um, and also to help us uh create great plans for kids.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the takeaways would be that even in uh trainings that are provided, just to remember that each kid is an individual and each family is a unique family unit.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And although we can find commonalities, we really have to look beyond those generalizations that we can make about people to be able to best support everyone.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: And uh before we start a recording, you were sharing it it's like if somebody said, Well, let me tell you how Americans are.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've done these uh cultural trainings on a lot of cultures in our that are represented in our district.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I always try to start with what is the culture of the United States?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I always love to start with this one because when you talk about any culture, any people, you have to put things in generalizations.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it really highlights for us when we see these generalizations about Americans, we're able to say, well, okay, that might be some people, but that's not me.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's not representative of me.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, our families and the kids we serve are the exact same way.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: I can share information about culture, I can share information about how languages are used, but ultimately everybody is unique.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a great takeaway.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think the audience just got a little bit smarter.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Megan, let's let's take this back for a minute.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, how does one end up as an a multilingual educator and and what got you into the field?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, I actually fell into the field of education by accident.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: I come actually from a family of educators, um, but my bachelor's degree was in art.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I just knew that I wanted to travel and take pictures of different people and different places.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: That was always my interest was portraits.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I after school, I just thought I just graduated with a degree in art.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So what can I do now?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I just happened to apply for a program called the Japan Education Education and Teaching Exchange.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the short uh name of that is Jet Program, and I was accepted, and I got to travel to Japan to teach English, and they were gonna pay me to do it.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I said, I get to travel like absolutely, I don't care what I do there.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's really how I fell into it.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how exciting! And uh one thing I love about these podcasts, we've worked together for probably approaching 10 years, and I did not know any of that about you.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so uh I'm I'm enjoying the conversation as well with Megan Bowman from our multilingual department.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we learned a little bit about you came into the field.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um we have teachers who are ML specialists.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Can you say just a word about that as well?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh we have a growing number of ML specialists in our district.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have over 70 teachers now who are designated as an ML specialist.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: They fill that role in our school, but we actually have more than that certified as ML teachers.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that number is growing.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're really excited about that.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: That is fantastic, and and it's it's a high growth area.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we uh regularly encourage and support existing teachers to get their ML cert, um, and also are working with alternative pathways to get paraeducators or people in our community, or even maybe a teacher from another country who needs the proper certification, uh grow our staff and support our kids.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: So um, like you said, it's a growth field and it's it's a really wonderful work.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna talk about uh those kids and just kind of how they're fun in their own way, uh and in the joy of being an ML educator.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I before I go to my next question, uh you've got some great examples.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: You want to just lay one out there?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think that you know, as educators, we we often um come to problems with like how can I fix this, or come to challenges with how can I fix that.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but we don't often like take a minute just to reflect on the joy of getting to do what we do.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that joy comes from the kids.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was I was sharing before we started recording that um I was really, really happy.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I saw a post um from a student.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: He sent me a post online that was his picture of him in a cap and gown from Washington State University.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he had walked in as a ninth grader and said very politely, Hello, Miss Bowman.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that I am going to Washington State University.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he was he came directly to us from the Gambia in West Africa, and um he just he was a determined young man from the very beginning, and he was a joy to have in class every single day, and that determination carried him through to a four-year degree.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: What a great story! And I I know we didn't prep for this, but I'll bet the audience is wondering if if you come to Washington State, Auburn, Washington from the Gambia, what background are you coming from educationally?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: What do you bring with you?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Is it a matter of learning the language?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Is it also filling gaps in education?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Can you just kind of share what that experience is like for a student, uh, such as our new coup?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I and I think this highlights how every kid in every situation is an individual.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because this student came to us, he was already highly educated.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he had a strong education in the Gambia.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: English is one of the official languages of the Gambia.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um now let me say that he still needed English language support because he relied on his other languages more than he did with English.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it really highlighted for me just how different if we think of all of the countries in the world and all of the education systems within those countries, that you know, every kid comes to us with a different story and a different background.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, this just happened to be one who is had a had a high level of education and had really high expectations for himself.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And while we're kind of on on this thread, uh maybe share share the range of backgrounds.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I know that we serve students who have limited or interrupted formal education as well.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we do serve a range of kids.