Welcome to Cultural Connections Lab. I'm your host Dr. Kelly Forbes. We are here to talk with educational professionals around the world to impact and influence the education system as we focus on cultural connections and the education of multilingual, diverse students.
We're excited to have you join us today. We sincerely hope that you enjoy the show.
Hello listeners, welcome back to another episode of Cultural Connections Lab with myself, your host Dr. Kelly Forbes. I am so excited to be with you all today with a new friend of mine, Dr. Elicette Moret.
She is an educational leader that advocates for the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students and promotes access to equitable education that is centered in equity and social justice.
She is the owner of Edulengua, an educational consulting company that serves school districts and charters across the nation. Her company focuses on the needs of emergent bilinguals, families, and their communities.
Before her relaunch of Edulengua, Dr. Moret worked as the director of Biliteracy and Family Engagement at Velasquez Press.
She has also worked at Region 13, a Texas education service center, where she oversaw the multilingual instruction and learning support team, the Migrant Education Program, and served as the region's contact for Title III.
Elicette has worked at the Texas Education Agency, where she took on the Commissioner's Initiative for Dual Language Immersion Programming and has developed the initial dual language immersion implementation rubrics.
Additionally, she collaborated in guiding the revisions and approval of Chapter 89, subchapter BB, Commissioner's Rules Concerning the State Plan for Educating Emergent Bilinguals.
Dr. Moret also led the development of some of the biliteracy modules that have been integrated by TEA, the Texas Education Agency, as part of the state's bilingual reading academies.
At the national level, Dr. Moret has been a contributing author for Drs. Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier's book, Transforming Secondary Education, Middle and High School Dual Language Programs, and has also served as a national bilingual consultant for the Center for Applied Linguistics.
Dr. Elicette Moret has a bachelor's in, let me see, Spanish, a master's degree in education with a focus on bilingual, bicultural studies from Texas State University, and a doctorate degree in educational leadership from Lamar University.
Welcome, Dr. Elicette Moret. How are you doing?
Very good. Thank you. That was very long, but I was thinking, I was like, oh, well, yes, I have done all of that. Yes. Thank you so much for having me on today. I'm very excited to be here. And so, yeah, ask away. How are we going to be running this today?
Yeah, well, I'm just so excited to have you here on Cultural Connections Lab. It's really a great space for us to share our advocacy and our allyship for all of our multilingual and diverse learners that we have, whether it be geographically, linguistically, with their backgrounds, but just trying to really talk to our listeners, work with our listeners, and providing them access to ways that we can better encompass what needs to be happening for our diverse students and for their learning, and also for our teachers and our administrators that care about them.
And for our administrators that care so deeply about providing this equitable education for all of our students.
So just go ahead and if you don't mind, just share a little bit about your journey of getting to where you were. I was kind of linked in stocking you a little bit, going through and reading the past jobs that you've had and we have a lot of similar experiences in our educational profession as well
passion for bilingual and multilingual education. So how did you get to where you are today?
Well, I mean, yes, so, stop in me LinkedIn, I think we all do that in trying to find, you know, other people that we can collaborate with.
I also, it reminds me that I really need to go back and update it a little bit, but I'll get to that hopefully here pretty soon.
In regard to the journey, yes, so it has been a long journey. Sometimes, obviously, we forget that we've been doing this for quite some time.
I was just asked this question actually a few days ago. I was at a trans language institute that we did actually in collaboration with other organizations as well at the national level.
I think it was very much needed, but it made me think of that was the question they asked was how long have you been in this?
And so in counting, it's around 18 to 19 years now, which I feel that man, they have passed really fast, to be honest.
And I think that we were having fun. Time just flies. I think you mentioned a key word that many times we say it so often, but we truly have meaning behind that, which that is passion.
So I think it's passion what has actually given me the blessing, the opportunity to continue the work that I started honestly as a pre-K teacher.
I was actually back in the day, this is how it started, not knowing that I was going to end up in the educational field.
I was actually when I went to university, I went for Spanish literature and mass communications, actually mass communications being the main major.
I was very intrigued, obviously, with TV, radio. That's really what I wanted to do.
Not knowing that when I graduated from high school, I actually got an audition and got the part per se to be the reporter, co-reporter to a show that was called Dallegana in the metro area in Dallas.
And so it was for Univision. And so that's actually not knowing how my journey started in education.
So just interviewing professors, financial aid counselors on how we could help families and students to get a better education per se or just to find out where to start.
And so it kind of like got me very interested in the educational field, not knowing that that's where really I was going to end up.
So from there, having come to Austin, obviously for university or close to Austin, I went to Southwest Texas when Southwest Texas still existed without me.
And no, I did not go there to party.
Not even once?
Well, maybe.
Maybe.
Parties are all around you, right, when you're that age.
But yes, no, I came because of mass communication and I follow my friends actually to San Marcos, it's right outside of Austin.
I had the opportunity to also have gone to UT. I love UT. It's in my heart.
But obviously just at the time, following my friends and being with my friends in a university where all of us, you know, we're going together.
But then actually graduating, I went into a little bit of business. I went abroad for a little bit, came back and went into law, believe it or not.
But being working in law at the state level, I met one of the lawyers that I was working with.
And he said, there's so much need for bilingual teachers out there. I'm not trying to discourage you from going into law school.
What I'm saying is that everything you have done, everything that you helped me with, you should consider to become a teacher.
And so honestly, it was like it was like the universe was like conspiring for me to be like, go use your energy into teaching.
And so that's how I ended up. Like, obviously, I went through getting my certifications. I needed passing the test and all of that.
But within like less than a year, I was in the classroom and I had an amazing mentor, Daniel Reina, which is actually he already retired from the profession.
