Jeanette Mercer: The Impact of Inclusivity

Jeanette Mercer: [00:00:00] What is the one thing that we always hear teachers complain about? That there’s not enough time. If I wrote a book, I think it would be called, If I Had More Time in the Classroom. Because everything is urgent. Everything is so important in the classroom. And every minute counts. But I think if you were to have that conversation with all Your students saying, this is where you are.

This is where you need to be. And this is how we’re going to get there. And then monitoring those goals. I find the campuses that are actually doing that and really having those conversations, there’s been huge success. 

Justin Hewett: Hey everybody. Welcome to the ML chat podcast. I am your host today. Justin Hewett here with my co host.

And we just had the most delightful conversation with Jeanette Mercer from the Aldine Independent School District in Houston. Jeanette is the Director for Multilingual Instructional Support. And she just brought so much wonderful [00:01:00] knowledge and experience from serving multilingual students. And I just love her story.

The fact that she went to kindergarten in this district. She graduated high school from Aldine High School. And then gets on this amazing path. That they called homegrown where she received a scholarship. If she worked as a paraprofessional while she was going to school, and then if she would come back and give the first five years of her career to the school district, it would pay for all of her education and her books and oh my goodness.

Now she’s been in the district for over 30 years and she’s a district leader and it is so cool to hear this story, Mandi. 

Mandi Morris: What an incredible testament to a homegrown program and how well a homegrown program can work and she even mentioned that she has students that People who were her students are now teachers in the school district.

What an amazing community program and she’s running some Really exciting professional learning for the [00:02:00] teachers in her school district, supporting new teachers that are coming in. In addition to the, all of the bilingual and ESL teachers across a big school district. 

Justin Hewett: And it’s just amazing that this homegrown plan has been in the works or been working for over 30 years now to help increase the amount of teachers in the district and especially the ESL teachers and bilingual teachers.

This is a great conversation and a great story I think you’re going to really enjoy it. Jeanette hails from Aldine, which is just outsider, just as a part of Houston. And it is a large district with more than 80 campuses. I think you’re going to love this conversation with Jeanette Mercer.

Let’s go jump into it. Jeanette Mercer serves as the director for multilingual instructional support in the Aldine independent school district in Houston, Texas. Where she oversees more than 80 campuses in the areas of content based language instruction and culturally responsive teaching practices. Her professional [00:03:00] background includes roles as an ESL teacher, bilingual teacher, skills specialist, RTI interventionist, dyslexia interventionist, and assistant principal.

In 2006, she was recognized as the ESL Teacher of the Year. Jeanette received her bachelor’s from Sam Houston State in academic interpersonal studies with an endorsement in bilingual education and her master’s in administration from Concordia University in Texas. Jeanette, we are thrilled to have you here on the ML chat podcast.

Welcome. 

Jeanette Mercer: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here. What a great way to start 2025. 

Justin Hewett: Oh, we think so too. Thank you so much for being here. We’re excited to, to learn more about all the work that you have done through the years and that you are spearheading there in Aldine. And we’d love to learn a little bit more about the district in general.

Maybe let’s start there. Maybe tell us a little bit about Aldine and the students you’re serving, the teachers you’re working [00:04:00] with. Tell us a little bit about the district if you don’t mind. 

Jeanette Mercer: So Aldine Independent School District is a little bit. North of downtown Houston, if you’ve ever flown into Bush Intercontinental Airport, you’re flying right into Alding Independent School District.

So a lot of people are when we say that people from out of state will Oh, yeah, I’ve been through Bush Airport. So that’s pretty much where we are geographically. We do have over 57, 000 students. 48 percent of our students are emergent bilinguals. So those are the students that we’re currently serving.

So we’re close to 50%. And actually, if we were to include students who have been reclassified, we supersede that number of over 50%. So we do have a large population of students speaking different languages. We have over 50 different languages in Houston. Houston’s very diverse. Of course, most of our students speak English and Spanish, but [00:05:00] we have a huge Vietnamese population.

We have students from all over the world. So when we say culturally respite, it’s a great place to work. And that’s just a little bit about all the you. 

Justin Hewett: Oh, I love hearing that. That is so fun. I That is amazing what a large melting pot aldeen has become. That is and I have flown in, in and outta bush, so that’s good to know.

That’s exactly where Aldeen is. I am the district. But you’re also, you’re a product of Aldeen, of the Aldeen Independent school district. Right. You grew up in Alde. Did you go all the way? Did you graduate high school from. 

Jeanette Mercer: Yes, I sure did. I, from kindergarten all the way up to high school, graduated from Aldine High School, and I don’t know if I want to tell you what year, but I did have big hair and did use Aquanet hairspray, so that might tell you the era of when I graduated, but I am a proud product of Aldine.

