Just Learned About Just Learned
I just learned about Heather Vlach’s blog called “Just Learned“. She left a comment on my blog inviting me to stop by hers sometime. Heather is a ESL teacher at ISB (International School of Bangkok) and a brand new blogger. As soon as the page opens, I have a good feeling about it. Lots of international flags and Heather’s smiling face are greeting me.
Her current post immediately caught my attention. “Linguistically Diverse Education”
She proposes that perhaps there is a shift needed from changing her job description from “ESL” (English as a Second Language) teacher to LDE (Linguistically Diverse Educator). I love the idea. Heather writes:
This process is not just about promoting reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking in the academic language. It entails understanding each individual child’s language use; how they communicate with their friends and families, in addition to how and what languages they use to navigate both their academic and daily lives.
I love her entire post and encourage you to click your way through to the original post. I believe that the points Heather makes are important to ALL educators, not only international or multilingual ones. We need to promote awareness for linguistically diverse learning, especially if we are to foster global collaboration and connections across borders. Or monolingual students need to be made aware of the linguistic diversity they might will encounter when communicating & collaborating with other from around the world.
I left a comment on Heather’s post:
I speak 3 languages to communicate with friends, family and at work. I consider technology to be my 4th language to be able to communicate. I blogged about this a while back on Technology as another language
Having lived in three different continents/countries/culture/languages, I do appreciate your sensitivity when teaching your students NOT only the grammatical structures of the language but recognize that language is CONNECTED to experiences and expression of all senses.
I am looking forward to reading more from Heather!
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November 4th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Welcome to the world of blogging Heather!
November 4th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Hi Sylvia.
You are amazing and wonderful! Thank you so much for this extremely generous plug! I am VERY eager to collaborate, learning with and from other educators. And the power of this venue stretching across the realms of education and technology is SO exciting!! I have a lot to learn about both blogging and linguistic diversity and look forward to all of the possibilities ahead. Thanks for all of your knowledge and expertise, and for putting my name out there!
-heather
November 6th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
You are welcome Heather. The possibilities are indeed endless. Your expertise and knowledge are a missing piece when not shared. I am looking forward to reading more of your thoughts and experiences.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Hi Sylvia,
It was great to connect with you and bring you into our 1st ever ISB LAN conference! We have formed a learning group and are planning to meet, hopefully bimonthly, to share presentations from the recent K-12 online conference and share expertise. We’ll let you know when our next one is. It was wonderful that you were with us on this last one! It showed us what reaching out and connecting really means!
Can’t wait to go to your blog!
Diane
November 8th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Whoops, I’m on your blog! I mean, can’t wait to read on!
Diane
November 14th, 2008 at 12:22 am
You have totally captivated our teachers here at ISB, Silvia! I couldn’t believe how quickly you had highlighted Heather’s blog - you totally “stole my thunder” as I was planning to do the same thing that weekend (when I had a little more time). Thank you so much for being an “outside voice” of enthusiasm for us! We have another K12Online LAN party coming up next week… (hint, hint)
November 14th, 2008 at 7:55 am
@Diane
It was amazing to be part of your group for brunch in Bangkok, while already in my PJs here in Florida. Going through the process ourselves of connecting and learning with and from each other in occasions like this will just reinforce in us, as educators, the importance of giving these opportunities to our students.
@Kim
Heather’s blog immediately spoke to me, since I am a “third culture kid” myself. I applaud her in not only understanding her students better, but working on making a difference in calling attention and awareness to the rest of the education world by blogging about it. Go LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE EDUCATOR!!!