But absolutely amazing mentor amongst other mentors. I know a lot of people actually knows Dr. Jose Medina.
I just call him my father. He was actually my A.B. He used to come and sit in the classroom.
And I think that that's something we share. We share the passion for teaching, the passion for how do we move students along.
And so he's another one of my really good compadres. We call them a compadre because of also him and Tony have always been there in many things in my life in regard to education and my personal life with Sofia, my daughter that is a dual language student herself.
And so I just continue from there. I became a bilingual teacher at the time I say bilingual because it was a transitional program.
Pre-K through fifth grade in different positions. Got to look with my students with actually I truly believe that when you get that opportunity, you truly see how much growth your students make.
I got to look with them for three years from second grade to fourth grade. And not only that, but to see the change into dual language as well.
Because it's kind of like changing a switch per se when you go from transitional program to dual language to truly believe in the research that is out there by doctors, especially on longitudinal research from Dr.
Thomas and Dr. Virginia Collier, right? In truly not just believing in it, but living in the research, really seeing the application of it and the outcomes that it can have in students.
Especially when I look with them. So I fell in love with all of that. Obviously I continue my journey having again, having had a mentor like Marina, it truly pushes you to come out of your comfort zone.
And so I had the blessing and opportunity to continue to grow with him. Came on his side obviously after had left the district. I went into leadership coordinator, director.
We were actually directors of different school districts at the same time. So we got to collaborate a lot. Then he went for Center for Applied Linguistics and I became one of the consultants for them contracting work with them in growing what we were doing in
regard to dual language at the national level. So from there, I think just other doors kept opening, right? As being a contributing author with Dr. Thomas and Collier in the secondary side of dual language.
Then again, coming back to my own state because I was consulting at the national level at the time for personal things, wanting to be here for Sophia, my daughter as well as she was growing and seeing how much growth she was having as a participant in a dual language program.
And I had the opportunity to work with the state and at the time our commissioner had a big vision in regard to dual language program in which it continues to be actually and it continues to grow that team.
It's a phenomenal team that continues to put a lot of resources out there for our state. And so at the time we were creating, I collaborated obviously with people in the team, but in creating what it is, the dual language rubric for our state.
What is something that is not more of a I got you in a sense, but a support tool for districts to know whether they're on the right track. So it's not about am I doing it right? Am I on the right track with what fits and works for my students because every community is different.
And so then from there I went to the regional like you mentioned to the region I stayed almost four years where I have three departments, title three, the migrant and the bilingual ESL department.
But as you can imagine, we have so many students that are dual coded that in this and sort of the three programs support each other, like meaning the families and the students.
And then at the time I actually wanted to go back to my consulting that I used to have in the past. But then I you know I had the opportunity also to work with Alaska's friends which they have an amazing mission in regard to supporting as well.
So a lot of our communities I always say and truly believe like I have talked to many of our colleagues out there I don't think that yes at the end of the day is business but we're all collaborate together. We only get stronger together because at the end of the day as you mentioned, we have a passion to what we do and who we're doing this for right.
So I really love to be able to continue that collaboration with everybody. Wow, that is an incredible journey.
And I met him in Bangkok, Thailand, whenever he went there for IRCO's international conference and I was living in Bangkok, Thailand as an international teacher in
And so I quickly stole the book from him and I kept it for myself and then shared it back with him afterwards but that's so fun though but I also follow Dr. Jose Medina and Tony and Nico, you know, as they're doing all their great things right now across the globe and it's so encouraging but it's true.
And I love that passion and that desire to, you know, costum de madre in the name of justice, you know what I mean? Like really, you know, doing what we need to be doing for our students though. But I'm sure that through that journey, so for myself, I was never going to be an educator. I was going to be a dancing bilingual veterinarian.
Any of the listeners that are keeping up with this? Yes, they know. But that was going to be my goal was going to just be this dancer and I worked on a cruise ship as a performer on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and came back and then got into substitute teaching permanently for a Spanish teacher that had left. And so I was going to be there for a semester and then all of a sudden, boom, I just fell in love with education.
And so I had got my degree in Spanish, then I got my master's in bilingual education in TESOL and then just got my doctoral. Yeah, in educational leadership and administration. And so, and my focus was the dual language impact, the role that cultural proficiency can play in supporting all students.
And so, but the cool part is that from all of my past into here, it really prepared me for cultural connections to be able to have a different mindset, especially working on a cruise ship where you have multitudes of different countries represented in that environment.
You're just able to learn so much and I know that those connections have really helped me in my academic career and my in my own, you know, self education. What are some of the connections though that were outside of education that now you implement those connections that those cultural experiences that you now have in the field of education?
Yes. So actually we were just talking about this as I was mentioning, we were at the Trans Language and Institute. It was the first one ever that we have put together. And so we hope to continue that. And I say that because it truly, well, obviously I continue to read the research and work on it myself because it's a personal journey as well.
And so when you're talking about how do I connect those two worlds or how it came to be, it truly puts it into perspective as I was sitting in the conference this last two days and obviously I was part of the planning committee.
And then we would debrief about how the audience was perceiving and grasping all of this. And it truly made what I had already thought about it in regard to identity, it truly gave me even more of a moment per se.
Let's not make it that difficult. A moment where you come to realize that everything that you thought you were doing wrong growing up, it was kind of like a flip and then the affirmation that it was okay to be who you are and who you've been.
Even though we kind of already, because of research again, kind of already getting there, it was more of a personal connection. And let me give you an example in regard to that.
You know, I grew up thinking that using Spanish or changing from one language to another was the wrong thing to do, right?