I took one year off and [00:06:00] then I decided to apply for a parapro, a paraprofessional position there in Aldine and I got it. 

Justin Hewett: That is so cool. I think we’re going to send you a box of Aquanet hairspray. We want to bring back the big hair. We’re going to have some fun with it. So here you are now working in leadership in the district, but this is where you went to kindergarten and this is where you graduated.

And before we started recording, you were telling us a little bit about. A scholarship that you received upon graduation, or will you tell us a little bit about that? 

Jeanette Mercer: Yeah, of course. Actually, the Human Resource Department and the Multilingual Department back in 1991, I guess I’ll go ahead and tell you the year, my first year as a paraprofessional there in Aldine, they decided to offer a scholarship called the Homegrown, and this was a brand new scholarship that they wanted to choose.

They wanted to choose five bilingual and five ESL. [00:07:00] Recipients to go through this and they would pay for your school and then they would also pay for your books, but you would have to work the minimum 20 hours a week and then go to school as well. And then you had to work for Aldine for five years. I was part of the scholarship.

Requirements is to give back your time and I never left so I’ve been there now. This is my 33rd year in Aldi. Or I’ve completed 33 years. So I’m excited to be a product of all Dean and then to be able to say that I’ve been loyal and I’ve seen. Things come and go and change. When I was a student in Aldine, I was one of the only Hispanics in my classroom.

Cause back then it was a very, it was a different population. It was very interesting how things have changed over the years, but we move with change. 

Justin Hewett: Yeah, no, we definitely do. Yeah. That is crazy to hear that you went from being the only Hispanic [00:08:00] person in your classroom, and now they sounds like Hispanics are the majority of the student population and.

And Aldine, that’s crazy. 

Jeanette Mercer: Yes, we have over 70 percent. 

Mandi Morris: So does Aldine still do the homegrown program? And what does that look like today? 

Jeanette Mercer: Yes, as a matter of fact, we still provide the scholarship. We’re still trying to recruit. There’s still a huge need for bilingual and ESL teachers. Yes, if you’re a paraprofessional and you’re listening to this and you work in Aldine, make sure you apply for that scholarship.

Mandi Morris: Wow. That’s an incredible way to really capitalize on supporting your community, growing from within. I’ve heard of other school districts trying to do this work, sometimes being more at the beginning stages of that. And it’s so neat to talk to someone that you’ve now been in Aldine for, you said, 33 years and having come from a program like a homegrown program.

How did it change your life? What kind of impact did that homegrown program have for you? 

Jeanette Mercer: I grew up speaking [00:09:00] English. I didn’t speak Spanish at all. I always wanted to learn or I always wish I knew Spanish. My parents never spoke Spanish to us. If they wanted to talk, say, tell secrets about us or want to keep stuff from my siblings and myself, they would speak Spanish.

And I just feel, felt like there was such a need for bilingual teachers. We had to take some electives and I’m like, let me start taking Spanish. And then it just, working in Aldine, working as a bilingual para, I just wanted to really grab hold of that culture that I felt like I was, I had lost as a child and wanted to regain that, being proud of who I am and figuring out who I am too, even as a young adult, I’m not Hispanic enough for my cousins, but.

They think that, Oh, you talk like a white girl. My, my cousins would tell me when it was like figuring out who I was and what I wanted to do. So [00:10:00] working in Aldine being a para bilingual, it really made me passionate about learning Spanish and wanting to become a bilingual teacher. 

Justin Hewett: It’s really interesting how the methodologies have shifted through the years.

And I think 30, 40 years ago, the idea was. Only talk to your kids in English, right? And it really had a significant impact. And I love where the pendulum has swung back and we’re celebrating multilingualism. We’re celebrating the heritage, the cultural heritage that we bring to this work, wherever you came from and recognizing it as an asset.

Rather than what used to be seen as a liability of some sort. What a great way to invest in your community, get them started young, but build that culture of promoting from within and you get some people that are really driven and passionate. And it feels like that’s something that could be that much more beneficial today as we see.

So many teachers leaving the profession, we’ve got to create some ingenuitive ways to attract more teachers and give them an easier [00:11:00] pathway, maybe, or a better pathway to being able to complete their education, do it without having to incur debt, whatever that might look like, and have a place to come after, already have that decision made.

I love that. 

Jeanette Mercer: It’s been a great experience. 

Justin Hewett: Oh, so cool. One thing that, that I would love to, to learn a little bit more as far as your district, such a large district serving so many emergent bilingual students. And for those of you outside of Texas, in Texas, that is the language we use to talk about our English learning students.

We’re in some different parts of the country. It’s been EL or it’s ESL or it’s EL or whatever it might be. In Texas today, we recognize students as emergent bilingual. Jeannette, do you mind maybe talking about that for just a second as to why that focus on that language around emergent bilingual? 

