Lauren MacLean: Community Care and Collaboration

Lauren MacLean: [00:00:00] It’s really about how you make your job easier. Because if you are always relying on the resources that you have, you’re never going to be able to set yourself up fully for success. That’s not the world of education we live in, especially post pandemic. We don’t have the resources that we need to be able to do everything we want to do.

And so what we have to do is really build these connections with our community partners so that We can come together. And so that instead of trying to constantly hire interpreters for that new kid who speaks a language that you haven’t had before, you can pick up the phone and call somebody and say, Hey, do you have an interpreter?

It’s about how you make it easier on yourself and also how you make it easier on your teachers and your instructional coaches. 

Justin Hewett: Hey everybody. Welcome to the ML chat podcast. My name is Justin Hewett and I’m here with my co host. 

Mandi Morris: Mandi Morris 

Justin Hewett: we are thrilled to be with you today. Thanks so much for joining us. [00:01:00] We have a tremendous conversation today with Lauren MacLean from Albemarle school district in in Virginia.

She is fantastic. And this is such a delightful conversation about building kind of wraparound services and community kind of building. The community outside of your school district to serve your english learners And I just I love lauren’s approach to this mandy And I love the way that she’s thinking about it and talking about it 

Mandi Morris: Justin, I felt so calm and at peace having that conversation with lauren.

Did you feel that same way? 

Justin Hewett: Oh I’ve, yes, I felt like I just got done with yoga and the yogis like sabasana or whatever, like we were meditating like she is so calm, collected. Yes, totally. I feel like I’m, I am in Zen now. 

Mandi Morris: Is just has to be the right person doing the right work building community With people to support multilingual learners She was very [00:02:00] strategic While also being so open minded about the work that she’s doing and I just feel like her families are Really lucky and blessed to have her there.

Justin Hewett: Yeah, it was really fun to hear about what a unique school district They have we talk a little bit about it at Towards the end of the podcast, we dove into more about their school district, but they wrap around a major city area. And so they have all sorts of situations where they’re serving students, whether it’s in a rural community or it’s more urban and and everything in between. And so they’ve had to be very flexible in the way that they’ve created their language service programs and the way they’ve approached that. And I think that comes through in her ability to, and work with her team to build great community. With the community and where there’s an interdependence there.

And anyways, we really appreciate Lauren coming on the podcast and having this conversation today. We appreciate you being here with us and let’s go jump into this conversation with Lauren MacLean. Lauren is the [00:03:00] leader of the amazing EL team serving language learners in Alba Marlowe. County public schools in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Prior to that, she worked for a national network of charter schools providing EL instructional coaching and support. She has a diverse background in language instruction from compliance and accountability in South Brooklyn to a dual language Mandarin teacher in Taiwan. And a high school Spanish teacher in Mississippi, Lauren received an undergraduate degree at Vassar college in Poughkeepsie, New York, and earned a master’s of education in administration and supervision at the university of Virginia and Charlottesville, Virginia.

Lauren, we are so excited to have you join us here on the ML chat podcast. Welcome. 

Lauren MacLean: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. 

Justin Hewett: Oh, our pleasure. We learned about you because you presented at the WIDA conference. To standing room only had a bunch of people who came and had the chance to learn a lot. Maybe as we [00:04:00] kick off, we definitely want to jump in and hear your story, but I’m thinking it might be helpful for everyone to hear a little bit.

About maybe what you presented on. What was the title of your presentation at WIDA? 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah. Um, so my presentation was about fostering community partnerships, essentially helping people who are in the EL space and education to work smarter by working collaboratively, not hurt. 

Justin Hewett: I love that. We are so excited to talk.

So much about that as we get into the, to the meat of our conversation here, building community is one of the most rewarding parts. I think of the business or this work that we do being able to work with students and their families, and also the other educators that have been drawn to this work, Lauren, what drew you to this work?

How did you end up? Now that you’re a director of an EL program at a larger school district, I have a 1200 English learners that you’re serving. Let’s hear your story of how you got there. How did you end up getting into this work of serving English learners? 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah, I think it really honestly started in high [00:05:00] school.

Like a lot of kids, I was trying to challenge myself, took an AP calculus class, was not the right class for me. And my teacher at the time said, Hey, you’re not doing so well at this class. But I. We just got a bunch of kids who speak Spanish and they really need help. What if instead of you coming to calculus, you just went and helped them in their math class, because at the time I had already maxed out of the Spanish classes at my school.

And so I started doing it from there and fell in love with it. And the rest is a little bit of history. 

Justin Hewett: Oh my gosh, that is so cool. What a, what an inflection point in your life. Isn’t it funny? Like how some of these. These moments that just happened, an idea from a calculus teacher or one of your teachers that is like, Hey, maybe calculus isn’t the right place for you right now.