I mean, I remember growing up and my dad saying, he said, speak everything in English or tell me everything in Spanish. But don't be mixing the languages. And so even at home, it was something that it was perceived as you're not supposed to do that, you know?
And so we have this translanguaging, that we've been talking about and I know for a couple of years it has been in a sense kind of misunderstood.
But when you take it down to identity, the research side, what I do for a living, what I love to do on the educational side, it's truly who I am.
It truly portrays the experiences that I have had myself. Now knowing that if there was something that I could change going back, if I was back in the classroom, going back and being in the classroom would be exactly that.
That many times our teachers obviously are given the theory, are given to some extent obviously the methodology on how to do things.
But then we lose ourselves in knowing that what we are, it's the reflection of our students and how can we support that growth.
And so for me, sitting there, I was like, this would have helped me so much back in the day instead of separating the languages because that's all we knew, right?
It's like, okay, niños is going to be 20 minutes of matemáticas en español.
And it's like, they said in English word, it was like, oh, you know, for them to look at my collar or the hat or whatever I was using at the time in order to kind of let them know that it was either English or Spanish time, you know, when in essence they could have used, like now we know, their linguistic repertoire to be able to continue to learn.
To be able to know that we could have differentiate that they were able to use language as part of their general linguistic aspect of things.
That's what the task was inviting them to do right and continue to learn instead of putting that kind of barrier due to language.
And I feel that that's exactly what happened to me.
I was sharing this with Dr. Tribble the other day when we were talking about coming on the podcast that when I came back, so my story is a little bit different.
And I say different because my dad did the opposite. My whole family lives in Dallas, mom and dad side.
And so when I was born in Dallas, even though a lot of people said, where are you from?
And I'm like, Dallas, where are you from? I'm from Dallas.
What answer you're looking for? And I'm like, my mom's stomach. I don't know what else to tell you.
I believe it's because of my accent and I get it now. I'm wearing the past. It used to bother me. It doesn't bother me anymore.
We all have accents. But it's because my dad did the opposite. He actually said one day, and I remember very clearly, he said he got home in Dallas and asked my mom to pack the Monte Carlo.
We had a wish Monte Carlo at the time. Like anything that can fit in the Monte Carlo goes.
Everything else stays. And I was like, why? And I remember I was five. But I remember we moved to Mexico and we traveled everywhere in Mexico.
He had like third or fourth cousins that I never really met in my life.
And so we traveled throughout Mexico. He decided to open it in the North.
But he did it thinking and I mean, up to this day, I say, thank you so much for doing that, for taking the risk and for taking the, how would you say, the courage to actually leave the family and go, right?
He did it for three things because he wanted to make sure that my sister and I learned the language, the tradition, and that we could then decide identity wise what, who we were and where we wanted to be either in Mexico or the US.
To be able to communicate with my grandparents was a huge thing, right? And so up to this day, I appreciate that he did that.
But I didn't know, even though I came back every summer for the holidays and obviously in Christmas and New Year's or for the holidays to be with the family, is that when I came back, I didn't know that the educational system was different in that sense.
That I was treated as a newcomer, even though this was my country. And if we can put it in that context.
So I have lived through what our students essentially obviously go through.
I had obviously the opportunity at some point in life to go to private school in Mexico and so in Mexico, the educational system is different.
And then to also attend public school in Mexico. And so when I came back, just to give you an example of where this hits home for me, is that
in Mexico, I was about to go into trigonometry in high school.
But when I came back, I was looked up for what I looked like basically. What my English sounded like.
And so what that created is that I was a newcomer, not tested and put into algebra 1A. Not even algebra, algebra 1A.
And so going back to your question to kind of like all of this goes back to that, is that many times we look at students and we're not even looking at either or or maybe just one thing.
Content and language, right? Or content or language in this case. Because the content, I had it.
The language, yes, I was able to defend myself still because again, I was coming back and forth.
But there were words that obviously, or it would take me a little bit more time to kind of process it and then be able to put it out in English.
So the language for my teachers or the educators at the time, they didn't see beyond that.
And they didn't see beyond the content that I actually knew. And so that's something that I feel that going back to the whole thing of translanguaging and everything
opens the doors for our students to actually show both language and content at the same time to be able to complete a task.
But then we also have what we call like the language specific performance, right?
That that's where then we get to decide and support the student in that transformation or that performance in this case of the task.
Or being able to then produce it in the one language that we're asking them to show the standards or the mastering of things.
So I feel that education has evolved and should continue to evolve.
But there's still a lot of things that we need to work on.
But this is what makes it really nice that all of us are working on this together.
So I truly believe that we can continue to make a change.
I really appreciate you reminding all of us listening right now about how your identity is so important and everything that you do and how people's identities and their authentic selves should be celebrated and and really valued in the educational setting.
It helps so much to understand where students are coming from, who they are, their culture, their traditions and how to leverage that in such a way to have a more inclusive environment in our classrooms and in our education system as a part to what we traditionally know as the pullout system where, you know, which to me and I'll just say it.
It feels a whole lot like educational segregation in such a way.
If you're going to keep segregating all of the students, although the intent is really kind of formed by policy, which therefore affects practice.
But if we if we as educators don't have the full understanding on how to teach a dynamic, incredible students such as yourself at that time that brought so much of the table from two different countries, a bicultural world,
by literate bilingual and using that entire linguistic repertoire to really help that cognitive process for your academic goals while maintaining and adding on another language.
I mean, that's what opportunities we need to have for all students.
Exactly.
Yeah, I am.
So a little surprise.
I own this book that you co authored.