Jeanette Mercer: I think like what you had mentioned earlier, how we’re changing the pendulum, that we’re now wanting to respect students.

If they have multiple languages, we want to respect that. So instead of saying English language [00:12:00] learner, we’re all English language learners, right? I was an English language learner, even though I was monolingual as a child, but being an emergent bilingual. Kind of makes them stand out and holds that higher regard or that respect for students who actually speak more than one language.

So I think, I don’t know what the reason why Texas or TEA, the Texas Education Agency, decided to start using those terms. But we just want to make sure our language is always clean and aligned to what’s coming from up above. But I really, honestly, emergent bilingual because we’re just, Highly respecting those students and embracing their bilingualism.

Justin Hewett: It really resonates with me as well. I love it and I always appreciate it. I don’t necessarily love the like acronym where we’re like EBs. I prefer emergent bilinguals or something along that line. 

Mandi Morris: Jeanette, I’m wondering with 80 plus [00:13:00] campuses, it’s Hard to wrap your mind around. It’s such a big school district.

What does it look like to have alignment in a school district that big from your position at the district? It’s just so interesting for you to have grown up in that school district, worked your whole career there. What does it look like to really try to ensure that students are having the same quality of education across 80 schools in a school district that teachers are fully resourced across that many schools.

What does that look like from your perspective and in your work that you do? 

Jeanette Mercer: I haven’t perfected it yet. And I guess if I did, I wouldn’t have a job anymore, but communication is the key being explicit. And we have so many layers. We have our classroom teacher. We have instructional specialists who are a campus level leaders who support teachers.

We have LPEC administrators who can be a principal or assistant principal that oversee. The emergent bilingual [00:14:00] students. And then of course we have a district level people, program directors, and then the people who are higher than me. I think just making sure that we have a clear communication. When my boss came on board a few years ago during the pandemic, the year of the pandemic, she, we.

We collaboratively, she had a group of educators in the, within the district to create a new multilingual framework, just to make sure we’re all on the same page. What are, what is our vision? What are our beliefs? What is our framework? What are the responsibilities of an instructional specialist, of an administrator, of a teacher?

And it’s clear, it’s just a few page document, and every time we train, we hand it out. Our little icon is on every presentation. It’s getting that message across, and of course when you have new people coming in or new hires, it’s just important to making sure that [00:15:00] we provide that professional development for the training.

To and whether it’s administrators or teachers making sure that they’re getting the same language. 

Mandi Morris: You mentioned earlier, Jeanette, that even with the homegrown program, that sometimes resourcing teachers is a challenge. What does that look like for you with such a big school district? And it sounds like you have a lot of layers for support.

Some school districts we talked to just onboarding new teachers is such a stretch for them for their own capacity. What does that look like for you? And what advice could you give to other schools? things that you guys are doing that has been successful. 

Jeanette Mercer: We, every year we have a wide range of level teachers or every year we have a large population of teachers who are not certified yet when they’re serving our students.

Cause there’s such a shortage. Just making sure we’re providing in the state of Texas, they have to be certified. And so we provide prep courses to help them pass the test. [00:16:00] We also use part of our money to reimburse teachers once they become certified. We try to incentivize them, really pump them up. Hey, we’ll provide these free courses, they’re virtual, you can do them from home.

And then once you take the test, we’ll reimburse you for the test. So trying to get those teachers certified. We also have multilingual coaches. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot. We only have nine multilingual coaches with our 80 campuses. So we’re spread very thin, but we do ask them to go support new teachers.

But I think our department does a great job of training program directors. Program directors are in charge of content. Like English Language Arts, Math Program Directors. So really training them. And then we have also district coaches, math and literacy district coaches. Making sure they’re trained and they also know how to [00:17:00] support our emergent bilinguals.

Since we do have a huge population of students that need to be served. And a huge population of brand new teachers. So these coaches are out there helping them like, Hey, this is what you should do. And I think we have such a great relationship with the district level people that they feel free to come to our department if they need extra support.

Justin Hewett: It’s so fun to hear about The different support mechanisms you have in place to support those new teachers and make sure your emergent bilingual students and probably all your students are receiving the support and the interventions and the resources that they need. I did have one question I wanted to ask you around that, actually, with your background in RTI, I wanted to just dive into RTI a little bit with you, if that’s okay, and just understand.

How you think about RTI when it comes to serving our emergent bilingual students? Because we know that ELD is not necessarily [00:18:00] considered an intervention, right? And how should we be thinking about using the RTI framework in serving our emergent bilingual students? 

Jeanette Mercer: You’re absolutely right. English language development is not, it should, that should just be embedded within the curriculum all day, every day.