Like, why don’t you head over here? That’s amazing. What was it in that experience that really stuck with you? 

Lauren MacLean: I think it was really just getting to. connect with [00:06:00] somebody who had a different experience than me, and also be able to really uncover how much they knew. Because a lot of what I saw was kids who didn’t feel like they could be successful, but when you ask them something in Spanish, for example, and they’re like, oh, I know how to do all this, I just don’t have the language to do it, having that aha of, oh, this kid is super great at this, probably better than me, is so exciting to see.

Mandi Morris: So Lauren, where was that experience? Like where was high school for you? 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah, I grew up in Cary, North Carolina. 

Mandi Morris: Okay, what was school like there? This is like a pretty interesting experience that you were able to have the opportunity to have really such an important learning opportunity at this age. Do you have a pretty diverse school?

Lauren MacLean: No, not really. So Cary is a small town just outside of Raleigh. It has grown a lot since I was in high school back then, but at the time, I think it was just starting to see the growth in the diversity of population that North Carolina has really seen [00:07:00] explode over the past few decades. And so this was the initial start and everybody was scrambling a little bit to figure out what to do.

And I think that’s some of the reason that they were really asking students to help out as we were all figuring it out together. 

Mandi Morris: Wow, so you were actually given an opportunity to develop your own leadership skills while also doing work that felt very valuable to you. So tell us more then about your story.

You go from high school having this experience and then how did that project forward for you from there? 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah, I think I went to college and studied cross cultural studies. Wanted to study another language after studying Spanish, ended up taking Chinese and fell in love with the language and the culture, was able to study abroad, and then really wanted to use my language skills and help other people grow their language.

skills. So many people see language is so inaccessible. So I started off by teaching world language and from there realized that it was just as impactful to move into teaching English [00:08:00] to kids who already spoke a different language and really solidified my career there once I was in New York City and there’s really no better place to do English learner work than New York City.

Mandi Morris: Wow, so tell us a little bit, Justin and I have both lived in Asia at parts of our lives and, but I was there teaching English. What was it like to teach Mandarin overseas? If I understand correctly, you were a Mandarin teacher overseas, right? 

Lauren MacLean: I was the lead teacher for the English side and would support my Mandarin co teacher, but I do speak Mandarin, so.

That was pretty necessary. And when you work with preschoolers, you really have to speak both languages because the kids are going to move back and forth between the languages even without realizing it. And so I was fortunate that we’d spend our morning doing English time and then in the afternoon it would transition into Mandarin time.

And it was really a truly a 50 50 program, which is a dual language model that I get to use now in schools here in the States, but it’s really exciting. I think also, and [00:09:00] just gives you a different lens around school instruction. So even as somebody who was in Taiwan, getting to see the different way that Mandarin is taught specifically around literacy than it is in mainland China was really cool to explore and learn about.

Justin Hewett: So in Albemarle, do you have a Mandarin Chinese dual language program today? 

Lauren MacLean: Unfortunately we do not yet but we do have a dual language Spanish program in one of our elementary schools. 

Justin Hewett: I love it. I love seeing dual language just growing all throughout the country. Being here in Utah, it’s really prevalent.

We have a lot of dual language options and opportunities. And as I was telling you earlier, I’ve got four kids right now. Four of my kids are learning Chinese and dual language immersion programs, which is pretty cool. So I’m a big fan. So I love hearing about that part of your background. How long were you there in Taiwan?

Were you there for a while? What brought you there? Like, how did you get there? And then how long were you there? 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah, it was a partnership with a private [00:10:00] preschool based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They would hire English language teachers and then would do a little bit of training with us and then support us in going over there.

And similarly, the preschool over there would then send visiting teachers too. I was only there a year. I love Taiwan, but also love being a little bit closer to my family. Something I’m sure you all can relate to but it was a great experience to be there for a year. 

Justin Hewett: Oh, a hundred percent. I’m sure it was such a formative experience being there for one year.

There’s just so much you can learn. A lot of people go somewhere for a month and have a life changing experience. You’re there a year, you really become entrenched a bit in the culture and you get to understand. You start to see things that you don’t see in a week long vacation somewhere, or a trip, or a month long of something.

You got to really experience it and being in the classroom with these students and getting to know families, I’m sure that left a pretty lasting impact on you. 

Lauren MacLean: Definitely. Preschool is just a great time to also get to know families who are on the ground floor of [00:11:00] their school experience. 

Justin Hewett: I love that thinking.

So where did you go from there? So you came back home to some degree or like where did you go next? 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah, I ended up in New York City, so I worked in Coney Island for a while at a charter school there. I was doing a lot of compliance work, but then saw a need for some English learner services. Coney Island is a very diverse area, and so I was able to jump in and do some of that kindergarten through 12th grade with a wonderful group of kids who are.

