005: Empowering English Learners through Social Emotional Practices with Brenda Mendoza

Krista (00:00): Welcome, everyone, to this addition of SEL in EDU. Hi Craig, how are you today?

Craig (00:06): I am having a time of my life. Yes.

Krista (00:10): Well, that's because you know who our guest is today. 

Craig (00:21): Woo. Yes <laugh>.

Krista (00:25): So, let me tell you a little bit about Brenda for those listeners out there. Brenda Mendoza is a K-12 ELL Specialist and has been an instructional coach and Bilingual educator for fourteen years. Brenda had the honor of being nominated Kane County Teacher of the Year. She received the Kane County Distinguished Educator Award. Mendoza was nominated People’s/Target All-Star Teacher and was also nominated by The Golden Apple Foundation for excellence in teaching. In 2019, she was nominated for an Excellence in Advocacy Award from Professional Women in Advocacy. She is an ASCD emerging leader, the Whole child chair for IL ASCD and she was just accepted into the Latino Teach Campaign sponsored by the White House. Brenda, we are so thrilled to have you with us today.

Brenda Mendoza (01:32): So excited to be here. I just, I hear that. And, I just I'm like, that's not me. Like, that's not me. It's that imposter syndrome. Like, you're like that. It's really, it's really hard sometimes to hear those things. <laugh>

Craig (01:50): You know, Brenda, as I said before we started, there are young people across the entire globe who love and adore you because you have poured into them in such wonderful ways. And so, we need to get into it. I love that wonderful illustration behind you that says, “How I can handle emotions?”

Brenda Mendoza (02:17): I'm teaching second grade now. So we're so full of emotions this year.

Craig (02:27): <laugh> Why don't you tell us a little bit more about your passion? Because I don't think folks know how it just erupts, no matter where you are; we feel it. We feel the love. We feel the passion and would love to learn a little bit more about what drives you? What is igniting you today in this wonderful education landscape that we're in?

Brenda Mendoza (02:57):

Wow. Let's see. Let's unpack that. <laugh> So I, I feel like there's just so many different layers to that. I go way back to when I was a child, I learned Spanish first; so I'm a native Spanish speaker. And at the time I was put into a classroom, there was really no bilingual education. There was no multilingual education. I mean, there was nothing to really support me to learn a second language. And so I kind of just went into that environment without ample support. And I knew from five years old, that this is really overwhelming. And, and it just… all the feelings. I still get them now. I'm still thinking about them now, but I remember as I started going through my grade levels, I became more like a translator for a lot of my peers, my friends.

I started developing that language and then teachers would be like, “Who can translate for me? Can you do this? Can you do that?” And it just was something I loved to do. I loved connecting people and that was at a very early age, like kinder or first grade. I was like, “Ooh, I love this connection. Like, how do I do more of this?” And so that's the first step. But as I grew up, I really wanted to go into journalism because I really like writing, but it just wasn't giving me that feeling of connection that I really thought journalism and telling stories would give me, so I totally changed careers. I started just by accident. I was a teacher assistant in a Montessori school. So when I started doing that work, especially, it was like an intercultural Montessori school.

So the kiddos were learning Spanish. They were learning, Japanese and they were learning English. And it was like, it made sense. Everything clicked at that moment. I said, “This is what I need to do.” I need to take what I learned as a child and I really want to empower multi-lingual students. I want to empower all students, but really I felt my calling was to empower multilingual students because I, myself still am culturally linguistically diverse. And I feel that I can be an advocate for multilinguals. I really feel that's my passion.

Krista (05:40): So tell me… I feel that, in my experience, many teachers get overwhelmed or they're saying, “I've got so many kids’ needs that I need to meet and I didn't go to school for this. I don't know best practices to make great connections.” What would be some of those easy entry points? Maybe not easy, that's not the right word, but entry points that you would recommend that teachers could do in their classrooms to not only connect with students who are emerging English language learners, but to also help foster connections with other students who have been speaking English in the classroom.

Brenda Mendoza (06:23): Yes, definitely. One of the first things to build culture. That's one of my favorite things to do, especially. I think that's probably why I haven't left the classroom because I just love those connections and those really close relationships with kiddos. But the first thing that we do is, I feel like I really learned a lot from you Krista because of your social emotional advocacy. I feel that like, I was doing things in the past, but I never had the language for it. And so once I started learning more, especially from you, I felt like, “Wow, that is exactly the language I needed to have my students understand how to understand themselves.” So I feel like the first thing that happened was I was like, “How do I take these CASEL competencies in? How do I take all this And how do I modify it? Because our multilinguals need modified instruction. Right? So therefore I'm like, well, they're going to need modified SEL strategies. I'm not gonna be able to do it all because first of all. I don't think they'll be able to really understand the language - it's so much. So, how can I break this down for English language learners, especially grades K-5, because I really felt like we're sitting here with kiddos, right? If I look at the WiDA standards, it's telling me a second grader can possibly repeat phrases and draw and label. So, if that's what they can do, how can I tie in SEL at their WiDA level? So it was really complicated work and I'll go into that further. But one of the very first things that I do in the classroom and in PD that I do with teachers is called 'See Hear Feel.’ I really wish I could show the chart. Essentially, it is a chart with a line down the middle and then a triangle at the bottom. Have you ever seen that?

