From the President's Desk
Dear Bilingual Educators and Colegas,
We are nearly three quarters of the way through the school year and most of you have either just enjoyed or are enjoying a well-deserved spring break. Over this past school year, we have seen incredible leadership from our bilingual administrators, teachers, staff, and parents while working hard to serve our students.
I want to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their relentless dedication to create nurturing environments that help meet the academic, social, and emotional needs of our students. Whether your campuses are 100% face-to-face or engaging in remote learning, it has been a year of discovery and growth for everybody as we integrate technology into multiple facets of education at a rate never seen before.
I say this often, but I cannot say it enough – you are all true heroes. I hope that during this spring break you are able to take time to relax, reflect, and be with family and friends.
I also want to share that TABE is deeply saddened by the news of Esther Bernal’s passing. We will be forever grateful for her countless contributions to TABE and for making our TABE Board induction ceremonies so special for over a decade. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and loved ones during this time of grief.
Also, we want to send our thoughts and prayers to those in Ukraine who are currently enduring the devastation of war. Seeing the turmoil on the news every night serves as a stark reminder for our need to honor and respect each other. There is no room for hatred as we collaborate with others from all walks of life to forge better and brighter pathways for educating our children.
I wish everyone and their families the very best, especially as we prepare to make the final home stretch to the end of the school year. TABE will be hard at work preparing for the 2023 legislation session and planning for new professional development opportunities for bilingual teachers, principals, and families. We are proud to announce that in June we will be having our very first dual language symposium, and there will be much more to come in the near future.
Gracias por ser parte de la familia de TABE.
Dra. Olivia Hernández, TABE President
Claudia Treviño García, Ph. D. is an Assistant Professor of Instruction. She received her Ph. D. in Culture, Literacy, and Language from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2016. Her career spans a combined 28 years in the field of bilingual education. Her experience includes 13 years as a dual language teacher, Title VII Grant Coordinator and Administrator, PK-12 Bilingual Education/ESL Curriculum Specialist, and District Dual Language/ESL/LOTE Coordinator. She is the current lead for the Bilingual Education Teacher Residency Program where she supervises bilingual education clinical teachers. Her research focuses on educator cultural efficacy development, dual language education programs, teacher recruitment and retention, coaching and mentoring, and teacher residency programming . Dr. Garcia currently teaches courses in language arts and biliteracy development, assessment of language proficiency, and language usage in bilingual classrooms, focusing on the different content areas for native language instruction. She has presented in local, state and national conferences.
On behalf of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE), we would like congratulate Jesse Romero on his retirement. You must be excited in your new endeavors but it is tough seeing you go after 17 great years working with TABE as a lobbyist. Time has flown so fast and although saddened by the news, Jesse has been a vital part of TABE. Under his direction as our TABE lobbyist, his legislative advocacy for our emergent bilingual students made TABE one of the most dynamic organizations in Texas defending and expanding bilingual education, especially dual language programs in the state of Texas.
Jesse Romero was instrumental in accomplishing our policy agenda through our motto, "educate, collaborate, and advocate." Through a carefully crafted strategy, he led the charged and worked closely with TABE to pass legislation, which accomplished the following over the years:
collected data, ultimately showing that dual language was the most effective bilingual program and the way to proceed;
allowed a true collaboration where English speaking teachers could participate and teach the English component in a dual language program;
helped established the Texas Seal of Biliteracy which is a trademark in dual language programs; and
raised the bilingual weight from .1 % to .15% ($500M) for the first time in 35 years.
Jesse worked tirelessly to address the acute bilingual teacher shortage by securing funding for the Bilingual Teacher Scholarship Program administered by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. One of the biggest successes was convincing conservative politicians that bilingual programs are indeed ‘their’ programs, as many of their children are enrolled or have been enrolled in dual language education and benefit greatly.
Jesse has worked with many past and present presidents, boards of directors, and staff with whom many reading this had the privilege of working with him. We will greatly miss his humor, his constant, continuous support and advocacy, which TABE embraces in support for our emergent bilingual students, Hispanic communities, and bilingual educators.
We cannot thank him enough for all he has done! Jesse embodies the spirit of TABE in all we strive for in providing the best for our emergent bilingual students, our Hispanic communities and bilingual educators. Please know you will be dearly missed and sending nothing but best wishes.
Thank you Jesse Romero!
Administrators, teachers, and students are working arduously towards closing the learning gaps that we are currently facing due to COVID-19. While it may be tempting to speed through content material to ensure all the important topics are taught, it is necessary to remember the effectiveness of reviewing previous learning before tackling more new material.
Are you in need of a fun, new, and exciting way to review content material? Try Blooket! This online trivia tool allows teachers to host games using question sets and a game code. As students answer the questions, they earn points and ultimately win the game! What makes Blooket different from other online gamified learning platforms is that there are so many quizzes that can be re-themed with a variety of game modes such as Fishing Frenzy, Crypto Hack, Tower Defense, and many, many more!
Lack of motivation and interest in the content material is one of the major causes affecting student achievement. Give Blooket a try to establish an engaging way to review content material and ultimately increase student success!
As summer approaches, it is always smart to start planning on what professional tasks you’d like to accomplish during that time. Will you take summer classes? Will you be studying for your TExES exams? Will you be interviewing for your first teaching job? Regardless of your plans, one thing that you can consider is taking advantage of free professional development courses available to you. This can give you the opportunity to hone-in on your skills as you prepare for the classroom in a way that is flexible and fits into your summer schedule, regardless of your plans. A few resources that are available to consider are:
The National Education Association (NEA) offers free professional development courses and webinars that focus on teaching and leadership. They even offer webinars conducted in Spanish! ESP Learning Network Webinars | NEA
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development offer free webinars, podcasts, and videos on teaching strategies and tackle topics like curriculum, equity, and leadership. Webinars - ASCD
The Texas Education Agency has also compiled a list of professional development resources for educators within the state. Topics focus on effective teaching, remote learning, digital citizenship, and social-emotional learning. Free-Online-Professional-Development-Resources.pdf (texas.gov)
Take the time to look through the resources and select a free professional development session, webinar, or podcast that may interest you.
On January 14-15, RGV-TABE celebrated their 27th (and first hybrid) conference! The theme for this year's conference was "Multilingualism Unlocks the Future". Arturo Castañeda and Jonathan Medina delivered fantastic keynote presentations! Thank you so much to everyone who attended this year's event! We hope to see you next year in beautiful South Padre Island!
The Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs for the Texas A&M University System and Interim President of Texas A&M University-Kingsville together with the faculty from the EdD in Bilingual Education held an event to recognize the contributions of Distinguished Alumni. The honorees were: Dr. Tadeo Reyna, Dr. Luis Rosado and TABE’s executive board member Dr. Josefina Villamil Tinajero. Congratulations!
Instruction:
If you would like to submit a video, please fill out the form link (PDF) to find out next steps.
Bilingual/ESL Directors’ and Bilingual/ESL Educators Professional Development and Resources:
Save the Date for the Back-to-School TABE Virtual Bilingual/ESL Directors’ Meeting on Thursday August 25, 2022!!
Compliance/LPAC:
TABE
Karina Chapa, TABE Newsletter Chair
Email: tabe@tabe.org
Website: http://tabe.org/
Location: Po Box 37130, San Antonio, Texas 78237
Phone: 210-979-6390
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TA4BE
Twitter: @ta4be