Now adults and from there moved on to a nationwide group of charter schools that was based out of East Harlem. 

Mandi Morris: Man, so what did that experience look like for you? What it, what was it like supporting English learners? You went from all of my students speak the same home language and we’re doing this like dual language experience, which is just so cool that you had the opportunity to do that overseas and now you’re in a system where I would imagine you’re serving students from a lot of [00:12:00] language background.

Lauren MacLean: Yeah, people always say, you speak Spanish, so it’s easy. But Spanish doesn’t actually get you very far in South Brooklyn, Russian would have been really helpful. So I think it was a really great opportunity to stop and think about what really matters with language learning, and also how to really develop relationships.

With families and like kind of foster a sense of community across languages because New York City is a wonderful place where people like work together and come together every day, even though they’re coming from all different backgrounds and languages. And so it was great to be a part of that. 

Justin Hewett: So Lauren, what was that experience like for you going from your experience in Taiwan to then coming to Brooklyn and being a part of this melting pot?

How did those communities all end up melding together to become an EL community? 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah, I think at first it’s really overwhelming. It’s kind of who do I need to talk to? How do I need to? And I think a lot of it was really stopping and listening to different people and hearing [00:13:00] what was currently working for them.

So for a lot of our families who spoke Spanish, they felt really plugged into community through The local church, and that was a great way to share information. And obviously that was very different for example, our Ukrainian community, they had a completely different kind of community organization who they partnered with, but also watching those two groups work together.

And so when there were big things happening in the community, unfortunately, South Brooklyn has had some history of gun violence, for example, watching different community groups come together and work together and say, Hey. We want to do this event. Okay, I’ll translate it into this. I can get an interpreter for this language.

We’ll bring this type of food. We’ll bring this one. And seeing everybody work together really helped me understand, okay, when I’m in a situation, what I need to do is figure out, what do people have in common? And what did we all bring to the table? Instead of thinking, I have to work with each person separately.

Justin Hewett: It’s really interesting as I’m thinking about [00:14:00] some of the experiences that you’ve shared in these perspectives, Lauren, it seems like you have a gift for seeing the strengths of others. I’m thinking about your experience in high school, where you’re put into this experience with peers that don’t speak English.

And you’re realizing that, Hey, a little, maybe they don’t know English that well, but gosh, they sure know math. Like they, they can do this work. They just need to understand the language here. And then here talking about the building of the community and how. Obviously there’s challenges there, but you’re looking for, how each community brought some of their assets, some of their resources, some of what could they bring to the table as a part of the wider spread English learner community.

How does thinking that way, do you think impact the work you’re doing today as an EL director? As you’re thinking about community, you’re thinking about the assets that communities and cultures and languages bring, like, how do you bring all that together when you think about that in your role as an EL director today, 

Lauren MacLean: I think it really helped to ground me in [00:15:00] the work and to think about how to keep the work going, even when there are challenges and so a lot of what I.

I do try to remind myself is that there are a lot of people who want to do good things. And sometimes we don’t always know who’s in our space, who’s helping move the work forward. And so stopping and thinking, who are the people who I haven’t seen, right? Who is the random person who is dropping this kid off at school?

school sometimes from that is not your mom. I know your mom. So who is this person? And trying to build those connections and see what are all the great things that are happening, I think, especially then building that network so that when things do get really tough, when you do find yourself in a situation with a specific kid or in a broader community sense, you’re able to say, okay, We don’t need to panic.

We have people. We just all need to come together and figure out how we’re gonna do things together 

Mandi Morris: It seems like in every place you’ve been in that you’ve talked about on [00:16:00] your journey you’ve talked a lot about community and the community outside the four walls of our school like All of the systems that are in place to support students Outside of school as well and how to bring them into the fold if you will wita presentation as well I’m curious when did this?

Maybe lightbulb moment go off for you of there’s only so much we can do within our four walls and what’s happening outside And how can we do this work together so that it could be stronger? 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah I think a lot of it has happened during the my first few years of teaching when I think like most first few Your teachers, I felt completely overwhelmed and I think you can try and do it all.

And at some point you realize you just can’t. And one thing that I realized, especially in South Brooklyn is sometimes when you fall, you have to trust that everybody else is going to catch you or is going to catch the kid who you might not be able to support. And so that’s something that I really learned, but I think it also really crystallized for me when I moved down to [00:17:00] Virginia within about six months of my moving here was.

When Afghanistan had collapsed. And so we received a huge influx of Afghan students and watching this community really mobilize and support and come together. Really, just for me was a great example of just all the strength. Of things we can do and also a chance for us as educators to step into our power, right?

