13. Teaching newcomers any time of year with Karen Emerson

Mar 22 2022 • 51 mins

In today’s episode, I am chatting with Karen Emerson, who is a friend and a fellow ELL teacher in the town that I live in. She works with the youngest English learners - grades K-1. I met Karen through one of our monthly state EL meetings, and we hit it off right away. I could sense her passion for working with English learners and her creativity in approaching teaching, especially newcomers! What and how to teach newcomers has been by far the most frequently asked question in my career. So when I was thinking of recording episodes about newcomer teaching, she was the first person that came to mind. I think as teachers, we always want to take a little peek into our colleague’s classroom. Sometimes we want to know where to start when we are feeling overwhelmed, sometimes we want to get inspired and sometimes we just want to know that we are on the right path. This episode is exactly about that - Karen shares her insights and ideas for teaching newcomer English learners and you can hear the wisdom and lighthearted humor in everything she does. I had so much fun talking with her, and I hope you can feel it too.

Here is what you will hear:

How Karen became an ELL teacher - a story that is not exactly a typical one.
Karen's approach to teaching newcomers any time of year:
- how she helps them feel welcome
- how she collaborates with classroom teachers
- the WHAT and the HOW of teaching newcomers
How she keeps in contact with newcomer families
and so much more!

Below you will find useful resources.