But we have three words that we always say, what are our three words? A multilingual culture, language, and content. Those are three things that, that we have on every single slide presentation. That’s one of our basic slides that we always say. And now it’s funny, cause I’ll test. Our administrators, what are our three words?

And culture is knowing your students. Is it a language issue or is it a cognitive issue? Is it a lack of schooling? Is it because they’re brand new? They’re going to be able to dig deep and then figure out, Oh, this is just, they need help with academic vocabulary or they need help just practicing [00:19:00] speaking.

Or no, there’s something else going on. What research based strategies are we using consistently? And is that helping? So yes, when I was a dyslexia specialist. It was a bilingual, we looked at all students and we don’t want to say, we want to make sure that they know the difference because we have geniuses that have a language barrier.

Mandi Morris: That’s right. 

Jeanette Mercer: We want to make sure that they’re, that teachers are trained and we do have professional development that provides qualifying students for RTI, emergent bilingual students for RTI, dyslexia, or for gifted and talented, which is like our advanced academics. 

Mandi Morris: Gifted and talented is a program that has changed a lot over the years and some states are still funding it and it seems like there is a lot of program support around it while other states it feels have moved away from gifted and talented programs or gifted programs.[00:20:00] 

What does that look like in Texas and what does it look like to find and support English learners who are gifted and talented? 

Jeanette Mercer: I’m not aware of what the latest and greatest. As far as gifted and talented. Ask me something about title three funds or ESSER funds. I can answer those questions, but all I know is that we work very closely with our executive director for advanced academics.

We hire, we’ve hired people. We’ve contracted with vendors to come out and train teachers on emergent bilinguals and depth and complexity. So we’re making sure that we’re. Not only providing language supports, but we’re pushing them to the next level. So that’s what we do in Aldine. We still want to make sure that we have high expectations and we’re reaching all students.

Justin Hewett: Yeah, that’s great. I love that. And I would love to dive just a little bit deeper in, into this. Where does RTI fit in [00:21:00] your framework of serving? 

Jeanette Mercer: We have a, we do have an intervention block that, Campuses have to put within the schedule and they have to provide those services, whether it’s in Spanish or in English.

There are some computer programs that our RTI director has purchased and then we also tell them to pull in small groups as far as like small group instruction or meeting the needs of our tier two and tier three students as well. 

Justin Hewett: So is it really just in reference to serving all of our students as a part of the RTI framework and maybe grouping students by language level?

Is that kind of the way to think about that or no? 

Jeanette Mercer: No, they may be emergent bilingual receiving. RTI or intervention, but they could be just not even qualify or they just need good tier one teaching. [00:22:00] So we always say to differentiate instruction and if you’re truly differentiating instruction, it doesn’t matter if they’re tier one, tier two, tier three, special ed, gifted and talented, we’re meeting them where they are and we’re trying to provide that differentiated instruction to push them to the next level during content based instruction.

Mandi Morris: Jeanette, differentiated instruction. I was just having a conversation with some of my coworkers who are incredible educators and talking through as a teacher. And I remember being in the classroom for many years and differentiate instruction, if it felt often like one of those terms that we use a lot, but then.

I didn’t always have the right professional learning to know, how do I do that? And how do I know that I’m doing it well? And it feels good to say, but what does it look like in my classroom? And how do I know that I’m really doing that thing? What does professional learning look like for you in your school district?

And what advice would you give for teachers who might be listening or administrators [00:23:00] who say, We throw that term around a lot, but how are we really checking to know that it’s happening? How are we, how do we know if we’re doing it well? 

Jeanette Mercer: I think the important thing is modeling. Like whenever I’m presenting or my program directors are presenting, we model on what differentiation looks like.

For example, we had a winter spectacular party for our teaching and learning department, and I had to have a fun activity, right? I was in charge of presenting a fun activity. My partner, who’s the director of special ed instruction, we came together and we said, well, how about we have them create a poem, a Christmas poem?

And then best poem wins. And with special ed and with language, we’re always saying differentiation, scaffold, provide supports. So then at each table, we had different scaffolds. So we had like a poem frame. where they could just fill in the blank. We had a word bank where they [00:24:00] actually had to use the word bank to create the poem.

We had a poem starter. And then we just had like directions on some, those would be our like advanced high students or almost fluent students. Right? So we would say, okay, this is what differentiation looks like. We’re all going to create a poem. That’s the goal, right? And the best poem wins. However, Use the different scaffolds.

So we’re differentiating that poem. And so when we model these things. Whether it’s fun or it’s during a professional development in front of the coaches and program directors, the coaches are going to be able to go out there and say, Oh, we can provide different things depending on how we’re serving our students.