We have something really important we do that parents need us to do, they want us to do, they want their kids to learn. And so I think a lot of times for us it’s about stepping into that and saying here’s what we bring to the table, and then here’s also what we need from our community. 

Mandi Morris: So taking those systems and how do other people learn from the systems you’re doing?

Like what’s the learning you have? Let me start over again. I’ll make a note. So taking from the learning you have over these years of bringing in community, what is the takeaway for other school districts? What’s worked really [00:18:00] well for you in the school district where you are right now that you could share with others?

Lauren MacLean: I think the first thing is to just not be scared to get out and talk to people. And I am not somebody who likes to go out in social settings, but sometimes you have to push yourself to go to places where people are and ask questions, right? And so I know my first few months, I, somebody would say, Oh, Like this so and so helped me out and I’d be like, who is this person?

They’d be like, oh, they work for this organization. And so then it’s as simple as reaching out, introducing ourselves. What are things that you might need? What are things that we can help you with? And then what are things that like you can help us with? A lot of that really has to do with the rest of CRUST.

I don’t just call up our local organization and say, Hey, I need help with this kid. I’m also at their community event, volunteering. And so a lot of it I think also comes from just the reciprocal nature and building trust, right? If I show up to your things when you need it me if I answer the call when [00:19:00] you say hey, I’ve got this kid We’ve got to figure out a way to get them in or their parent is scared about this.

What can you do? It makes it easier than when I’m worried and I need help for me to ask you. We have to build that trust now so that when things get tough, we’re already in it together. I 

Justin Hewett: love that vision of investing in these relationships and in these partnerships to. Create a web where people can really support and stand up for each other.

And I also appreciate you saying that, Hey, it’s not always very comfortable to go put yourself out there and it’s uncomfortable. And frankly, a lot of people don’t want to do stuff like that. And I’m thinking about some English Yale directors that. They’re doing the best they can within their district and putting the systems in place and they really are working really hard to make sure that they’re supporting families through their resources and through their mechanisms and through their teachers and their instructional coaches and their translators and whatever that might look like.

But what I’m hearing you talk [00:20:00] about is outside of that, right? It’s outside of what I’m doing in my district per se. And so Lauren, what message would you share maybe with those EL directors that are not doing as much outside of their district per se and sell them on it? Tell them why it’s important.

What do you think? What would you say? 

Lauren MacLean: It’s really about how you make your job easier, because if you are always relying on the resources that you have. You’re never going to be able to set yourself up fully for success. That’s not the world of education we live in, especially post pandemic. We don’t have the resources that we need to be able to do everything we want to do.

And so what we have to do is really build these connections with our community partners so that we can Come together. And so that instead of trying to constantly hire interpreters for that new kid who speaks a language that you haven’t had before, you can pick up the phone and call [00:21:00] somebody and say, Hey, do you have an interpreter?

It’s about how you make it easier on yourself and also how you make it easier on your teachers and your instructional coaches, because we all know everybody is feeling really overwhelmed and tapped out right now. And so it’s about how we’re providing that support. 

Justin Hewett: I love that. I love that. I’m almost sold.

I’m just kidding. I’m in. I’m in. Let’s do it. My question. The reason I say that is I just, it sounds like a lot of work, right? If I’m thinking about this, I would, if I’m an EL director and I’m running a, I’ve got a team and we’re serving hundreds of families or thousands of families and their students and all the work that we’re doing and it just, it can be overwhelming to some degree.

And I love the idea that you’re saying that it makes it easier. And I’m guessing you’re saying it makes it easier in the long term and it’s a long term game, but how do I decide I’m going to get the return on putting it forth that extra effort? Because I think one of the things that might stop some EL directors from [00:22:00] doing that and putting in that work is that they just don’t know.

It feels like such an unknown, right? Not knowing exactly how to go about it and then also not knowing is the juice going to be worth the squeeze at the end Of the day. Is it really going to work? And so how would you encourage somebody that’s maybe thinking about it that way? 

Lauren MacLean: I’d say you have to start small, right?

In education Sometimes we talk about shrinking the change and so who is the community who you feel the least connected with in your school, right? I think a lot of times we all think about many of us in the United States have large communities who speak Spanish. So don’t start there. Start with the small handful of families you have who maybe speak another language and figure out what aren’t they getting in school?

Because there’s probably things you’re doing for your families who say speak Spanish that you’re not able to do for them. And where are they getting it? How are they getting it from each other? How are they getting it from the community? and [00:23:00] start there and understanding them and figuring out what you can do with them.

Because I think once you see the return there, it’s much easier to then think about how do I grow this, but also they’re really great kind of messengers for this of saying, wow, it’s really worth it to have these connections between different people. 