I am big fans of doctors Thomas and Collier, of course. And so I took the opportunity this morning to make sure now I've been reading their books and I haven't gotten to this book yet, but I have read chapter 14 secondary dual language graduates speak up experiences, impact and advice.
And so when I was reading that, first of all, thank you for your contribution to this, you know, I feel like because it really is all of us working together. And if it weren't for people like you taking the time to do this people like me wouldn't have this to read and to be able to learn from and continue what we're doing.
So I'm currently working with school districts, and I'll do a shameless plug Kelly B's consulting. And so, but you know I'm working with school districts and one in particular and we're implementing dual language programs because we understand that and so we've been really able to work with, with cabinet level members
and teachers and administrators and families and we're seeing great changes already and just what we're doing in our, you know sheltered instruction and dual language education practices but now next year we're going to get to start that dual language programming.
And I'm really excited about it and rarely do work in a district where the superintendent is having conversations with you about wanting to do this and understanding more what this this this process is and looks like.
But one thing I wanted to speak to that I was reading, and that I think that we're talking about right now though, you know, that identity part is so crucial. But what I also was reading in here is that what the students, whenever you interviewed students to get their
perspective and so listeners just so you know the students that were interviewed for this had already graduated high school, and they waited one year after their graduation to start doing any of these interviews so these are students that went through pre K through 12
dual language programming, and we're able to get feedback from their point of view which I think is something that we often don't do is get the students perspective.
And I love that it was even spoken to and here we get teachers and administrators perspectives of students in dual language programming but rarely do we get the dual language students perspective, but one of their perspectives though is that they felt like
a family.
And there was also belonging, a sense of belonging.
Can you speak to that and and share with our listeners why that is so important, especially in a dual language program.
Absolutely, yeah, so it has been a few years since we wrote that chapter actually that chapter we wrote it together.
She's actually Michael Madra in life as well.
Also a product of what we call Marina.
She's a candidate right now now PhD candidate at the University of Austin, and so both of us who got this task, and we had so much fun as well when we were doing this and you are correct the kind of belonging and that part of identity right
not only the identity but where you feel you belong. And so one of the things that I remember in talking to the group of students, and the idea was exactly about that like we have the research where are the educators implemented.
But how do our fields feel. How do they feel how do they transition actually from belonging to this people family that they have the opportunity to belong to for many years because as you can imagine, there may be one or two classes for great level,
and they might trick later through the system so they really when they say family, they state in the program they really think family with their teachers and the families and the students that they were part of this group right.
And so, the transition to come out of that and going into the real world where you actually have to now have new friendships per se. It's a different setting for them. But I feel that one, one of the things that I love about the program itself is that at the very beginning
of the year, when the students don't get to realize because I remember asking my students when they were in second or third grade and we have to the looping right, they were desperate to meet new students, anytime somebody walked into the classroom.
You need to, you need to tell them that. But now I mean it goes back to that that actually right away then the new student felt like they were part of the new family right, they were welcome as well.
But in going deeper to that, I feel that many times we talk about, we have to make sure that students obtain a certain level of content and they can show that through the different steps and standard items that we have in different states right at the accountability system.
But I truly believe that in order for students to be successful, to show results like that, you're never going to get to that unless you get to the heart of the student.
And so, as part of belonging, that's exactly what that means. Do you have that relationship with the student? Do you know where the student comes from?
The family side, what's going on at home and that doesn't mean like you know, which is most, which is most I wanted to point out everyone that is going on at home.
But it's truly knowing the student, you know, the feelings, the sentiment, what they bring in.
We were just talking to the Cordoba sisters, and I say this because I didn't know who the Cordoba sisters and I own it, who they were. Look them up. They were part of Dr. Zussani Barra's presentation this last week.
And they actually showed up in person. I was amazed to their story. And one of the things that they mentioned when they riot and created all this movement.
It was in regard to knowing your students, the heart. Where is your heart? Where, how do you make a student feel welcome and that they belong in the classroom setting because at the end of the day, many of our students actually will find that the classroom is the home for them.
That's where they feel safe. And that is not every student, but we have some students like that. So they must feel that. And I'll give you an example also with my daughter. My daughter would tell you like, mommy, when she changed schools, she had to change schools in order to attend a secondary school that actually provided a dual language program in order to continue her matriculation through the program.
But one thing that she said, she's like, I'm gonna miss my comadres. And she was only in fifth grade. I mean, and she's already saying, I'm gonna miss my comadres. And I'm like, well, what are you gonna miss? Well, you know, we would have cheese in the time every morning.
And if they drink, we would talk about what we like and didn't like about the lesson. But then, because they were they were in a safe environment where they can voice what they were learning as well.
I mean, I'm telling you, like, they're they feel very comfortable talking to their teachers and saying, you know what, I don't feel like I'm learning today. What else can we do today? Or how can we make it fun? And the teachers were open to that.
And then they go back to how do I belong is not just the belonging of the sentiment per se, but the belonging in being able to say, I don't think I'm learning and I'm owning it right.
How can you how can you make me feel like this matters for me? So kind of flipping that as well that the student feels that they take ownership to some extent of their instruction that is happening, but that they make it still like it's coming home with me.
And I say this because I feel in a safe space. So and I say that because also my daughter is an introverted and she doesn't like for me to say this. Hopefully, she doesn't hear this part.
But it's somebody like her and I have had students like that, that they need to feel that they belong, that they need to feel they're included, that they feel that they're in a safe space where they can actually speak up.
And that's when you hear them speak up, you know that they feel comfortable and they know they belong.
So as part of the program, I feel that especially now going back to the students that we interview, that was something that got our attention right away when I was doing this interviews that they felt one that they had a family, having participated in the program, that they could always go back to that family, that they keep in touch to every student that was part of their family.