Krista (08:47): Yes! 

Brenda Mendoza (08:48): Fabulous. And so for the kiddos, like with the teachers, we usually do, it is how do we “See Hear Feel” SEL or whatever topic we're going to focus on. And I ask the students that very first week, “How do you want to feel in this classroom? What kind of things do you want to see in this classroom? What kind of things do you want me to say in this classroom?” So right away, I want them to own their learning environment. This is your home; this is your second home. So what do you want? You tell me because I'm listening. And so again for my ELs when I taught 4th grade, I gave them a little post-it. They could write out their sentences and they could draw, they could do more complex things and it was this was simpler to do.

But with second grade this year, it was more complicated because yes, they like the drawing and labeling. That is where they were at, that's their “Can Do;” that's what they're able to do. So I said, that's fine. Draw a feeling or how would you want to feel every day that you come in here. Please draw me - what you want me to say or see. And so sure enough, the kids started guiding what the classroom was going to look like. I'm trying to think if I can remember some of the things that they said because it was just so powerful. They let me see. Some of them were like, I want books that I'm excited about. And so they just kind of like drew a book and they're like smiling and sharing books that they're excited about.

I'm like, yes. Okay. We're going to work on that. And then there were children that were like, “Well, I want you to know how I feel when I come in in the morning.” Sometimes I'm having them elaborate a little bit more because the picture doesn't tell me enough. And I have the ability to speak Spanish so I could speak their language and that helps a whole lot for us to communicate. But they talked about that. They wanted to get hugs. They said that they really didn't feel that via zoom. And so if I didn't mind, they wanted a hug in the morning and they wanted me to care about how they felt, and if they didn't feel really well, that maybe I took some time to listen a little bit. And so that activity, the ‘See Hear Feel’ just immediately told me so much about like what type of learning environment I needed to create.

Brenda Mendoza (11:36): And I really think now at this point, we're in March and they're already thinking about how hard it's going to be to leave here. I know I'm feeling it too because we've come a long way. We've come a long way from where we started. But I think that it started with me actually trying to help them build that self-awareness really, and for them to be more confident about their feelings. And I saw that. I think it was an article that you sent yesterday via email, but it says there's 27 different emotions. Yes. That I was like, whoa, because the kiddos, I don't know if you see this… this is one of the charts we use all the time from the beginning of the year after we did the ‘See Hear Feel’... If we're going to talk about and try to identify how you're feeling, you need to have that language in English. So how are we going to do that? I can't overwhelm them. Right? If there's 27 different feelings, we have to keep it very, very simple. So I'm pretty sure you've seen the Zones of Regulation. 

Krista (12:46): Love that. I'm not a huge fan of programs, but I do really like the Zones of Regulation.

Brenda Mendoza (12:52): And I don't use the program. I just used the Zones of Regulation because I thought, “Okay, this is going to help me really narrow down the words that we can use. Okay, I'm not crazy about programs either, but this just helps me narrow it down and gives me a visual for the kiddos. So immediately the kids were, well, they talked about right. Being angry out of control was one of their favorites. They're like, sometimes I feel out of control and I'm like, “Okay. So what does that look like? What does that feel like? Well, what does it sound like?” So we're going back to the ‘See Hear Feel.’ It's always embedded throughout the day. But the kiddos learn these words in English and they're seven years old. They learn them and then they own them.

And now at this point, they can identify how they're feeling and they could really communicate. What's making them feel that way, like what triggered them. I've taught them coping strategies. And so that's like another piece of how we're building culture in here. We’ve had times where kids are having those really big feelings. And in the beginning, it was really difficult because they didn't really know what to do. So we, I had to teach all that. 

I think I’ve got to go back to one really important takeaway. We need to explicitly teach everything. I mean, today was all about respect. Well, “What is it? And how does that look?” And we reenacted; we did some role-playing and things like that. I think they finally got what respect was, but we use that word all the time. What does it actually mean?

So we had to create that common language in this classroom. It'd be wonderful if we did it schoolwide; it'd be wonderful if we did it districtwide, but that's not always where everyone's at and that's okay. But in here, if I can control that in our environment, it's like, we need a common language describing how it is that we're feeling. I think that one of the biggest things that changed our culture in this classroom was being able to identify how they were feeling. What is it that we want short-term for our kids? And as a teacher, maybe as an administrator, you would say, “Okay, I want them to grow academically.”

