Deborah Martel Rogers' Blog

I Choose to SELebrate -by Déborah Martel-Rogers, Ed.D. Bakersfield City School District     How often have you wondered what would have happened if you had taken a different path? When we were children, we all had friends who regretted not having shared their dream of becoming a teacher, pilot, astronaut, surgeon, or professional dancer with their teachers. They thought they were not good enough or that they would not be able to pull it off. Whichever the reason, they already had the No! Before they even dared to ask.      On the other hand, we also knew those lucky people who dared to follow their dreams and accomplish unimaginable goals that the rest of us might have thought about here and there without really having stopped to ponder the real work it would take. Probably because, precisely, it would have taken a lot of effort.      What about if we reveal these secrets to our students and their parents? Are they secrets, or are we talking about...

Excellence by Design, by Deborah Martel Rogers, Ed.D.     Excellence is not an accident waiting to happen, but a carefully designed and planned journey. Although some might see it as a destination, it is really a process taking place daily. I prefer excellence in the face of adversity to perfection which is lacking in its humanity.  

More Bilingual Educators Needed,  by Déborah Martel-Rogers, Ed.D.  "Learning another language is like becoming another person."                                                                                                                                       Haruki Murakami      Despite the abundance of bilingual students in the United States, particularly in California, there is a need for more qualified bilingual teachers. Filling this need is very important in the Californian Central Valley, where my doctoral research took place. To help prepare achieve this goal, BILA programs help prepare educators to work with students who a...

 Los Estudiantes Emergentes Bilingües y la Mentalidad de Crecimiento,  por la Dra.  Déborah Martel-Rogers, Ed.D.     Dweck afirma que "las personas con mentalidad de crecimiento no buscan retos, sino que sobresalen con ellos" (p. 27). Por un momento, entretengamos esta idea, que originariamente surgió en el maravilloso universo de las matemáticas, y transpasémosla al rico mundo del bilingualismo y la biliteracidad. En vez de concentrarnos en escasez y limitaciones, expandamos los horizontes de nuestros estudiatnes hacia sus futuras opciones, capacidades y oportunidades. En lugar de encasillar  a los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés con la etiqueta de limitados en inglés, reconozcamos que son estudiantes que también saben inglés. Esta mentalidad aditiva o de crecimiento es por lo que términos tales como estudiantes bilingües emergentes existen, reconociendo que los estudiantes que están aprendiendo, en este caso, el idioma inglés como una lengua adic...

  Emerging Bilingual Students and The Growth Mindset,  by Déborah Martel-Rogers, Ed.D.     Dweck states , "People in a growth mindset don't just seek challenge, they thrive on it. The bigger the challenge, the more they stretch" (p. 27). Let's, for a moment, entertain this idea, originally rooted in the wonderful field of Mathematics, to the rich world of bilingualism and biliteracy. Instead of focusing on gaps and limitations, let's expand our students' horizons toward future options, capacities, and opportunities. Instead of labeling students who are also learning English as limited English students, let's acknowledge that they are English-also students. This additive or growth mindset view is why terms such as emergent bilingual students exist, acknowledging that students who are learning, in this case, the English language as an additional language in their linguistic repertoire, are not empty vessels. On the contrary, they already bring a wealth of kn...

Por Déborah Martel-Rogers, Ed. D. Abraham Lincoln Jr. High 7th/8th Jefa de Departamento de Desarrollo del Idioma Inglés      Este mes de marzo, cuando los peques adultos de nuestra familia continúan trabajando en sus sueños universitarios, he decidido compartir contigo mi visión en calidad de Embajadora Educativa, una visión que compartí públicamente por primera vez en mi Másters en Administración Educativa por la Universidad Estatal de Bakersfield en el año 2017:       Quiero ayudar a crear un nuevo mundo, un mundo en el que las mentes, los corazones y las almas de nuestros estudiantes florezcan simultáneamente, tanto académica como socialmente; un mundo en el que cada estudiante conozca el significado de la palabra éxito, sin importar su condición socioeconómica, raza, género, origen nacional, etnicidad, o condición sexual; un mundo en el que nuestros estudiantes sepan que son la razón de nuestra existencia, y que estamos aquí para asegurarnos de que cada...