Because they still belong and that's what they said we would always belong to this dual language program family always like that. That's not going to change.
And I think it's true because research would also tell you that part of your identity makes you who you were in your, especially the years in elementary, right?
That's who's part of you, that's what you're going to remember and that's what's going to either make the person that you become on your professional side as well.
So if they have good experiences, then that means that they're going to be able to take that and apply that wherever they go.
I think that's so true and it's so important is that, you know, to not forget that we're teaching little humans. We're working with humans that have many things going on in their lives, but really it's that relationship that we have with our students and getting to know their hearts.
I don't know about you and in your experiences, but in my professional development, I feel like teachers are always very passionate and have a heart, right, of service and wanting to help and make this education program, whether it be a monolingual or a dual language or just whatever in the field of education.
But teachers have such good hearts, but there's something different and there's something special that I have to say I've been fortunate to experience when I specifically work with dual language education teachers.
And I feel like from my experience, we always start everything that whenever I first start working with any teachers, I like to start with the question of your why.
But the answers that you hear among dual language education teachers participating in a dual language education program, what's your why?
Because I feel like that's so important. And so starting off getting to know just them and their hearts and where they are in this.
But it's those teachers because they've had their own experiences as the ESL student or they were pulled out or I worked with one teacher before and she said that, you know, her who's now husband when they were high school sweethearts and he was put on this this track from the from the counselor.
And again, great intentions, right? But the counselor, because of him being a native English speaker and white, he felt like she felt like he was given this trajectory for college that she was given a different trajectory and was like, well, you'd be probably best suited for a community college.
And so took her into different classes and like so she had this whole different why of why she was wanting to come in to really elevate the educational experience and, you know, to help elevate the voices of our students and getting to know them and their hearts and their homes and their cultures and where they live and bringing that into the education setting.
So they could be on whatever track they wanted to be on, but not kind of stereotyped into a different track. But those dual language education teachers truly have a whole different connection based on all of their experiences and they get to therefore, you know, really relate more to those multilingual and, you know, our diverse student body.
Do you have experiences, which I know that you mentioned some of them before, but do you have experiences that you definitely say like, I remember in school I felt this way and I don't and I and I try to apply that now through a cultural lens in in our in our profession today.
What are what are some of those instances.
It's so interesting to me.
I feel that I had kind of like one extreme to another extreme experience if we can say that.
And I'll tell you why because when I came back.
I came back during high school already. And so when I came back, I went to a, I'm not gonna say the name. Yeah.
I think the Dallas area.
And I went to a school that was very low social economically.
Disadvantage right where, obviously my parents didn't know what at the time I have to search for schools like where would it be the best place where to go live because of schools right.
And so it was just the high school that happened to be to be there.
And I remember it was very traumatizing to me that when I came back and started going to school.
I mean, there were detectors like that that you were passing through there, you're metal detectors metal detectors.
Yes. And so, to me, I was like, what's going on.
So, and this is the high school that I was telling you like I was placing algebra one day and so I guess up to this day I always say yes I'm very traumatized by my experience when I first came back to the states because I had always been and you can ask my, my moment that obviously all my siblings were very different.
And I also have a brother that he we call it a long key he was.
That's what happened like, it was very different for me.
And so, I was very focused I was a student that I love to say I love to learn, I love to study so I made it through let's put it that way I made it.
And I was very upset with myself because I feel that I had been able to achieve academically in, you know, being in Mexico, and then I came back and feel honestly stupid.
I know that the system was not ready for me, and I feel that, you know, our systems are educational system sometimes are not ready truly for our students. And I don't think that that's so much a problem or an issue with the teachers is that we need to continue to
provide that service that PD that is needed for teachers for administrators to truly understand that cultural side of things that going back to the heart right that cultural side of things.
And then how do we adapt that so that it.
We can integrate the whole, the two together the academic side the cultural side the social side over students in order to provide a better education. So from there in that high school only lasted a year.
Not only it was traumatizing everything that was going on. There were a lot of games a lot of things that were not or are not good at a.
A day to day for a student writing in order to try academically I feel that in a situation like that. You kind of want to be alive every day, and don't focus on the academic, but focus more on the social side of things because that's what you're being given.
And so, then I transferred to a different high school a year later. And even then, my parents didn't understand the educational system when I transfer and I was in Garland Garland I would mention the high school again, but he wasn't Garland.
Right before I transfer so this is the reason why I had to transfer, because I wanted to go into a magnet high school I did my own research and I told my dad okay sign this form sign this form inside this form, where you're going to take me to this other high school that
has a magnet program. This is what I want to do. And I remember sitting there, and the AP told me, I could not be let in, because I didn't have enough professional.
Even though I have the content again. So that's when my dad said, you know what, I need to look for a better place for my daughter so that when we move to Garland.
And so we moved to Garland. And still that this school didn't truly understand the whole spectrum of what a newcomer is and the issues or the needs that we may have.
And so, I went to the high school at least actually in this case, they gave me my great back that I had lost in Dallas, meaning that when I came back obviously I was supposed to go into 10th grade because the educational system is different in Mexico right in that regard.
You finished secondary and that's my grade essentially. But when you come over here nine grade in the first year of high school, but I had already done that.
I was in the top of my class in Mexico so I'm like I'm not understanding. Right. So, yeah, so then I go to Garland, they give me the great back so I was the 10th grader only for two weeks and I became an 11th grader.
The difference was that.
The people didn't understand everything about me. The difference was that they understood that I have the content, and they were going to try their hardest for me to get at that level of proficiency that I could actually contribute what I knew that they thought I knew right.
But at least they believed in that and they put a lot of heart to it.