Mandi Morris: That feels, it gives people a roadmap, right? Of how do I do this?

And we, school district I worked in Oregon, we had exactly what you had talked about, a large Spanish speaking population, and then a much, much smaller Chuukese and Marshallese population. And this was a population of students that. We were concerned about their engagement in school. We were concerned about our inability to communicate effectively with their families.

We didn’t have translation and interpretation services and we were started to rely really Intentionally and pragmatically on some relationships we had fostered. And it’s like pulling that threat. Like, where can this go? I’m going to [00:24:00] develop this relationship and build trust here. And then how can we serve your community better?

And all of that work came from. Wanting to do the best that we could to serve our students and not having the resources that we needed to do that work And I feel like that’s a little at the heart of what you’re saying is uncover Where is the student population where we don’t have the resources? We don’t have The access to what we need to serve these students well, and then trying to pull on those relationships 

Justin Hewett: I have to say I just love I love our EL community, our ML community, the folks that are drawn to this work to serve English learners, because I think at the end of the day, doing what you’ve done, Lauren, and wanting to build those connections and looking for the little ways to start, I actually love your advice of, Hey, pick the smallest community and start there.

What is one thing you could do there to bridge that? I just think that’s such a beautiful. Message and [00:25:00] super helpful for really anybody that hears it. And it reminds me of that story about the little girl with the starfish and she throws the starfish that are stranded on the beach and she throws the one in.

And then she throws another one in and she throws another one in, but there’s thousands and the old man comes by and says, why are you doing this? And she says, I’m helping save the starfish. And he says, but you can only throw in one at a time. You’re not going to make that big of a difference. And she throws another one in and she says it made a difference for that one.

And I think that. The message is that by starting small, you get to start creating momentum. And that’s what I feel like our people around the nation that are doing this work, that are drawn to this work, they’re taking care of that one starfish at a time, that one student at a time. And I think if we can keep that focus, what does this student need?

Then we can take a next step. We’re going to learn a lot about that student. We’re going to learn a lot about how to serve them. And then we can learn how to serve more students like them. And more students in their community. And then it just gets to grow and grow. [00:26:00] It’s almost like the ripples. If you throw a rock in the water and it just ripples out.

And I just, I love that, that messaging and that imagery from you, because that’s how you take a mission and really give it momentum. And I feel like a lot of the people that are in this work have really been drawn to it. It becomes a mission of sorts. And I know that it feels that way for me. So I love this and I really appreciate you sharing these messages.

Is there anything in particular that you’ve done in your district, Lauren, that you can point to? I know that the title in in your WIDA session, you talk, or the subtitle you talk about, do you feel like your team is burning itself out to support multilingual students and families? I assume that’s something that you experienced in your district, is that everyone was feeling burnout.

And so maybe tell us a little bit about that, and then maybe we can dive into some of the changes that you’ve made to help remedy it. 

Lauren MacLean: I wouldn’t say we’ve remedied it, I think is one thing. I think it is important to recognize that this is a really hard space for many of us to be in right now. But I think that what we have done [00:27:00] is figure out where our stops are and who can fill those in.

And I think one of the biggest things we had to do is figure out, of our community partners also, who are the people who we absolutely needed to make sure that we had open lines of communication with. And for us, that was our refugee resettlement partners, especially when we got a big group of Afghan students, but it’s also our local hospital who both sees the majority of our students and is also as a part of the University of Virginia, our largest.

lawyer in the area. And so making sure that we’re in constant communication and feedback with them has been really helpful. Being able to hear what they’re seeing broadly in their clinics helps us know how we can support our parents and understanding when their kids should go to school and when their kids should go to the doctor and if they need to go to the clinic or they need to go to the ER.

And so just being able to really identify who are those big [00:28:00] groups. And big organizations and figure out who is your partner in this work, because it’s not like I call up the president of the hospital, right? You have to figure out who is the person who sees most of your kids, right? Who are the people who are on the ground doing this alongside of you?

And how do you connect with them? And then For me, it’s about also how does my team then connect with them, because I’m also not doing this alone, right? So how do our registrars get to be able to talk to these people? How do our teachers, so that everybody feels like they’re in communication? 

Mandi Morris: Lauren, it seems like you’re really intentional about wraparound services.

And it makes me think of Maslov’s Law of, you can’t focus on learning until you have your immediate needs taken care of, that you have food and shelter and the medical needs that you have. There’s A lot that sits on the shoulders of English learner teachers across the country, everywhere that we’re doing this work.

We’ve, we, as Justin had said, I think there’s a [00:29:00] lot of people doing this work of really big hearts. They’re on a mission to take care of the whole child. How do you support your teachers doing this work and knowing that their needs are also met and seen as you’re trying to do such big work to support the whole child experience?