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um we use the term slife to um to refer to what Dr.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Spagati just mentioned, students with limited or interrupted formal education.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, like the student we just talked about, some come with really high levels of education.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And some of our kids come with no education at all.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Some of our kids have never had any formal education, and that includes our kids who are joining us at the secondary level.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: We also have kids who had really strong educational backgrounds uh and then they were interrupted due to uh war.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that is where a lot of our students we're seeing come in right now.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Washington is uh a really proud receiver of a high percentage of refugees in our country.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And Auburn is one of the top receivers of those student groups.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we're really seeing the gamut of students who have these very variable um histories and experiences.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so now we know a little bit, just a kind of a teaser about our students, the range of experiences they come with.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh tell our listeners about our uh multilingual supports in the Auburn School District.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of services, programs, classes do we offer?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we are constantly evolving.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: So um I love this question.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: At uh both the uh elementary, middle, and high school level, we have a model called supportive mainstream.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that is all of elementary, and that's where kids are in their general education classroom settings and they meet with a specialist to really focus on their English language development.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: At the secondary level, we also have sheltered instruction, which is where students have a core content class with an ML teacher.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it is usually ELA, but at high school, they also might have a sheltered class with an ML teacher who's also certified in social studies or in science.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the last two years, it's been really exciting to offer a third model, which is the newcomer program.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that functions differently than those other two models.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm really proud that Auburn has taken on um, I guess, I guess, the risk to try something new to serve our kids.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's been really responsive to say these newcomers who have interrupted or limited formal education, we know that the services we're providing right now weren't meeting their needs.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so what can we do to support them?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that is our third model that we have here.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's fantastic, and we'll maybe come back to that uh in a minute.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: But you mentioned that this is constantly evolving, constantly changing.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's in response to our enrollment changing and our ML enrollment in particular.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um share the growth of ML students in Auburn School District over the past 10 years.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's been exponential.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is really amazing to see.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I ran the numbers today, and uh with the help of Peter Lamb, my awesome partner, and we looked up that in December 2013, so 10 years ago, uh our population made up 12.5% of Auburn.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: So MLs were 12.5% of our population.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And now in 2023, we are at 31%.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: It it is a huge, huge growth.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh our population and numbers have um tripled over the last eight years.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: So in terms of of numbers, 31% of all students qualify for the program.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have uh you you estimate 44% uh where at least another language is spoken in the home.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um that is tremendous growth.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh share a little bit about the evolution of where we're receiving students from.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is something that that changes.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's it it changes based on lots of different factors.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um we got a lot of students from Ukraine and from Afghanistan, and that's in contrast to where um our previous populations um were coming from.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: We used to have a lot of long-term English learners.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's something interesting for people to know.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: We s we still definitely have a lot of long-term English learners, but I believe it's about 60% of our ML kids were born in the United States.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'll bet that is a surprise for many people as well.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we have uh really all types.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: You have born born in the United States, long-term learners, uh, and then students who were born all over the world.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, can you talk about give us just a little bit of perspective?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if I recall that 31%, it's about 5,400 students.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's about 5,400 students.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh of those, uh let's let's start with students who are born outside of the United States.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what are the main or the major top five or however you have it uh countries that we receive students from?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: We have changed over the last few years.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we have found that our increase in Afghan students has been exponential, uh, and we expect that to continue.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: And also our increase of um our Ukrainian students.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: So anytime that there is an armed conflict in the world, uh, we can expect that about a year or a year and a half later, we'll start to see those populations in our schools.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: And are there any other countries that stand out?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have obviously a large population from the Marshall Islands, which is which is amazing, right?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's um and it I just think about like the richness of Auburn.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: I just pause because I just thought about like the richness of where the kids are coming from.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have a lot of kids who've arrived um recently and we'll probably see more numbers from Central America.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um but the the standout.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Populations that are kind of new to us over the last couple of years have been Ukraine and Afghanistan because of the conflicts there.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, 11% of all of the MLs being served in Auburn right now have arrived in the last two years.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's fantastic.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it it's just really informative to think about.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: I had the opportunity to go to Auburn Mountain View to see a parent meeting with uh Afghan parents, mostly moms, some dads.