I very vividly remember and I don't I hardly tell this story, but I was into every AP class you can think of.
I had my dad by 11th grade sign me out of ESL because I was like, I understand and I'm getting so frustrated because I know I can do more. So then I sign up for every AP class that you can think of.
I remember I was not doing well in my AP history class. And that was because he had a lot of writing, being a productive still. Well that's now and I know I said okay.
I understand everything I can kind of get by and tell you what I understand. But when you give me a reading test and that I have to write an essay, I'm not going to be able to show what I know. But this one teacher, Michele knew that.
And so that's when I gained my confidence again as a student and a teacher believe in me. And even though I was not doing well in her class, I remember up to this day that I made student of the month for this whole school because of what she wrote about me.
That's the moment that everything changed for me and made me realize, you know what, I can do this. I can truly do this because if I have a teacher like her that believes that I have the content, I'll be able to show this.
And so from there, the rest of history that the register is known that up to this day I am very thankful to her is the one that pushed me to the consular's office to find out about, you know, universities and where to apply for scholarships and things like that.
But I think that again the educational system is what we need to continue to change for sure. And I'm sorry, I think I got sidetracked with you. No, not at all. No, you're saying exactly what you need to be saying. Someone out there listening is hearing exactly what needs to be heard.
And I'm thankful that you're just sharing all of this. You know, I think about in my experiences whenever I've worked with emergent bilingual and multilingual students, I worked in a middle school one time where this an eighth grader came in, a newcomer from Mexico.
And I was the instructional coach. And so I was giving them, you know, the reading test that they have, you know, their norm reference test. And so they gave it in English and I would always advocate, I really want to give it in Spanish as well because that's going to give us so much more information of where they are.
And so of course in English he was like at a first grade level and then in Spanish he was at a university level. And but because of the system and there was so much and I get pretty loud sometimes and I like to advocate and try to be an ally.
And I want the same for myself as well, but they would put him, they put him in this Title I class and I kept saying that Title I reading is a different thing than language development would be, but then you were not taking into account that they know the content.
Probably knows the content as well as the teacher knows the content, but we can't keep on separating them. And so what would your advice be though from your experience knowing that their experiences like mine whenever we have to recognize.
And so it even in my research and I'm doing a lot of research through doctors Dolores and Randall Lindsay on cultural proficiency and I just love all of their research but you know somewhere in the mission and the vision statement it does say that all students can learn
typically in the district somewhere it says all students can learn.
But the question you know and they pose this question but can all teachers teach all students.
And that is that so profound and I believe that yes potentially, but I think it comes back to this understanding our students their hearts their identity and going in going in deeper and recognizing that you already knew trigonometry you already knew.
You not just history but the history of two different countries it was just your the output potentially but what advice though for the example of the student that I talked about your past for administrators and for teachers.
To advocate for themselves on behalf of this like if I'm a teacher right now and I'm thinking you know what I have that student I've been in that situation and I didn't realize I was being destructive I thought I was being very culturally proficient and responsive.
What would your advice be to them.
I think we even use the term facilitator let the students become the facilitators but are we truly doing that are we truly listening to our students and become the learner per se per se like the teacher becoming the learner as well.
I always say I'm a learner anytime I present anything are in front of like doing a presentation speaking as a feature speaker or you know it's always like I come in and I'll say I'm not leaving here and to like learn something new today.
It doesn't matter what it is so I feel that many times we think that is the teacher at the top and then the student at the bottom us teaching them when in essence we should be open to learning from them.
And when I say that it's something as simple as that kind of clicked to me when when again when I was a bilingual teacher, I was teaching for great.
And then it was already dual language instruction in the classroom. And I remember teaching tech history as you can imagine in Texas I mean just as if we just say Alamo in Texas is like whoa everybody knows what the Alamo says right and that's part of our tech history.
And I remember that in looking at the curriculum that I needed to teach, it didn't align with my students, it didn't align with me. So that's an example right there. So then, I advocated, and I say that Medina was actually at the time I'm at the campus and I said I advocated at the district level saying, I cannot teach this the way it is.
We need to know our students and we need to ask them. And what I mean by that is that even our teeth.
They very specifically, you have to teach the student about John Navarro for saying just names that can come up like very specific people, but you're only looking at it through the lens that you know, the teacher right, you're not looking at it through the lens of what
the student or his family may know. So for me, it was like just to give an example, Santana is treated as a dictator. That's what it's called in the books and anything and I'm talking like years ago when I was in the classroom.
And I remember very vividly taking my students to the museum here for Texas history. And we were like, I mean, he was bad, he's so, you know, part of Mexico to say goodbye.
But like, again, looking at it through different perspectives when in essence, if my class, my bilingual class had been sitting in the monolingual class per se, for lack of a better name right now,
they would be so lost. They would be so lost because now you're basically telling them that anything they had heard from their families and anybody that was on that side is a traitor.
When in essence it's not, it's truly all about perspective right the way that you learned it, through which lens are you learning it, how not making a lesson where you as a teacher going to learn life.
So tell me about why Joe Navarro is not a, is not a traitor or a traitor in your parents' eyes. I mean, if you talk to my grandpa, my grandpa would, it's one of those like, I'm blessed to have my grandpa who's 101.
Oh wow, my grandparents are 90. Yes.
Oh see, we have a lot of things in common.
You sit down with him and he'll be one of the ones that tells you history like nobody else. I mean, he's from the times of like, where he would steal very vivid stories of the revolution and like how things happen.
And he would tell you not the border cross us and, and not in a bad way but listening to the story of like what history has become.
