The Illinois Resource Center is proud to announce that veteran team member Olivia Mulcahy will be delivering the keynote address at the Translanguaging Classroom Institute hosted by Dual Language education of New Mexico (DLeNM) and co-sponsored by Velazquez Press this summer. As an Education Specialist at the IRC, Olivia is constantly developing and facilitating professional development focused on cultivating affirming, culturally responsive and evidence-based translanguaging pedagogies, Universal Design for Learning and empowering educators to tap into their own creative writing skills. Prior to joining the IRC team, she led the district Dual Language Education Initiative and oversaw bilingual, ESL, and world language programs at Chicago [...]

Over the past few months, the IRC has asked members of our community to nominate Illinois teachers working with multicultural, multilingual students who are going above and beyond, and now, we’re celebrating them and highlighting their work. Keep an eye out for these features in the coming months – and if you’d like to nominate someone, email leanet@cntrmail.org. Next up is Sonia Enriquez, an educator at DeKalb School District 428. Says Emily Weller, who nominated her: Sonia has had an incredible impact on students, families and teachers within our school district. She collaborates with teachers in each grade and works as an instructional [...]

Over the past few months, the IRC has been highlighting teachers working with multicultural, multilingual students who are going above and beyond. This is part of our companion series celebrating parent and community leaders who are advocating for multilingual students. Meet Laura Navarro, a dual language advisory council member and advocate in Naperville. Laura Navarro’s journey toward being a multilingual advocate started on Facebook. Before her daughter began at Naperville’s dual language program, she wanted to build community with other dual-language families. “I wanted my daughters to feel comfortable and empowered to speak Spanish,” she says. In seeking out that community, [...]

Over the past few months, the IRC has asked members of our community to nominate Illinois teachers working with multicultural, multilingual students who are going above and beyond, and now, we’re celebrating them and highlighting their work. Keep an eye out for these features in the coming months – and if you’d like to nominate someone, email leanet@cntrmail.org. Next up is Jeannette Borjon, a multilingual teacher from District 201 in Minooka. Says Erika Martinez, who nominated her: “This is Jeannette’s first year as a Multilingual teacher. Her caseload is made up of K-4 students who are in general education and also our autism specialized classrooms. [...]

Welcome to the June 2023 edition of the Resource Roundup, a monthly newsletter from the IRC, packed with readings, recommendations and resources you can use in your classroom or school community. This month, we have tons of resources for AAPI Heritage Month. If you have a resource you think would be valuable to share for this round-up, please email Lindsay Eanet at leanet@cntrmail.org with a link. From Our IRC Specialists & Staff Bilingual Parents Video Library Wind Down Wednesday Archive Multilingual Virtual Job Board List of Bilingual Parent Resources Distributed at Bilingual Parents Summit [IRC] Hyperdoc: Creating Affirming Multilingual, Multicultural School Communities for LGBTQ+ [...]

The IRC would like to congratulate Education Specialist Carly Spina on the release of her new book, Moving Beyond for Multilingual Learners, available now from EduMatch Publishing.  In her new book, Carly, who joined the IRC team in the summer of 2021, shares effective strategies and resources learned from more than 15 years working in schools with linguistically diverse student populations. At the IRC, we believe that “all kids deserve to come to classrooms that value their identities and honor their families’ languages,” and this is a core tenet of Carly’s book.  “When it comes to serving our multilingual learners, there [...]