Mandi Morris: That’s such a fun example. And it’s something that I feel like would resonate with the adults in the room. Cause I’m imagining myself, if I were in that party with you or professional learning, I’m like, I don’t want to have to write a poem in front of my peers. I’m just not comfortable. And so I feel like that would resonate with me.

Yes, thank you for the sentence stems. [00:25:00] That I can do. 

Jeanette Mercer: It was a group effort. So it wasn’t like individualized. So that kind of helped too. And actually they were very creative and it was a fun activity. 

Justin Hewett: I’m thinking about all of those teachers that you’re working with and all of the different campuses.

And earlier we talked about trying to make sure we’re providing the district as a framework to make sure that we’re delivering the services that each student needs. And I’m just thinking you obviously from where you sit and in working with the nine coaches that work with all the other campuses. I would imagine that sometimes you’re seeing things that are working really well.

And sometimes you’re seeing things that are not working at all. Why are you doing this? This is detrimental. And I would love to just maybe hear something that you’ve seen campuses do that have a huge impact that you don’t understand why everybody doesn’t do that. And then I’m going to ask the next question, which will be, what are campuses doing that they should stop [00:26:00] immediately?

But, so the first one is, what are the best campuses doing that are having just a tremendous impact that everybody should adopt? 

Jeanette Mercer: I know one thing that we have mandated or asked the teachers to do is to pull the data of their students, their language levels. And in Texas, right now we have four beginning, intermediate, advanced and advanced high.

That’s going to change though. We’re going to end up having five sooner or later, but right now we have four levels. So get to know your kids, what is their language level and then providing goals for them, setting these goals. So we ask them to especially. The older kids, even when I was an RTI specialist, I would meet with my kid, my second graders and be like, look, you’re only reading 20 words per minute.

We need to read this many words per minute. 

Justin Hewett: You were building assessment capable learners before it was even a cool thing. 

Jeanette Mercer: Yeah, [00:27:00] exactly. They need to know. What is your goal? And it being the new year, we all set goals, right? We all set New Year’s resolutions. Mine’s always to eat healthier, right? But actually setting goals with our students and getting their input.

So we have them look at, this is where you’re at. Let’s say I’m having a conversation with Jose, and in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, he’s intermediate across the board. And then have that conversation. This is how you tested last year. This is where you’re at. Let’s look at the level descriptor, the proficiency level descriptors, and let’s look at the next level.

How can we get you there? What do you want to work on? So then we actually have this conversation, Oh, how about using a complex sentence? So then the teacher will know, okay, with Jose, I need to make sure I’m providing a complex sentence stems, or making sure I’m providing that, and getting him to the next level.

We’ve [00:28:00] created a script for the teachers, where all they can do is just pull the script, and of course, some teachers use it, some teachers, what is the one thing that we always hear teachers complain about? That there’s not enough time, right? If I wrote a book, I think I, it would be called if I had more time in the classroom.

Because everything is urgent. Everything is so important in the classroom and every minute counts. But I think if you were to have that conversation with all your students saying This is where you are. This is where you need to be and this is how we’re going to get there. And then monitoring those goals so that I find the campuses that are actually doing that and really having those conversations, there’s been huge success, huge.

Justin Hewett: I love hearing you talk about this. This is exactly what we do at Flashlight, Jenna, is exactly provide that framework to help teachers figure out where students are like right now with their language. [00:29:00] And then we provide the framework to be able to provide that student with feedback and new goals and so on and so forth.

And it is so fun to hear you articulate that. Because it does move the needle. If students are getting that feedback as to where they are, if they have a goal to work towards, and we actually are taking a second to demystify this whole process that these students are working through, all of a sudden they have clarity on their next couple steps.

And when we have clarity, we are powerful. Our students, if they know what is expected of them, And they have that next couple of steps. They can go do it. They will jump over that hurdle and they will sprint forward, but it’s the ambiguity. It’s the not knowing that slows our students down. And one of the things that we found is so much of that starts with the fact that the teachers don’t know where their students are at.

And so the second they know, and that’s part of the reason we created Flashlight 360 is to give them a tool to know today where the students at, not where they were when they took the [00:30:00] telepaths or the access February of last year or whatever it was, but where are they right now so we can give them that timely feedback and all of a sudden.

Now teachers can hear it. They know what the student needs next. It is a game changer. I just, I love hearing you break that down. 

Jeanette Mercer: No. And just knowing we have something called a syllabus by literacy that students can graduate with, and they actually receive the red and yellow cord, when they graduate and they have to meet these special requirements, but we’ve had so many high schoolers, because a lot of times.

Our students end up being long term ELLs, or long term EB, or whatever you want to call them, the LTELs, so we want to make sure that they don’t get stuck in that, why have they been an emergent bilingual since pre K, or K, and they’re now in 11th grade. So I think Especially the high schools that sit there and have those one to one conversations.