And it's, it's looking at it through the different eyes right. So that's what I always tell teachers that do not wait for your administrators to be the advocates and the saviors, just because they have the label of principal, director, you are the ones that get to be with the students
every day. You are their advocate. Yes, you are the one that needs to speak up for them.
This is the, we're in this because we love what we do.
I mean like my compadre Medina has said it and I say it too. If we don't have the passion and it's okay to lose the passion. Go look for another dog because we need to have the heart to be in the classroom with our students.
So, I truly invite not only the administrators, but the teachers to be that advocate to be open to learn from their own students to have those honest conversations with their students like I was mentioning, my daughter could tell their teacher you know what I'm not very mean I just
am not getting it. What can we do? What else can we do? So when a student tells you that, they feel very confident that they can go up to the teacher to let them know that they're not learning, but they're not telling you they don't want to learn.
They're telling you, how else can I learn this. Exactly. Now you have actually created a stronger relationship where you have actually met that goal. You already have them right there. They want to learn, but they're not telling you that's not the way that they want to learn.
That's not the way that they can learn. How else can we do it? Student voice. Absolutely. Yes, student voice is so important and it's really important to remind ourselves that we're not doing whatever we do in the education system, but dual language education for example, it's not for anyone.
It's with a community. Hearing from the community, working hand in hand, and really taking time to sit back and listen because the students know so much we can learn so much I remember telling my very first year of teaching.
I taught newcomer students sixth through eighth grade, all in the same class, self contained all subjects as brand new.
And I thought, what is going on right? But I would tell the principal sometimes I would say, hey, if you come down to my classroom ever, and if you don't see me teaching, I'm probably not necessarily teaching but I'm listening and learning from the students.
And so once a week we would have just a committed time to just sit in a circle and then they would just teach me. They would just talk with me. But the cool part was is that I learned better how to be a teacher.
I learned better how to connect with my students. I learned so much from them. They learned a whole lot about me on just like a personal level.
It got to be where we would even play tricks on each other in the classroom because we were like a family also I mean it was our own belonging.
But hearing and learning from those from those students just really impacted my life.
And it changed my whole trajectory in the field of education but also how I perceive helping all of our students.
Just what you're talking about is so important. So yes, just to emphasize the fact that teachers out there listening.
I mean administrators as well, but teachers don't wait. Don't wait for the leadership because you're the ones with boots on the ground. You are in the classroom.
You are right there with those students and not only to be an advocate but really getting on that continuum of cultural proficiency all the way to that culturally proficient side of being an ally and really trying to find out ways to not only enhance the curriculum opportunities and the teaching opportunities but the social justice opportunities for our students and to elevate those voices.
I appreciate you saying that. I would love for you to take a minute also in this to brag about yourself and about edu lingua and how our listeners though could also find out.
Reach out to you, contact you and utilize your services.
Because, I mean, I'm just so happy that I am able to meet you and have a new friend in this in this education world but tell us more about edu lingua and what what our listeners can can expect if they were to reach out and get to maybe use you and your services.
Thank you. Thank you. Well, as you mentioned at the very beginning, I'm relaunching it. It's a consulting company that I used to have a few years back and then obviously that's when I went to the state and the regional level and so I kind of left it alone.
And so now I'm going back to this. I'm super excited about it to be honest, and being able to support districts so I don't have the website yet but it's coming. It's being worked on, but you can find me either send me an email at edu lingua info at gino.com, or you can just use my personal email which is
elicet marci, it's all together, not not period, not that.
So you can find me there, there is a Facebook page but it needs to be updated, but you can find me also on Facebook and I think the Instagram page may be already connected to it I'm working on all those details it's kind of like, I'm already kind of working on some project and it's like
okay when I have a little bit of time then I get back to that. I'm in the same way I get it.
Yeah, yeah. And so, just to tell you a little bit about what I'm working on, and what you can expect if you were to need support services.
Obviously my experience is more on the biliracy side of things, dual language programming from conducting dual language program evaluation, as they're actually very much needed in our state and when I say that, obviously this are based more than anything in
regard to the rubrics that we already have by the state but then kind of look for areas of growth in which we can make the program stronger for the benefit of the families and the students.
I do obviously have been working at the TA and have had work with amazing people, especially Carlene Thomas having been in that where we used to share an office is what I was telling Dr. Pruebo the other day we used to share an office.
So we used to talk a lot about different ideas, but we again in the world of emerging bilinguals it's through that being the type of work that I do.
But bilingual services for me, whether you have a dual language program already in implementation thinking about getting it off the ground, or if you have a bilingual transitional program that would those would be the areas for me that I feel very
passionate about it that I know I can support. My type of support is not, this is what you need to do. I like the collaboration in knowing getting to know the district the families if the work is with the families and finding ways on how we can, we can always make it
stronger because I truly believe that they are different things that are maybe needed by a district, the district is already doing some right we have to look for those things that are being done right.
And we can actually make them better to make it stronger, because we all talk about we're all in this for the same reason, to make sure that our students get the best benefit out of school right so and that's for all students.
And I know your door. It's an academic language learner, no matter what. Yes, I always say all all means academic language learners and that everyone. So, yeah, just finding ways on how to support either administrators teachers doing coaching as well, or just
collaborating on something that the district will like to see implemented as you mentioned, I have the opportunity to lead bilingual reading academies. So some of those modules I oversaw the work with the reading academy.
I like to say that a lot of the things that we produce in my consulting is that I always like to see the application side of things. So it's not just here's the research and here's the methodology on how to do it. But how do we apply it, how does that look in the classroom.
So that would be one of the main things that obviously I will be focusing on.
And that, that third pillar of dual language education social cultural competence is so incredibly important. And again, in in that chapter in the, in the Thomas and Collier book of transforming secondary education middle and high school doing which programs.
