It’s been a privilege to be a part of the Teaching for Biliteracy community as a blog writer over the past few years. The work has been nourishing for my practice and for my soul.  Writing has led me to develop a true awe of the teachers that surround me – of you all!  You make sense of confusing curriculum with little resources and you balance leadership initiatives with your own instincts. You work days without using the bathroom. You put relationships with kids first amidst growing pressures to produce, perform, and move on. (If you’re in a bilingual setting, times all of that by two.) You are superheroes, yet public perception can sometimes suggest the opposite. We must unite as a community to offer a counter-narrative of educators – what the work entails, and the the honor and support it merits! Our kids’ successes hinge on the quality of our profession.

It is this passion that has led me to the decision for the next step in my journey. I am pursuing a Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership at Edgewood College.  I have no shortage of interests, but broadly speaking, I plan to explore teaching and learning in biliteracy. For the time being, I’ll be helping the college with a program review of our Bilingual Teacher Preparation program and student teaching.  I will continue my position as an Instructional Coach at Nuestro Mundo. Here, I keep thinking lots about coaching models, practices, and characteristics that are critical for working with bilingual teachers. Finally, as you know, I am interested in approaches to teaching Spanish literacy and multi-tiered systems of support in bilingual settings.  These could likely become topics for a dissertation down the road.

Thank you for your support and your inspiration. This is not an adiós, but rather an hasta luego. Or better yet, ¡adelante!  Let’s do good work, and let’s stick together.