Lauren MacLean: I think some of it is about how we can frame the work and our role in it. I know talking to teachers, sometimes we forget just how much our families And our community can bring to the table, and we want to rush in and say, Oh my gosh, this family needs this thing. Let me rush to provide it. And sometimes just even saying, Hey, let’s pause.

Who’s the group who usually provides this, right? Because, for example, if you have a family with a newborn who needs diapers, right? English learner families aren’t the only ones who need diapers. How does the rest of our community get this? What are the things that we need to just build those bridges and refer our families to so that they’re able to do this?

And also, what are the assets they bring, right? How [00:30:00] can our families help each other? When we have a family who runs a business, we have somebody else who might be wanting to learn about how they can get started in the workforce. How do we build those connections so we also can highlight the assets? And then I think the other thing is really situating ourselves, like you said, within Maslow’s, but recognizing that for a lot of our families, education is a huge part of what they are looking for and is a measure of their security, right?

Because you can’t work if your kids aren’t school for a lot of our also really take seriously kids safely into school a want to go to school so t able to take care of thei needs. And so I think it the combination of both a just trying to continue t with our teachers and with ourselves about what are you able to do and what are you not able to do and knowing when to ask [00:31:00] for help.

That’s something I know I’m always saying. I don’t know what to do here. Who is the right person to call? 

Justin Hewett: It’s really interesting. There’s a book that I’ve learned a lot from that was called Who Not How. And to me, that’s a little bit what I just heard you describe Lauren was that principle of when you find something new that needs to be done that you don’t know how to do it necessarily, or you’re maybe not the best person situated to do it.

You have to find the right hoop. You got to find the right person who this is actually easy for them, where for you, it’s paralyzing. And you’re thinking, Oh my gosh, I have no idea how I would even start with this. But yet there’s other people that like, that’s their favorite thing to do in the whole world.

Or that’s just easy for them. That’s a quick phone call or they’re, they actually have already done this. So yeah, here you go. Happy to help. So that to me, I love that concept of not how do I do this? It’s who can help us with this, right? Mandy, you talked a little bit about wraparound services, and I’m not sure that’s something that we’ve necessarily talked about here on the ML Chat podcast per se.

Do you mind maybe [00:32:00] breaking that down for those that might be new in an EL director role or new in a district where they’re not necessarily thinking about wraparound services for their English learners in their community? Do you mind talking about that and then maybe Lauren, you can talk about it too.

Mandi Morris: Yeah, absolutely. When I think about wraparound services, it’s a real whole child approach. We know as educators, our job and responsibility is to provide school, but we know for our English learners and other students, I love that you pointed that out earlier to Lauren. It’s English learner families aren’t the only families who need diapers for a newborn, right?

So some of these services are services that our whole student. Body population needs to access to but thinking about the behavioral support, the social emotional support, access to counseling services, access to medical options. And sometimes it’s just families also knowing, Hey, there are free bus passes for students.

You just need to have your student ID and you can get a free bus pass. There’s a dentist that gives a discount on [00:33:00] Wednesdays before two, so you can get half off if you’re paying cash. Those types of. Service access families don’t know about them unless they are accessing them with, in their communities, which again, to Lauren’s point earlier are usually very well defined and established.

If you have a very large population that is. Spanish or Russian, but then when you have these smaller populations of home language, those families don’t always know about those services and resources, but I really appreciate it. Something that Lauren also pointed out, and I’d love to hear you talk more about as educators, we can sometimes get hung up on the trauma that our students have experienced before they came to us and freeze in that space.

I can’t teach. I feel so bad teaching. How am I supposed to teach when this child came from fill in the blank, like some really challenging traumatic experiences that we have not personally experienced. So Lauren, I really would love to hear you talk some more [00:34:00] about that. What does wraparound services or whole child services look like when we are trying to be intentional about, we still have a job and responsibility to do here that involves teaching these children and keeping them in school.

Lauren MacLean: I think a big part of our work is figuring out what are the barriers to our kids being able to learn and then figuring out which are the ones that we can wrap around to support, right? So, if it’s mental health services, right? What are the things that we can address through in school counseling and what are the times where it’s really far too deep for that and we need to refer to an outside provider and then who are those outside providers?

How do you get on the wait list? How do you navigate those websites? And I think also another big thing with that right is recognizing that trauma is You know, there’s no scale on it. And there’s no saying like how it impacts people. Everybody reacts differently to what they experience. And so recognizing that our students are going to [00:35:00] come in different places and with different experiences, and we have to figure out what they’re able to access in that moment.

