May 2024 • Issue 79 • California Association for Bilingual Education

Important Dates and Deadlines

• May 2 & 9—ELDTA Module 8: Understanding and Meeting the Critical Needs of Diverse Typologies of ELs
• May 4—DLTA Module 8 Best Practices for Spanish Writing Instruction in a Dual Language Classroom | Las mejores prácticas para la enseñanza de la escritura en español en un aula de educación en dos idiomas
• May 6—Membership Reception in Monterey
• May 7—CABE Regional Conference in Monterey
• May 17—Online Informational Meeting about Oaxaca Conference https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83643637800
• June 1—Deadline for 2025 Multilingual Educator Submissions
• June 19-23—First Annual Conference on Bilingual Education and Cultures in Oaxaca
• July 1-3—Summer 2024 Dual Language Education Institute in San Diego

CABE Legislative Advocate Report

by Jennifer Baker

• CABE Co-sponsored Bills Move to Appropriations Committee
• Science of Reading Legislation Held
• Early Budget Packet Enacted
• CABE Bill Update
• April Tax Receipts Slightly Lower

The Call for Presentation Proposals

for the Summer 2024 Dual Language Education Institute

is open through Friday, May 3, 2024!

Manuel Colón, the third oldest of seven children, was born in Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico. His father was a car washer at a car dealership, and his mom was a homemaker who later worked as a childcare aide for adult education. While Spanish was spoken at home, the kids learned English at school and spoke it with each other. Manuel came to the US at the age of four when his family immigrated to San Fernando Valley. They initially came to visit their ill grandmother, ended up staying, and later moved to Norwalk where their other grandmother lived.

When Manuel entered kindergarten as an English learner, there was no support for ELs—it was sink or swim. He remembers that his teacher spoke only English, and he sat at the back of the room for at least two years until he learned English. It wasn't until 4th grade that he felt normal and really part of the educational system. He says, "I experienced a lot of racism. In the late 70s and early 80s, we were one of the first Latino families in the neighborhood and I was frequently bullied. I never had a favorite teacher or one that inspired me. This is the reason why I became a teacher. I wanted to become the teacher I never had."

There were very low expectations at his high school and no expectations of college. His older brother applied to college without their parents knowing and got accepted to UC Santa Cruz. His parents told him he couldn't go, but he went anyway, and the family was devastated. Manuel recalls that his brother was very courageous. "His actions changed the trajectory of my entire family, and he helped me apply to college." 

Manuel was also accepted at UC Santa Cruz, and his high school counselor called him into his office to tell him that he shouldn't go because he was unprepared and advised him to go to community college instead—advice that Manuel ignored. He was only one of four students at his school who got accepted to a four-year college, but all his siblings went on to college; one has a Ph.D., five have a master's, one has a bachelor's, and one has an associate's degree. Today Manuel has a B.A. in Language and Culture from UCSC, an M.A. in Education from Stanford, an M.A. in Administration from UCLA, a teaching credential (single subject Spanish and a supplemental in ESL), and a clear administrative credential.

His first teaching job was at Campbell UHSD in San José, teaching high school Spanish for Spanish Speakers, AP Literature and Language, ELD, and AVID. After getting married, he moved to Southern California and taught the same subjects in the Anaheim UHSD. He later became a teacher on loan to the Los Angeles County Office of Education where he was a program specialist to support the expansion of the AVID program across LA County. He then became the Vice Principal at Sierra Vista High School in Baldwin Park USD before returning to AUHSD as the principal at Sycamore JHS, where he started a dual language program. He has also served as principal at Savanna High School, the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, and Chief Academic Officer until he retired in 2022. Today, he works part-time with Inflexion, an educational non-profit, as the chief program officer, coaching principals and working with schools and districts in transformative schooling.