I think it was a really good point that you made about the third pillar of social cultural competence. And I think that's a really good point. And I think that's a really good point. And I think that's a really good point.
How do we implement culture on a deeper level to really fulfill that third pillar of social cultural competence, how would you, what are your thoughts on that because I think there's the most important part.
Yes, and I feel. So another another part of my work is actually family. How do we take families from involvement, all the way to become advocates themselves. Yes, yes, yes, that pillar that you're talking about in this is how do we integrate families.
Because in integrating them, and then we're not just train them right on the needs that they have. Once they're trained, how do they turn it around so I always say and give that example of
taking the family through involvement, which is just the one way communication, you're inviting them to the classroom, or you're letting them know there's an event coming up that's just involvement, then engagement okay they're coming in now there's a two way communication,
how do you feel about doing it so I see. I'm helping you help in the classroom and that's that's engagement, or as providing them information that say about the right for what the program is that's engagement.
But then when you empower them. Yeah, that's when you're ready, they're coming into your classroom. They're doing the less or will not the lesson but like providing the they're sharing their information, they're sharing information with other parents.
And it's not just, oh, I have a very good library in my classroom that the students can read about other countries, or, you know, it's the end to fairy exists and better.
But how do we connect that. And so I feel that families are very important in that connection of the social cultural side of things. How do we make sure that when they become advocates we integrate them into the program itself.
So I truly believe that one of the things that I continue to work myself because I'm also a parent as well.
And we're going to get nervous and all of that, but you have to feel uncomfortable that being uncomfortable and being so vulnerable that's where you get courage.
Yes, yes. So I truly believe that it's not only if we look beyond of the having the books, which having the book is a big thing right for our lessons and everything but in looking a little bit more deeper beyond that is integrating the company.
And I'm really supporting what we're doing. Yes, because once we integrated, they're the ones that are also sharing their experiences with the whole class. That's the social cultural competence side of things that we need more in the classrooms as well.
And I'm going to remind teachers and administrators and district leaders that the education system has sometimes been a place of oppression for our parents that have their students in these schools so just to take that into consideration and try to find ways to ensure that they're coming back to a place where they're not getting hit on the hand with a ruler, like has happened, you know, for example, unfortunately so many times but they're coming into a place where they're really being respected and elevated.
I really appreciate you talking about that. Just for my, my kind of last question you know you have the experience that is so unique, but yet parts of your, your past and your life experiences can be, you know, connected and comparable to other people can share in your experiences as well.
Whenever you think about the, the, the bravery of your father and the foresight that he had and your family support and, and you just getting to grow up in this awesome bicultural multicultural kind of a whole different life that a lot of people like myself for example, I didn't get to grow up that way I was able to learn Spanish
because it will hold different, you know pathway and become you know bicultural and bilingual, biliterate myself but it's a very different way. Whenever you consider everything that you've learned from the beginning all the way until now.
What would you say to your three, four, five year old self today, looking back to then.
You're gonna have an awesome life.
This little shy little girl, when I was that age you just made me think like I can see myself actually feeding their reading a book. If my dad would say, and just, you know, readable.
I would do it. I was very my dad.
I didn't know.
I was going to turn out to be the way that I am today and I say that like advocating for myself, I didn't know that actually what the word advocate was until I was already my professional side of things believe it or not.
And I'm very vulnerable and I'm very open about that there's many things that I didn't understand when I came back to the States, even when I became a teacher and now realizing that yes, and he said that little he said of like three, four, five year old.
I would be get ready for for the adventure, because you're gonna learn to be a self advocate at first, but then you're gonna put it out there and continue to be for many other students out there that not necessarily have to go through the same experiences that I have gone through because obviously that's what I don't want them to have.
But to embrace who they are. And don't feel ashamed of them being able to speak to languages, even if low on them because I think of Pacha, even see no problem, much of per se how people say, that's part of who we are.
Right. That's that's who we make.
So, if I could go back and sell that little is that like, getting part of that.
Because it's only going to help you to be even in your professional career. It's only going to help you to be who you are to continue the advocacy for many families and emergency lighting students.
I think that's so important for everyone to hear and I just appreciate your openness and your vulnerability to share this year you're really changing lives in what you're doing and that's so that's so important and it's such a special thing that you do and I just really do appreciate you and to all of the listeners and especially teachers and educators out there just remember that you have the next Dr.
Moret in your classroom right now, you know, and we all have accents and we all have knowledge and we all have all of this and so let's celebrate that celebrate the identities and the cultures and the traditions and celebrate the hearts of our students.
Is there anything else that you would like to leave us with today?
No, I just invite teachers to go back and reflect about their own identity and know that the way that you grew up it's completely okay if you became a bilingual teacher like like you have mentioned in your later time, you're the coolest person because now you have one identity that has the best of two worlds that have become one.
And so I truly truly appreciate all the work that everybody's doing to continue. I don't want to call it the fight but continue this passion in this trajectory that we're all are that we are here to support everybody and collaborate with each other and let's continue to work together for the best of what we can bring out of our students. Absolutely.
And we're just exposing the greatness right that's all we're doing. Oh my gosh, Dr. Elisette Moret, thank you so much for everything that you shared with us today, and I just sincerely wish you the best thank you so much to Edgeskills for the sponsorship for this podcast and to our producer, Mike Overholt who's in here with me making sure that we all sound good.
And I just hope that you all got to make some good cultural connections today so with that, again, muchisima gracias por todo I wish you all the best, municiones, and I hope to connect with all of you soon. Thank you to my new friend, Dr. Moret.
Gracias, muchas gracias.