And when they’re ready to address what’s happening with them, because I think for some of our students, they come in and we’re like, okay, you need counseling. Oh my goodness. But they might not be ready for that. And that’s okay too. And being able to also sit with a family who’s struggling with their child and say, what are the things you’ve tried?

What would be helpful on our end? What can we do to support you? 

Mandi Morris: It feels like your approach to supporting families and students is very curious, like you stay in a space of curiosity versus making assumptions. And I’ve fixed this once and I know how to fix this again. You’re wanting to really approach families with an open heart and an open mind of each situation is unique.

Each family’s need is unique. And how can we approach that while listening and not just making assumptions about what you do and don’t need. [00:36:00] 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah, I think every family does bring something different. I would certainly say like everybody, it is easy to say, Oh, you need this. Here’s this, but I think it takes time, but being able to stop, figure out who is the person who they already trust in the school division, right?

It’s not always. So who’s the right person to talk to them, who can hear them, and meet them at the level where they are, and figure out what is the thing that they are asking for. Because sometimes the reason you can’t get to school is really as simple as you don’t know that the bus can be free. And sometimes it’s that you’re already at work and your kid has to wake up on their own.

And if you just start with the bus is free that’s not going to reach that parent with what they actually need. 

Mandi Morris: I love that. I remember in the past buying students like those old school alarm clocks, right? Because parents working the night shift and you have a huge responsibility at 11 to get yourself up and ready and get your little sister fed breakfast and also to her.[00:37:00] 

Bus stop and all of the things. So I love that example of starting with the bus is free is not going to solve every problem for transportation. You’re really listening for those unique needs as individual needs. And I appreciate that perspective a lot. 

Justin Hewett: Me too. I love that. We should that’s that I think every kid should get an alarm clock when they register for school that ought to be like a hand deliver kind of thing.

Lauren, when you did your session, did you have a handout by chance that you delivered for folks or like a slide deck or something along those lines? 

Lauren MacLean: Yes, I had a slide deck with a QR code that led to some more resources. 

Justin Hewett: Oh, I love that. We would love to include that maybe in our show notes here, just so folks can access some of that.

I’m thinking about an EL director or ESL director that’s listening to this and thinking to their cells. I like Lauren’s approach on this. I think I want to get started. I need more information. How do I get started? And I think that slide deck and that QR code that leads to additional [00:38:00] resources will probably be a really good place to start and.

I think there’s probably a tremendous amount of value there. I would love to learn a little bit more about your school district, about the students you serve and the way that you and your team are serving them. If you don’t mind, maybe take a few minutes and just tell us a little bit more about, about your school district and about your, the students you’re serving.

Lauren MacLean: Albemarle County surrounds the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, so we’re like a county with a little circle cut out of us. And that means that we have a really interesting population, right? I think most school districts, the majority of our English learners and even just the majority of our multilingual families.

our Spanish speakers, but we have this incredibly rich diversity that really comes from two things. One is that we are a refugee resettlement site for the International Rescue Committee, but the other is that the University of Virginia is right here. And so every year we get lots of new visiting.

Families who are coming as faculty, as [00:39:00] students, and their kids come and enter our school system. And so that makes things really fun for us. We’re a very large county, so we have some really rural schools where you might only have a handful of English learners in your community. And then we have some schools that are in more kind of high density areas where you might see 20 percent to 30 percent of our student body is English learners.

And again, our biggest population is students. Spanish speakers. We have a pretty large Afghan community who we continue to work with really closely. But we also have families who are really from all over the world, and that just makes things really fun. And also, I think Everybody brings such a different experience, whether or not you are coming because you are fleeing war or you are coming to earn your PhD in engineering.

There’s just a different story for each family and also really encourages my whole team to think about. All the [00:40:00] different things that our families bring to us. So we have an international welcome center where we welcome and enroll all of our families, get, make sure they have all the information they need about schools.

And then we’re also able to go into our schools and support there. 

Justin Hewett: What a unique school district and unique situation where you’re drawing English learners of all different experiences and backgrounds and different assets and different cultures and all that is really interesting. I’m curious how, as a district, how do you provide language services across the district when you’ve got some rural, like you got districts that just have rural or just have inner city or just have, and you have it all.

And so how do you create a framework? For providing language services in so many unique situations. 

Lauren MacLean: Yeah, I think it was certainly a change for me coming from New York City for first time I went out to a rural school. I was like, where am I and where is the school? And so I think a lot of it is really [00:41:00] Figuring out who are the right people in the right positions and who we need, right?

So for some of our schools, they may have an English learner teacher who is there a certain number of days a week, or they might have somebody who is an English learner teacher and also their readings. specialist, and in many ways that can be a really great thing because that teacher is always there, always providing language support, but recognizes that there aren’t as many students who might need that direct support.