Manuel's first CABE experience was as a UCSC student, collaborating with Eugene García, a bilingual education professor, and Francisco Alarcón, a poet and professor. They were both bilingual education researchers who co-authored an article with Manuel and it was through those experiences that he was introduced to CABE. Later, as a Spanish for Spanish Speakers teacher in the early 90's, he had no classroom materials and had to create his own curriculum. He went to CABE conferences to find teaching resources. "At my first conference, I felt like I had come home. There were other people who looked like me and who had the same passions, mindsets, and goals." He continued attending CABE conferences throughout his career. In fact, he got his first teaching job at the CABE Career Fair at an annual conference where he was offered several positions, accepting one at AUHSD. "I was always very close to CABE as a teacher, administrator, and county office employee. It was always a part of my professional life. At CABE 2023, he facilitated the Author's Corner, and once he retired, he was encouraged to run for the board as the Region 3 Representative. Manuel reflects, "CABE has given me so much; it has been the place where I found a family and a home. It has guided and grounded me as an educator, and I ran for the board because it was time for me to give back. I have a lot to thank CABE for."

Manuel met his wife Mélida at UCSC. She is half Salvadoreña, half Nicaragüense, and works as a Family and Community Engagement Specialist in AUHSD. They have been married 30 years and have two children, Brisa (24), a news reporter at KSBW in Monterey/Salinas, and Aharón (22), a recent CSU Fullerton graduate who will be attending UC Santa Barbara next year pursuing an M.A .and teaching credential in History. They have two rescue dogs, Cinco (so named because he was rescued on 5/5/2015) and Melo (short for Caramelo, which was also his son's nickname when he was young). In his free time, Manuel loves gardening, driving an old '89 Mercedes convertible, going to estate sales, and collecting old and rare books.

Sara Kennedy, the oldest of seven siblings, grew up in the tiny town of Maybee, Michigan. Her dad is a native Michigander, and her mom was born in Japan and spent her elementary school years in France and Germany as part of a Navy family. Sara was homeschooled K-12, along with the majority of her siblings. While her dad worked as a mailman, her mom (a certified special education teacher) taught them at home.

Sara has vivid memories of her mom teaching her to read, which opened up windows to experiences and perspectives outside her small town. Her mother knew how important languages were, but despite a childhood in Europe, her education on US military bases was monolingual. She gave Sara a Latin textbook and cassette tape in second grade, leading to minimal Latin proficiency and even less enthusiasm. Sara reflects on this experience now when hearing about “literacy” programs with no conversational focus.

At the age of 15, Sara started taking community college classes to get credits she couldn’t fulfill at home, including higher-level math, lab science classes, and Spanish. She had so much fun with her TPR-based Spanish class that she decided she wanted to be a Spanish teacher! Sara was always drawn to education, volunteering to teach religious education classes as a young teen. She seriously considered becoming a nun, including visiting convents and requesting entrance papers as a senior in high school. Mother Superior wisely suggested attending college for a year before making that decision. Now Sara’s younger sister is a nun in that same convent.

Sara attended Eastern Michigan University where she received a B.A. in Spanish Education, a minor in English, and a K-12 Spanish teaching credential. After graduating, she was hired to teach exploratory Spanish in a K-8 charter school in Detroit, Michigan, and worked on her M.A. in TESOL. She received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship grant and spent a year in Alicante, Spain. This was her first experience in a dual language program, providing English as enrichment alongside instruction in Spanish or Valencian. It was also her first experience seeing educators as activists, as she marched in Madrid with her colleagues during a nationwide teacher strike in support of public education. She wrapped up her year in Spain by spending a month hiking the Camino de Santiago with her boyfriend, Wes. (They got engaged at the end of the trail and are now married.)

Returning to Detroit after a year in Spain, Sara taught exploratory TK-8 Spanish at another Detroit charter school but was frustrated that these enrichment courses did not provide the time needed to develop proficiency in Spanish. Upon completing her M.A. in TESOL, Sara and her husband moved to California in 2014, where she got a job teaching Spanish at a K-8 project-based learning school in San Diego. She successfully advocated for expanding the Spanish program based on the time recommended for FLES & FLEX programs, including adding a second Spanish teacher. After teaching in very segregated Detroit schools, this was her first experience working with English Learners. Because there was no designated support staff at the school, Sara spent her lunch and prep periods supporting EL students and their families. She also began attending every school board meeting to advocate for the Spanish program and EL support. She helped parents start the first ELAC and was on the instructional leadership team and school advisory council.