We’ve really seen great results [00:31:00] of moving the needle. We just need to get everyone to have that growth mindset and to know that this is important, which kind of goes to your second question. 

Mandi Morris: Something that I think is so important that you highlighted, and I just want to call out here, is that knowing that data is just as powerful for the teacher as it is for the student.

Because the teacher, when setting those goals, now the teacher knows what instruction looks like. Justin’s really highlighting the student knows where they need to go, and the teacher knows how to facilitate or guide the student, support the student in order to get there. I think what sometimes happens as teachers, we try something Once.

Oh, that was too hard. And then we back it down and then we keep it backed down for two, three, four months. And all of a sudden you have a classroom in August that looks the same as in November and December and the rigor wasn’t brought back up. But when we don’t have that data to tell us, this is your next step.

This is your next step for the instructional part as the educator. We don’t know how to build those scaffolds. So I [00:32:00] just, I it’s, it is, I agree. Super exciting to hear you talk about that and just the impact that you’ve seen it had for your teachers and for students go to Justin’s next question. 

Justin Hewett: Oh yeah.

I’d love to go to the next one where, so the question just to reframe is you’re working with all these different campuses you’re seeing, we just talked about what successful and what everybody, should be working to implement. What about, what are those things that are maybe detrimental that teachers are doing or those campuses are doing that they’re not even thinking about that maybe aren’t quite as intuitive, but they really are detrimental whether it’s to relationships or it’s to student achievement or however it might be.

And we understand that we’re all humans and we’re whole people and we’re complex. And there’s so many moving factors that influence us and impact us. And so I’d love to hear from where you sit, what we need schools to stop doing or teachers to stop doing. 

Jeanette Mercer: Well, when I said our three words, culture, language, [00:33:00] and content.

Talking about accountability. Principals love data, and what’s the first thing they look at? How are they doing in math? How are they doing in reading? How did they do on the science test for 5th and 8th graders or biology? So they’re looking at that data, but are they truly trying to figure out why they didn’t do well on math?

Or why didn’t they do well during reading? In order to unlock The door to math and reading is to make sure you have that culture and language. That’s why we have content last with the three words. We want to make sure we know our students build that culture and relationship. And then what language barriers do we have?

Where are they at? As far as language and then having that mindset of knowing that, Hey, most of your students are at an intermediate level. That means they’re not getting that academic language or those complex sentences or they’re speaking very basic social language. So if they’re just comprehending or listening [00:34:00] at a social language level, how are we going to push them to that academic level and being intentional?

It’s very hard. When teachers are just like, Oh, math are administrators are campuses, math and reading. We got to get them there. We can get them there. I know we can because I was a teacher for many years and I taught English to bilingual students, English reading, and they were all reading on grade level, but I had to know how they Tick.

I had to know their level and I had to get them there. I had to pull small groups. I had to intervene when necessary. But as far as campuses, I think Getting them to have that growth mindset, getting them to just know the importance of why content based language instruction is important in providing those linguistic supports within the math and within the reading.

Justin Hewett: What I’m hearing you say there, Jeanette, is to go back to your, culture, language, and content, right? [00:35:00] Ultimately is, if we just are focusing on reading and math, the reality is we’re going to miss out on building those foundational Skills that the students need to go perform well in reading and math.

Yes, but also in other areas, it reminds me a little bit of some research that we came across of how foundational speaking actually was for reading. And a lot of times we don’t necessarily think about that. That’s not something that comes natural to us. We think that they’re very separate. Speaking is productive language.

Reading is not productive language, right? It doesn’t seem like there would be as strong of a connection there necessarily, but yet. So much research shows that speaking is foundational to growing reading. 

Jeanette Mercer: Yes, it’s all linked. You can verbalize, you can internalize. And if you’re internalizing, you’re learning, your brain is building those files.

They’re putting away those files and building that background but yes, 100 percent I agree [00:36:00] with you. We got to start with speaking and listening to get to that reading. 

Justin Hewett: And it’s just interesting for me to think about if you’re thinking about a campus that is maybe the instructional leader, the principal is focused on these specific data points around reading and math.

I felt like a lot of times it’s because that’s, what’s being stressed to them, right? They have somebody that they report to and that they are working with and that’s, what’s being stressed to them is, Hey, you really need to improve these, or they feel like that’s what they need to do to really. Shine.

But what I’m hearing you really say is you have to get deeper and ultimately you’ve got to understand what’s going to move the needle for your students. And that’s why I love that focus on culture, language, and content, because it allows us to really get to the each individual student and how do we help them grow and not necessarily just thinking about these overarching data points for the whole building.