I want them to be able to get along with their peers and self-regulate and have positive relationships. But in long term, I really want to teach them life skills that will make them productive citizens forever. And if I can do that, then I can definitely teach anything to the kiddos. But I have to reach that heart first. Because if not, then I'm not reaching that mind at all. And, sometimes that's difficult. You know, when you might be the only one there ready to do all those things, but it really just changes the kiddos. And it empowers them to build some of the coping skills that I taught explicitly. One of the strategies is I taught them how to breathe properly, like breathing exercises.

Krista (16:29): So important.

Brenda Mendoza (16:30): And it's so funny because even now, I have a student who sees me and is like, “Ms. Mendoza's in the yellow zone and she looks a little frustrated.” She comes and brings me some fun stars and hearts… and you just breathe in. I breathe out and she’s like, “Here, Ms. Mendoza, you might need this too.” <laugh> 

Krista (16:55): When you're teaching them self-awareness and self-management, you are demonstrating to them what social awareness and relationship skills looks like. And what you just described is them showing that back to you. So you are modeling that for them and the students are reflecting that back. I just think that's fabulous. And, so now Craig, we know that our listening audience knows we're not messing around when we're like, this woman knows what she's doing! And so, I know you've got more questions. I could see your brain going.

Brenda Mendoza (17:31): <laugh> 

Craig (17:32): I do. I, one of the things that I revere about you, Brenda Mendoza is your vulnerability. Your truth. You are cancer survivor, in some different spaces about navigating being American enough and embracing your culture and being Mexican and American, right. And a woman, educator, and mom, partner, so many things. Right. So out curiosity, with a wonderful second grade scholars that you serve... and especially for those who English may not be their first language, the balance they have to do with their brains and hearts around culture and social emotional learning and wellbeing. And, you know, not every kid comes in with the same skills and values that the next kid has. And so I'm just kind of curious for you, what has been some small wins or some takeaways you've had in really being able to have kids (1) embrace their culture, but (2) also do it in a way that there's a sense of agency, a sense of esteem, a sense of relationship building so skills that come up at the intersections of being an English learner, but also one who still retains the beauty of their culture.

Brenda Mendoza (18:59): I think you said it so well. It is a constant struggle. The sense of identity is something that I think anyone who's learning a second language deals with. I'm always talking to other teachers about how second language learners suffer more anxiety just around speaking and listening those two skills, which I still today struggle with. Just the speaking. I always think like, am I speaking English properly? Am I using the right vocabulary word? And you're constantly code switching. And you're like, how would I say that in Spanish? So it's something that in my brain never stops. And I know for our kiddos, it's a constant struggle. And I'm telling you, I looked at some research and they talked about how the kids' nervous system is affected when they're trying to process both languages. And, no wonder I have anxiety!

I mean, it's like, oh my goodness, wow… all these things that I had to deal with as a child, and then without the proper support. I'm not surprised that I have anxiety. A lot of our kiddos go undiagnosed because either families are not aware what to do, if their child has anxiety and there's not enough resources in their language. So there's all these other things with the family component. They feel like outsiders sometimes because they don't know how to help their child, but in this classroom, even when I was teaching fourth grade, my biggest thing is I wanted to empower those babies so much because they're fourth graders - and they're pretty soon, fifth. Then middle school. So I really wanted them to own who they were, but also, it was super important that they had truly relevant texts like that.

Brenda Mendoza (21:09): I have like a little calming area where the kiddos, they know if they're just overwhelmed by something, they can go, just sit there. And there's like a little basket of books. I try to connect those books with with just how they might be feeling. Maybe they want to read about being peaceful or what is love and gratitude. So the books are there to connect with their social awareness. In that area, I also have like different fidgets and like calming toys for things to help them. Obviously again, I have to explicitly teach how to use each and every one of those things. I also have their students that might be really shy. Especially in our culture, I feel like it is not easy to talk about having anxiety or having a lot of anger or sadness.

That's not very common in the Hispanic culture to admit these things. There's still so many barriers there, but it starts with our little ones. I really feel like if I can empower them and teach them that language. 

And, then in turn, teach the parents. I used to be able to run parent workshops. But since COVID, it's just so difficult to get parents in because of COVID and all the regulations and things like that. But so not only do we have culturally responsive literature, but I have cultural surveys. So I want to know about their background. I want to know about their family makeup. What are things that I should maybe be careful of that might upset them or that's in the curriculum that they might not be ready for because maybe their background. That perhaps is a sensitive topic.

[more coming soon!]