When new leadership cut the entire K-8 Spanish program, Sara got a job as EL Coordinator at another local charter school in the High Tech High network. During her four years there, along with her role providing support for students and families, she also advocated for increased big-picture support. She helped parents start the first ELAC and DELAC, and successfully advocated for a central EL support position.

During the dramatic shift of the pandemic, Sara worked with the community to establish a mutual aid system to distribute food and hygiene supplies to students and families. During the pandemic, Sara and her colleagues also started a union with the CTA. They successfully organized both certificated and classified staff at all 16 schools in the network, making it the second-largest unionized charter in the state. Sara was elected as the first union secretary, helping create initial structures and facilitating a communications team that included staff, families, community members, and even students.

Sara had a chance to attend a regional CABE conference in 2020, and families at her school participated in CABE’s Project 2INSPIRE project. She remembers, "I was really impressed by the quality of professional learning for educators but especially for families, who are so often treated as an afterthought when they should be key educational partners." When she saw that CABE was hiring, she successfully applied for the Professional Learning Specialist position for the Multilingual California Project (MCaP). "I wanted to be part of CABE's advocacy efforts for high-quality and equitable programs based on current research. I had seen what happens when those are not in place." This past year when MCaP ended, Sara became a Professional Learning Programs Specialist to support CABE's rapidly growing professional learning services team and to build systems to support CABE's contracts across the state. She also works with CABE's statewide networks and was the lead on the first two Asian Languages Institutes, collaborating with educators and leaders across the state.

Sara considers herself a “full-time language nerd and after-hours community organizer.” She participates in local politics, coaches new activists, supports voter engagement, and organizes engagement with elected officials. She is part of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium and, since September, has been part of an extensive grassroots effort to provide humanitarian aid to asylum seekers held in outdoor detention. She spends her remaining free time with her husband Wes, her dog Speebo, her cat Derrida, and more houseplants than can be named here. It might seem like most of her hobbies are also work, but ask her about Zines, and she will show you how to make one.

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César Chávez Celebration—Thursday, March 28th

At this event we provided a booth about the Yolo/Woodland Chapter 76 Aspiring Bilingual Teacher Scholarship, the Chapter’s activities, educational information and support for students and parents, and information about how to become a member in our chapter. Free books are given to the children.

Aspiring Bilingual Teacher Scholarships

Each year CABE Yolo/Woodland Chapter 76 provides at least three scholarships to graduating seniors in the Woodland Joint Unified School District who are pursuing a bilingual teacher credential. This year the CABE Yolo/Woodland Chapter 76 is also offering the “Aspiring Bilingual Teacher Scholarship” award to Woodland Community College students, too.

WORLD LANGUAGES AND GLOBAL COMPETENCE DAY 2024

Celebrate world languages in education with the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE), community partners, and local educators on May 24 at the Inaugural World Languages and Global Competence Day.

The event is designed for world languages educators and administrators (K-12), higher education professionals and students, community partners and others in education with a global vision for students.

• Workshops will be presented on Spanish language instruction, less commonly taught languages, global competence, the State Seal of Biliteracy and Pathway Awards, the future of education, etc.
• The event will feature a hybrid session celebrating SDCOE’s Two Shores Intercultural Exchange Program where participants will be able to interact with teachers from San Diego, Spain, France, and the Philippines.
• The event also features a World Languages Instructional Materials Fair, with a presentation on the World Languages Instructional Materials Adoption Toolkit.

Find more information: http://bit.ly/WLGCDay2024

INNOVATIVE OFFERINGS FROM CEEL

The Center for Equity for English Learners is offering an innovative specialized course for Mandarin teachers in Multilingual/English Learner programs that will be starting on April 26. Teachers can earn University Credit and Digital Badges! 

Our other CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS:

• Leadership in Equity for English Learner Education 
• TK/ECE Certificate Program & Practicum Academy |  
• Certificate for Teaching Academic Spanish in Grades PreK through 12

SIGNATURE INSTITUTES FOR FALL 2024

• Formative Assessment for Multilingual/EL Learners 
• Observation Protocol for Academic Literacies (OPAL)
• Journalism for English Learners 

Click the images below to view/download PDF flyers:

Y luego simplemente la borro. De hecho, no he comido tarea en años.

Contact the editor: Laurie Miles, Communications Coordinator, laurie@gocabe.org