Little Sponges® – Presenting at the NAEYC Conference!
The National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Annual Conference is the largest gathering of education leaders, classroom teachers and faculty, administrators, and other important practitioners in early childhood education. These specialists spend four days engaged in informative sessions, networking, and exploration of the conference with more than 175 exhibit booths. 32% of […]
3 Fears About Screen Time for Kids- and Why They’re Not True
We check our phones upwards of 50 times per day — but when our kids play around with them, we get nervous. Are screens ruining childhood? Not according to children’s media expert Sara DeWitt. In a talk that may make you feel a bit less guilty about handing a tablet to a child while you […]
When Kids are Bilingual, Everyone Wins
A walk through Heritage Elementary School in Woodburn, Oregon, can make you feel like you’re touring Europe. In one classroom, a group of third-graders learn to read in Spanish. In another, students recite multiplication tables in Russian. In other parts of the school, students are receiving instruction in English. Heritage Elementary School isn’t a fancy […]
Treating Language as a Strength: The Benefits of Bilingualism
So much of the discussion on English language learners in U.S. schools focuses on what they don’t have (for example, academic English) or what they haven’t been able to do (such as graduate in rates comparable to proficient English speakers). These are real problems that deserve our attention. But, sometimes it is important to turn […]
Ohio Receives $35 Million Literacy Grant from U.S. Department of Education
To build on ongoing work to improve the language and literacy development of our state’s children, Ohio was awarded a $35 million Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Grant from the U.S. Department of Education. “Reading is the foundational skill that supports all learning,” said Paolo DeMaria, superintendent of public instruction. “Ohio is committed to improving outcomes […]
America the Bilingual
Article by Steve Leveen at LeadWithLanguages.org. Let me welcome you to America the Bilingual, a podcast for monolingual Americans, like me, who are learning their second language—or want to begin. Today, it’s normal for Americans, even highly educated ones, to grow up speaking only English. I’m an example, despite taking Spanish and German in school. It […]