Teaching Excellence in Action in Minnesota (TEAM) K-12 Scholarship Winners

School: Nuevas Fronteras Spanish Immersion School, St Paul Park
Grades: 1 & 3
Language: Spanish
CARLA Summer Institute: Creativity in the Language Classroom

All students would benefit from instruction that would allow for them to be creative, more engaged, and empowered in their own learning. Research often shows that when students are having fun and being creative, they learn and acquire language skills quicker and that they are long-lasting, rather than participating in activities that are rote memorization and what they often consider boring. I have learned a lot about second language acquisition, but I am lacking in ideas to make the class more fun. A lot of my training has been through observing other teachers and I often see creative things that I never would have thought of. I have heard wonderful reviews about the CARLA Creativity in the Language Classroom and I want to provide my students with an experience that will help them to strengthen their language skills while having fun and lowering their affective barrier. These creative teaching methodologies are essential for all students, as we try to give students the tools to develop their language skills. I hope to be able to be a part of the CARLA Creativity in the Language Classroom institute and create creative, meaningful and fun activities to promote their language learning.

Proposed Project: I am part of a team of 4 third grade Spanish immersion teachers and I would share my learning experiences with my 3rd grade team.  My school is a school that also values teacher collaboration so I would also invite teachers at all grade levels to observe me using the new strategies learned during class to see the strategies implemented in real time.  

Our first Spanish literature unit is on the Magic Tree House and students read a few different chapter books from the Magic Tree House Series, and at the very end of the unit have to create their own story for the Magic Tree House.  I would like to take that unit and find ways to be intentional in my instruction and provide more opportunities for students to be creative.  Currently my lessons around Spanish literacy have a lot of visuals and audio, and through the lesson planning process during CARLA, I will learn more about how to incorporate more kinesthetic and tactic tools during the unit and apply them to the lessons.  

School: St. Croix River Education District 
Grades: K-12
Language: ESL/Spanish
CARLA Summer Institute: Creativity in the Language Classroom

As a new language teacher, I am eager to develop my skills in creating engaging and effective lessons that foster a love for learning in my students. The Creativity in the Language Classroom institute aligns perfectly with my goals by providing innovative strategies to enhance student engagement and personalize instruction. I want to take this class because I believe that creativity is essential for making language learning both meaningful and enjoyable.

One of my biggest challenges has been designing lessons that go beyond traditional methods and truly capture students' interest. I want to explore new ways to integrate storytelling, music, movement, and art into my instruction to make learning more immersive. Additionally, I aim to develop activities that allow students to express themselves in authentic ways while reinforcing language acquisition.

Proposed Project: ESL students bring a rich socio-cultural background to the classroom. By incorporating their heritage background knowledge and culture, I can create a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment that helps them feel confident. This approach can enhance self-esteem and ease the challenges of adapting to a new culture, which can be traumatic for young students.

For my follow-up project, I plan to design a classroom project integrating art and language learning for ESL students. Using activities like storytelling, dance, cooking, and visual arts, students will connect with their culture and practice language in a fun, engaging way.

School: Academia Cesar Chavez, St. Paul
Grades: 6-8
Language: English
CARLA Summer Institute: Using Target Language Texts to Support Students' Literacies Development

I am very interested in the Using Target Language Texts to Support Students' Literacies Development because that is an area I am seeking to grow in as an educator. After four years of teaching, I have learned a great deal, and this is an area that I desire to be more intentional and effective in within my teaching. This past year, I have also taken on the role of ELD Coordinator, and I have started working with all teachers at the middle school level in deepening their understanding of best language practices and coaching them, as well as incorporating the best language learning strategies within their content classes to support all language learners. As a middle school, we are aware of our students' literacy needs and the gaps that we need to fill within our instruction. I believe that this class would allow me to be equipped with the tools that I need within my own English Language Development classes, as well as provide me with the tools that I need to better support our Middle School teaching staff. It will also hopefully reinforce the idea that we are all language teachers and there is literacy incorporated into each content area. We need to be better at bridging and strengthening those connects for our students so that they may experience growth in their literacy development. 

Proposed Project: I foresee myself doing both an outreach activity for teachers as well as a classroom based project for students in my classroom. Within my role as an ELD coordinator and instructional coach at our middle school, I envision myself creating a presentation based on the basic content of how to use target language texts to support student literacy development and going over that with teachers at the beginning of the school year during August PD. Then I would like to sit down with each content team and look at how that will actually come to fruition in their classes by looking at and choosing target language texts for their various content lessons. I am hopeful that it would serve as a great way to incorporate different teaching strategies to utilize to support all of our language learners and push teachers to use target language texts in their content area classrooms. 

In terms of the classroom based project for students in my classes, I would like to look at our year long mapping plan and intentionally decide what texts to incorporate into each unit that would give our students a holistic literacy experience, even at the beginning level English Language Development classes. Sometimes that beginner level language classes shy away from target language texts at appropriate levels, and I believe that this could help me to be more intentional with incorporating that into the curriculum. As an ELA/SLA team, we could also look at creating interdisciplinary units within our plans so that what we are doing in both languages can build upon one another to best impact the students' development. 

School: Edgerton Public School
Grades: 5-12
Language: English/Spanish
CARLA Summer Institute: Secondary Dual Language and Immersion: Achieving the Promise of Continuation Programs

This course will help me support multilingual learners (MLLs) by giving me new strategies to teach English and Spanish. I want to learn how to make academic content easier to understand while keeping high expectations. I am especially interested in using translanguaging and building students’ confidence in speaking and writing. The chance to learn from experts and other teachers will help me improve my teaching and create a classroom where MLL students feel included, supported, and successful.

Proposed Project: I plan to create a bilingual unit that supports multilingual learners (MLLs) in both English and Spanish using translanguaging and scaffolding techniques. This unit will include interactive activities to build confidence in reading, writing, and speaking.

I will also share key strategies with colleagues, providing practical tools to support MLLs across subjects. By applying these methods in my classroom and school, I hope to improve language instruction, promote bilingualism, and create a more inclusive learning environment for all students.