It means that in some of our schools were able to provide co teaching, and in some of our schools, we really just provide sheltered instruction. We also are in our second year of having a secondary newcomer program. And so we bring all of our secondary newcomers, so students in their first year of learning English and attending school in the United States, have the option to join us in a centralized program.

Rather than being the only newcomer at your school that is a little more rural, you’re able to be in a school setting that’s small. That’s with other kids who are learning alongside of you. [00:42:00] And you do that for either a semester or a year. You still go back to your school at the end of the day to take your last class there.

So you’re still forming those relationships. But you also just are able to be a part of a smaller 

Mandi Morris: community. That’s a really awesome system and I’m wondering is that a system that was in place before you arrived or is this a system that you got a sneak peek of in New York and were able to replicate in Virginia?

Lauren MacLean: Definitely one I got a sneak peek of in New York has some pretty exceptional newcomer programs. Yeah, but it is also one that really came out of a conversation I had with one of our middle school principals who said, Hey, I think my team is really good at this. I know we have the most newcomers are there things we can do to help schools where they might only have one?

And I think having those partners were willing to say, this is something that our district needs. And so how do we bring it to the whole district was also really powerful. 

Justin Hewett: That’s gotta be difficult though to provide the right resources [00:43:00] in, with so many different, I don’t know if use cases is the way to think about it, but you’ve got for you to have co teaching here and sheltered emerging it’s, that feels complicated to me as I’m thinking about like, how would you make sure that you have the right resources in all these different places?

Is that complicated or is that just something you it’s just what you do and you guys have just figured it out? 

Lauren MacLean: It’s complicated But I think it is something that my school district has always been used to is figuring out what makes the most sense For the kids in the schools who are in front of us and as our schools change.

We’re also adapting to that 

Justin Hewett: I love that because I feel like I have ran into so many districts where this is the way we do this, right? They have the one way they have a hammer and they’re looking for nails. I think, and this is the way we’re going to do this. And this is how it’s going to be done. And the, what you’re sharing just really resonates with me.

I feel like there’s a tremendous amount of intentionality in the way. You and your [00:44:00] district, frankly, are approaching this. I think, I don’t think every district would allow that type of flexibility in providing those services. And so that’s really neat that you. You’re a part of a district that really is putting the student first.

It sounds like 

Lauren MacLean: yeah I am really fortunate to just get to work with a great school district and also have a great school board who even includes You know some of our community partners and therefore really understands what we need to do to support 

Justin Hewett: That is so cool. Lauren, this has been such a delightful conversation and I feel like I’ve learned a lot and I really appreciate the curiosity that Mandy’s kind of pointed out that you’ve brought really to the work that you’ve done at all these different levels and all these different places.

It’s neat to hear about your journey. Lauren, this has been a delightful conversation. When you think about getting started again as a, as an EL teacher. What is one piece of advice that you would give to a brand new multilingual language turner teacher? 

Lauren MacLean: To be patient with yourself [00:45:00] and with your students.

Justin Hewett: Why is that? 

Lauren MacLean: Because you’re going to make a lot of mistakes in your first year of teaching, and your students are going to make a lot of mistakes as they’re learning English, and the most important thing you can do is remind yourself that you’re both going and trying your best, and some days your best isn’t good enough, and that’s okay, and that’s going to be true for your students, too.

Mandi Morris: So good. What is a practice, Lauren, that you would love to see implemented more when you think of ML education, or our families that we’re serving? 

Lauren MacLean: I think just the willingness of people to do home visits, to just go meet families where they are and back home could be somebody’s home. Could be in New York.

It was oftentimes a McDonald’s nearby, but just like being willing to go into where our family. 

Justin Hewett: Especially when they had 99 cent ice cream cones. That was a great place to be. Now they’re like two bucks. Come on. Ice cream has not gone up that much. Lauren, maybe the last question for us here, which is there a particular author or speaker or [00:46:00] podcaster or that has really influenced your work the most?

Lauren MacLean: I really have been influenced by Ophelia Garcia and her work on trans languaging and kind of, I think, also approaching language acquisition from an asset based perspective and thinking about additive bilingualism. She has really been an inspiration. And I was so fortunate to get to hear her speak a lot when I was in New York, but get to also see a lot of her practices, uh, down here in Virginia.

Justin Hewett: That’s fantastic. I love that. Lauren, this has been such a delightful conversation. Thank you so much for sharing all of these. Insights and all of these experiences that you’ve had throughout the years that have led up to this moment. And we’re so glad that you went and presented it at WIDA so we could learn about you and learn about your work here.

I think these messages are going to be really helpful for a lot of folks. As we move forward and we wrap up here, we just want to say thank you for being a guest here with us on the ML chat 

[00:47:00] podcast.