Jeanette Mercer: Yeah. One thing when our superintendent came on board in 2018, she. [00:37:00] And I quote her all the time, Dr. Latanya Goffney, she said, if we can reach emergent bilinguals, we can reach anyone. And I was so grateful that she feels that way. And I just got to get everyone on board. Because if you were a math teacher and now you’re a math, now you’re a building principal.

And maybe you didn’t have a lot of emergent bilinguals back in the, when you’re in the classroom, you may not know what that, what your campus needs. But I think it’s just like what we talked about, Mandi, when you asked me earlier, the number of districts, the communication, and just building that capacity.

To try to change the mind shift of a leader, starting with the leader, so it can trickle down. 

Mandi Morris: That’s right. And it’s, part of it too is just about accepting the reality that’s in front of you. You’re in education long enough, you’ve been in the same school district for, [00:38:00] 33 years. I’m sure you hear teachers say, I’ve been doing it like this for 20 years and it worked fine.

But your classroom doesn’t look like it did 20 years ago. And the way that kids are interacting and socializing and engaging with language doesn’t look anything like it did even 10 years ago. It’s changed so much. So 2006 and even from 2006 to now education looks really different and what is Even more I should say actually is that maybe too much is stagnant in education, but our student population is so different than it was in 2006.

The way that students are engaging in communication is so different. So part of it is we’ve got to embrace the reality of our changing students, and that means making some changes. 

Jeanette Mercer: Yes, I definitely, it seems like from year to year, even with technology now we have AI, so how can we use that for emergent bilinguals and trying to making sure that we’re [00:39:00] just current and on, because you’re right, things have changed in the past 10 years, even just the past five years ago, things have changed.

And I think. One thing, teachers are scared to let go or scared to just let their students talk or just be the facilitator. So they just want to lecture and they think, Oh, the more I talk, the more I have control, but it’s just it’s just changing that mind shift. 

Mandi Morris: I love that. I think the facilitator model for education is so powerful and it is a mind shift and it requires.

A growth mindset and also modeling, like you mentioned earlier, Jeanette, I love that concept of starting where you can have influence and modeling it. And when, if you’ve ever been in a professional learning that is truly facilitated versus a lecture, the difference in how that feels to feel like your voice is important in the conversation that your [00:40:00] thoughts and ideas are valued.

And I love that idea for the classroom. It just encourages language in the air. It encourages engagement and really that facilitator model is so important. I wonder what does that look like for you? Like right now when you’re thinking about 2025, it’s the second of January, when you’re thinking about 2025 and your professional learning coming up with teachers, what does that look like for you?

What are your goals for this year for your work? 

Jeanette Mercer: Actually, we have, we’ve created the multilingual essentials. by quarter. And by quarter one was building a culturally and linguistic sound classroom with the classroom environment, the goal setting. So quarter three and quarter four, which is coming up, and yes, we do start with professional development next week when we come back to work, we are going to really hone in on student engagement.

and student ownership. Those two things. And we’ll be providing professional development, [00:41:00] continued, continuing with like structured conversations and engaging activities. And then how do we get all students involved? How do we get all students? And that’s being a facilitator. So quarter, yeah, so we’re going to jump in with quarter three, quarter four goals and making sure we provide those professional development and also.

So you mentioned rigor earlier. We don’t want to make sure that we lower the standard of the curriculum, but we make sure that We are hitting our, we call them the TEKS, but there are standards, our state standards to the rigor of where our students need to be. Language should not be the barrier.

However, one thing that we notice as a district is that we lower the level of questioning. So making sure we’re providing that professional development with a variety of questioning, but also challenging the teachers to challenge the student to make sure that rigor is up there. 

Mandi Morris: [00:42:00] It sounds like you have some awesome professional learning coming up in the new year.

And really, the professional learning focus, the structured conversation, teachers as a facilitator, that professional learning is beneficial for every teacher. We were talking about content as your third.

So I’m excited for your teachers. You’ll have to let us know at the end of the school year how that went because I would love to hear from you again and hear how that was received and what you learned through the process. 

Justin Hewett: Are there any openings actually? I think maybe if I bring my own chair, could I maybe get into that professional development session?

Jeanette Mercer: Bring your own chair, sit on the floor, bring a bean bag. You’re more than welcome to come to any of our professional development sessions. But you will have a fun, comfortable time. That’s what I always say. It’s not uncomfortable, it’ll be fun, comfortable. Because we do provide engaging professional development, so that way [00:43:00] the teachers can take those same fun, comfortable ideas in the classroom.

Justin Hewett: I love that idea of fun, comfortable, that communicates so well. I love that. I love that thing. Cause one of the things that I’ve always thought is anytime for so many years, I was a sales rep and I felt like I had to do a demo that was informative. Yes. Obviously people want to understand how the product that I was demoing to them, how it worked and how it would help them.