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and it was mostly about how do you navigate school in America.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: What is what does high school look like at at Auburn Mountain View or in Auburn or in the United States?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: And how is it similar and different?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's it's really profound.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: It is.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that's something that um is another kind of um like an aha moment for a lot of people when they learn about the diversity of school systems, the diversity of even within a country.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: So just for example, there are some countries that because of um whichever country colonized them previously, if you're in the north of a country, you might go by, for example, the French education system, where if you're in the south of the country, they follow the British education system.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so just the idea that um that you know, high school is high school everywhere or middle school is middle school, it's just simply not the case.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of learning for our families who are coming out of the country to navigate our ideas that seem so normal to us, but are really foreign concepts to a lot of people.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone snorted out.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: I try to put myself in, you know, the reverse shoes.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if I were dropped in Ukraine or Brazil or anywhere in the world, uh what learning curve would I have ahead?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it's pretty daunting to think about.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so that's the gap that we're trying to bridge.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: One last question about our growth and our numbers.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm often asked how many languages are spoken in the Auburn School District.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have that number and what the top ones are?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, um, we are at over a hundred languages.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I want to give a shout out to data services.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Our data services uh department has worked with us so closely on making sure that families are accurately represented in our data.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so this year we partnered um to go through Skyward and make sure that um all of the languages are listed.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: We we uh in the past, because of some systems, they were generalized into groups of languages, and we went back and looked at physical home language copies from all over our district to make sure there was an accurate count.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when we did that, um, it just felt good to look and see that list of languages expand.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and you know, our top is still Spanish after English.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then we go to Ukrainian and Dari, which is not surprising considering our population.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: And Dari is spoken where?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sorry.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Dari is spoken in Afghanistan.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Dari and Pashto are both of our major languages from Afghanistan.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then our other top two are Marshallese and Punjabi.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Punjabi is spoken in India.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's very informative.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I told you I learn a lot every time I uh hear from Megan Bowman, our assistant director of multilingual learners.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let's uh build on that now.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: So as our uh population has grown, has evolved, um, you mentioned you know, literally into the thousands of kids and families who have a very short time in the country or brand new.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have launched a service uh uh that is I think pretty unique in Washington State, and it's the um International Welcome Center.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: So tell our audience about that program.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love to share about this.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we are very unique in this.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: I've been approached by multiple districts and actually by OSPI to say, how's it going?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: What's happening?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is really exciting, can we come visit?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, our International Welcome Center was the result of getting, it's actually tied to our newcomer program story.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: I found a list of newcomer programs um presented to uh by the Center for Applied Linguistics.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: They had done a research study, and I saw this list of newcomer programs, and I just started cold calling a bunch of districts, and one of them responded, and it was the uh Katy uh independent school district in Katy, Texas.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we went to observe their newcomer program and were blown away by the fact that they provided this wraparound support to families.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we saw their great academic newcomer program, and coupled what with this was what they called their testing center.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: But when we were in it, we were like, this is a lot more than testing.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is really providing family services that would help them to integrate into the community and really feel a part of it.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they were our model, and right when we saw it, we're like, this is it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we need to be providing our families.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: How can we do this?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that that's where that model comes from.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: So a shout out to Katie Texas.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: They were so welcoming.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we are now able to, when a family indicates that they have a language other than English for the student's native language or the student's language that they speak at home, they are invited to the welcome center where they do their initial English language testing.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's also where they get resources for community, um, for uh community connections, including uh information on where they could take classes, where they often help with things like bus routes and things, like navigating our system.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they get information on counseling and health services, they get all that information there.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and actually, that is where our Afghan family support liaison is based.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: So Sahar Fakiri works with us, and she is able to help us uh in communicating with those families that come who speak Dari, which is our dominant dominant population right now.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: It is truly a special place, and I just want to congratulate all of you and uh you know, Heidi Harris and Julie DeBold who advocated and and had that vision along with you and Peter and others.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're we're so proud to offer that program.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think it's helping our students and families get off to a great start.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, one thing that immediately came to the fore is how much faster we could place students and place them accurately.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think that that has had uh a huge impact on let's start with our kids and our families.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're right.