Finding ways to address the specific social and emotional needs of multilingual learners is both a challenge and an opportunity for educators.  In this session, John Seidlitz leads a discussion with multilingual students on the social and emotional challenges they face. Students candidly discuss what teachers have done to help them socially and emotionally - and some things that may do more harm than good. They also discuss how their lived experiences- such as being undocumented have affected their social-emotional health  and school relationships.

The second annual Impact Conference is a free virtual event that took place on December 6th, 7th, and 9th and featured experts in supporting the needs of multilingual learners. Impact is an opportunity for classroom teachers and administrators, curriculum and instruction specialists, education advocates, policymakers, and more to join in a community of professional learning with the common goal of furthering progress in multilingual education. Watch all of the recorded sessions on our Community Page.

Session Resources:

• Access the slides used during the session here
• Purchase Carol Salva's book titled Boosting Achievement which underlines many of the ideas explored during this session
• Follow Seidlitz Education Blog for more content on better supporting multilingual learners
• Follow Pam Broussard on Twitter and Seidlitz Education to stay up to date with the presenters

Moderator John Seidlitz is the co-author of Seven Steps to a Language-Rich Interactive Classroom.  He taught social studies and ESL, served as a secondary ESL program coordinator, and held the position of education specialist at ESC Region 20 in San Antonio, Texas. In 2005, Mr. Seidlitz founded Seidlitz Education which is dedicated to the mission of ‘Developing Language in Every Classroom’.

Educator and co-presenter Pamela Broussard is a high school New Arrival Center teacher from Houston, Texas. She has more than  30 years of teaching experience ranging from elementary to master's degree prep courses. Over the course of her career as an educator she has spent time in refugee camps and war zones, and comes with a wealth of experience with social emotional learning and trauma-informed education. 

A very special thank you to our student panelists Reynaldo, Alejandro, and Dionne.