This two-part podcast hosted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) focuses the ways in which educators use the English Learner Family Toolkit, a resource from OELA that is meant to support English and multilingual learners’ family members as they become familiar with the U.S. educational system. The podcast features Jessica Swan, Education Program Specialist from OELA along with Molly Hegwood, Executive Director of the Office of English Learners and Jenna Davis, District English Learners coach in Metro Nashville Public Schools; Diana Castano, Bilingual Programs Instructional Coach in Winston Salem/Forsyth County Schools; and Sarah Elia, English as a New Language Teacher at Saugerties Senior High School in Saugerties Central School District in New York State.
In part I of the podcast the panel discusses how they use the English learner Family Toolkit and the Toolkit App in their educational contexts, and which components of this resource they find the most useful and beneficial.