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: We can we can place kids in classrooms with the correct schedule from day one rather than in the past, we'd enroll the kid and it at, for example, at secondary, it'd be like, well, here's kind of your temporary schedule that we hope is gonna be the right schedule until you go through the testing, and then we might have to change that.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we know, you know, no every kid wants consistency, right?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how you feel the most comfortable rather than here's a new schedule, meet all these new people.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now change your schedule, right?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's really tough.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really supported our kids, but it's also really supported our teachers.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: In the past, our teachers were the ones who were giving those screening tests.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we that is not where we wanted teachers, right?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted teachers in the classrooms with our kids, supporting them as much as possible and focusing on their academic, social, and emotional development rather than testing.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: So with the Welcome Center, we were able to alleviate that from our teachers.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we're getting kids off to a great start, and uh you and I were speaking um before we started recording on some of the amazing success stories that our students see on the outcome side of their education with Auburn.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us a great example of a success story of an ML student from our district?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I had a student come to me as a ninth grader when I was teaching at Mountain View.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he came in, he was from Iraq.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: It was him with his mother and his two younger siblings.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: His little brother was a baby at the time, uh, speaking no English whatsoever.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he came in, he did his placement test, and you could tell, you know, he had a he had a lot of responsibility.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And um as he was in our our my classes year after year, I got to know him better and realized, you know, he's taking care of um his father that was able to rejoin their family.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: So he was the caregiver for his father.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: He also was working after school to um make money for his family.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a great success because he is now attending Written Tech for IT, and he is driving an airport shuttle at our airport um to support his family and to be able to work while he continues his education.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: So every time I go to the airport, I always wonder if I'm gonna see him on that bus.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: That is such a wonderful story, and and I've heard so many of those stories.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's really a uniquely American story.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I think sometimes we focus on where somebody's from or uh or high you know look for the differences, highlight the differences, and yet you trace the history of our country, and and most of us have some some history like that.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think of uh my grandpa Spichati, he probably would have been an ML student in in today's education system a hundred years ago in central New York State.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh both of his parents were born in Italy.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um they had a hard life.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they both died young, uh, unfortunately, while my grandpa was in his teens.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: He ended up taking care of his four sisters.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very common story for our families, right?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Really smart guy, uh, you know, could have was very successful ultimately in his education, but uh couldn't afford to to go to college in in the depression and taking care of his sisters, um, and and still made something of his life and uh you know started a family that I'm obviously proud of.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm so glad that uh we have our eye on this ball, helping to give a great start to uh students who uh over and over and over again become successful and inspiring and uh ultimately really enrich our community and um people like Megan Bowman and all of our staff uh in the ML department, but especially in the schools, make that happen for our kids.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks to the whole team.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, I wish I had the list of 70 teachers right now.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: I read the whole thing.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um but uh I want I want to shout out, I want to continue to tell these stories.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll have you or Peter or somebody on in the future to go a little bit deeper too.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I'm getting just a little choked up thinking about like this is powerful stuff.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, it's it's it's the fun stories to to have the kid come in who you know is reading in kindergarten and and uh has a breeze through and goes to an elite university and all that.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're really proud of of all of our kids and and and them as well.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but this there's just something special about uh you know literally building our country as it evolves uh by educating and and supporting all of our our children, which we're required to do, but it's we do it because it's the right thing to do.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, and it's it's our heart.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: So uh sorry, just a little editorializing.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I can see uh by your expression, uh I think you're uh agreeing.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so that was a little heavy.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Let's lighten it up, and I'm gonna close us out with my other favorite question, Megan.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: What was your favorite thing to do at recess?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely tetherball.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was always tall uh for my age, always, and it was like the one thing that I could excel at on the playground.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I loved it and played it non-stop.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'd play it by myself, I'd play it one-on-one, I'd play it in teams.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Any way I could play tetherball, I would.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you'll be happy to know Tetherball is alive and well in the Auburn School District.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and it seems to be a timeless recess activity.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so thank you for sharing that story.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for uh educating our audience a little bit and just uh sharing some of the great work of the people you get to work with and the students that you've worked with over your career.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: And again, we really appreciate everything that uh you and your team have done for our district.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Megan.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: My guest has been Megan Bowman, our assistant director of multilingual learners in the Auburn School District.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's my joy to tell the stories of the people and programs that make this such a special district.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed this episode, please spread the word and help us get the word out about our incredible team and our incredible students.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you next time.