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By Elizabeth Gregory
In today's world, it can be tough to stay ahead in your field. This is especially true in occupations that interact with LEP (limited English proficiency) clients, students, etc. Many educators are finding themselves in classrooms around the country where some of their students are non-native English speakers. In particular, for them communicating with the parents of these students can be difficult. As a former ESL teacher, I can attest to that personally.
While many states require professional development credits, they do not always require what areas these credits are in. Educators need to choose their options not based on "what's easy" but rather "what's beneficial to me, my career, and my students?"
Many organizations are offering special workshops and courses for improving interaction with educator and LEP student. Others offer the opportunity for teachers to gain cultural insight into the minority students' backgrounds.
AmeriSpan is one such organization. We have broken our programs for educators into 2 areas. One is for Spanish teachers. These programs allow teachers to focus on sharing and improving their methods and methodology in the Spanish classroom. The other area is for teacher who do not teach Spanish be deal with students who speak Spanish as their native language and may not be strong English speakers. Educators in these areas will gain an understanding of the students' culture and language background. Information on our programs for educators can be found here on our website.
There are many workshops and programs which afford educators the opportunity to improve professionally in a beneficial way. Choose carefully when fulfilling professional development or CEU requirements.
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