But I also felt like I had to make it fun. And I had to make it informative and fun and engaging and interesting. And it just makes me think that is such a good, I guess, modeling for our teachers to understand that, yes, you might be a little uncomfortable, but it’s also going to be fun and we’re going to make it enjoyable.

We’re going to make it engaging. And I love that. I think that’s so valuable as far as just a mindset. Jeanette, I know that we are back and better than [00:44:00] ever ready to take on 2025. And this is going to be our best year yet. We are getting towards the end of our conversation here, but before we wrap it up, we want to go to what we’re calling our lightning round here, where we ask a couple of quick questions that you can off the cuff answer, and we won’t necessarily go as deep with them necessarily, but.

I’d love to, to start out with this one, which is what do you wish you could tell yourself when you first started? And you could use this first started in your current role as a leader in the district or maybe when you first started as an ESL teacher or however you want to think about that. 

Jeanette Mercer: Just roll with the punches.

There’s not enough time. Just do it. 

Justin Hewett: I love that. So how And a lot of that just comes down to what we talked about earlier, is there’s never enough time. That book you’re going to write one day. 

Jeanette Mercer: Yes, do just do your best. Just do your best. Just do it like Nike, right? I don’t know if I could say a [00:45:00] brand, but just do it.

I 

Justin Hewett: think so. I think so. 

Mandi Morris: Could you tell us about a light bulb moment or an experience that you had in your career or in your life that it just changed you as an educator, changed your approach or your thinking? 

Jeanette Mercer: So when I was going through my home grown, I had a principal tell me. Oh, you should just be an ESL teacher.

You don’t know Spanish. It’d be easier for you just to become ESL certified because you don’t have to know Spanish to be ESL certified. That buzzed me to, no, I’m going to learn Spanish and I’m going to be a bilingual teacher. And yes, I had to take my exam a couple of times before I passed, but I did become bilingual certified.

But I think that was like, no, this is who I want to be. This is what I want. I want to be a bilingual teacher. So I turned it around for good to push me to be the best bilingual teacher that I could be, and to make [00:46:00] sure that kids feel that way as well. I know this is supposed to be lightning round, but I can’t help it.

Justin Hewett: That was fantastic. I love that it lit a fire underneath you and drove you in the direction that it really carried you through. It’s that’s. It’s amazing the impact of these little moments in our life that people have no idea that they’re a part of, and yet they were such inflection points for us. I have a few of those experiences myself.

I would love to hear one piece of advice you would give an emergent bilingual director or multilingual services director. They’re brand new in their role. Before this, they were in the classroom. Now they’re moving into this district position. What advice would you give them? 

Jeanette Mercer: One word that comes to my mind is to advocate.

To just make sure that you have multilingual, out of sight, out of mind sometimes. But if we’re constantly advocating for our multilingual learners, and we’re constantly speaking up, I think [00:47:00] that will help the director to know, don’t sit back, don’t be in the corner. Bring your chair to the table and you advocate for our students because they, they need someone for them.

Justin Hewett: So well said. I love that. I think that’s, that might be my favorite answer I’ve ever heard to that because I think ultimately if they view themselves as. These students advocate. They’re not going to go wrong. 

Jeanette Mercer: Yeah, I almost choked up and cried a little bit I’m very passionate very passionate. 

Mandi Morris: Yeah, that really comes through and it’s so wonderful to see these years in your career that you still have such clear focus and dedication to the work that you’re doing and Actually for this last question, I’m gonna pivot a little bit and ask you how have you done that?

How have you sustained joy? In this career after all of these years what has sustained you and kept you so excited about the work that you’re doing? 

Jeanette Mercer: I think I just, I have to count my [00:48:00] blessings. It’s not always rosy and unicorns and butterflies and perfect out there. But I think knowing that I have over five or six former students who are now teachers, things like that, or just remembering how I taught these kids how to read or making an impact on teachers because they.

I loved the professional development that they attended. Just counting those little small goals, because I think the higher up you are in the district, it’s harder to see that impact compared to when you’re in the classroom. Just counting those blessings and just knowing that, maybe one little person at a time, I’m making a difference.

But I think, um, that is why I, I keep that joy and I keep that passion. 

Justin Hewett: It has shined through today. Jeanette, what a delightful conversation. We’d love to just honor you and the tremendous work that you have done in Aldean, throughout the school district and in the [00:49:00] community, I’m sure. And I just think that is, it’s neat that you came from the Aldean school district and you were there as a kindergartner.

You graduated from Aldean High School. You get on the homegrown track and here you are today. Helping so many emergent bilingual students, um, and advocating for them. And that is just, it is so fun to hear. It gives me the chills just thinking about all the work that you’ve done. They’re where you came from.

So thank you so much for coming on the ML chat podcast, having this conversation with us, telling us a bit of your story and about the great work that you’re doing.