As parents we all want our children to become successful adults. We can't do it alone and we surround ourselves with family, friends, pastors, Sunday school teachers, and school teachers. What happens if the child in our classrooms don't speak the same language? How can teachers engage learners? My next author, Susan Tierno, EdD, has researched these very questions and has written a book to guide teachers called, "Andamio! Engaging Hispanic Families for ELL SuccessUsing Brain-based Learning."
ABOUT THE BOOK
This pragmatic and comprehensive book integrates my research, my parent trainings and my “boots on the ground” experience working in some of the largest and most diverse school districts in the country. Based on my doctoral dissertation, “Andamio!” represents a breakthrough application of brain-based learning research for helping parents with their ELL children, specifically in Hispanic communities and in support of Title I programs. Andamio is the Spanish word for scaffold. As a noun, it is the perfect word to describe a framework, platform or structure for creating parent engagement. This book is a scaffold, written to explain the requisites imperative in how to structure, why you structure, what you structure, when you structure, and for whom you structure training to create real engagement for the Hispanic stakeholders in your community. Once your scaffold is in place, you can choreograph, organize and plan around that meaningful nexus, a community of stakeholders, who come wanting and ready to learn.“ For decades, educators have wrestled with issues related to the academic achievement of students. The role of parent engagement in the education of children has long been one of the challenges faced by school district administrators, support personnel, and teachers. How to engage parents in the students' learning process can seem overwhelming to Superintendents, Administrators, and the Parent Coordinators who are charged with designing and implementing the programs. The issue also includes the teachers who interact with parents on an almost daily basis. “This national opportunity for parent engagement encompasses a growing population of Hispanic parents, where the child’s first language is not English, adding another layer of complexity. Fortunately, we now have a book that contains a balance of thought leadership and pragmatic guidance to administrators, parent coordinators and teachers. “ from the Foreword, by Dr. Ana Maria Rodriquez.
Dr. Susan F. Tierno, Ed.D.
Andamio! Engaging Hispanic Families for ELL Success Using Brain-based Learning
Tell your readers a little about yourself,
where you grew up, where you live now, where you went to school etc. Let them
get to know the personal you.
As a
member of the Baby-Boomer generation, born in Fort Benning, Georgia, Dr. Tierno
is the only daughter in five generations of an Italian family from Abbruzzi,
Italy. Because her father was in the military, her life as an “army brat” was
rich with travel from Army post to Army post, and she grew up in various parts
of the United States and South America. Her father was a survivor of Pearl
Harbor and her grandmother was a survivor of the Triangle Factory Fire.
Ms.
Tierno’s life brought many educational opportunities, which led to her career
in teaching and training in bilingual education, and as a nonprofit social
entrepreneur. Three distinct experiences shaped her character and passion: the
activities that surrounded her childhood Catholic school education; traveling
to and from Bolivia in her college years for a project that became the driving
force in her career; and becoming a social entrepreneur.
Wherever
Dr. Tierno’s father was stationed, she and her two brothers were placed in
Catholic schools, which her parents believed would provide the best education.
In addition, they kept the three children very busy with out-of-school
activities such as theater arts, library visits, swim team, bowling, sports,
Scouting, and visits to local events, landmarks, parks, and museums wherever
the family lived.
One
experience Ms. Tierno recalls vividly is the visit to the Grand Canyon and all
the monuments out West while traveling across the country on a family trip.
Another memorable experience was witnessing President John F. Kennedy’s visit
to Sandia Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico. For Ms. Tierno, lining up to see the
president pass by in his motorcade will always be one of those experiences of a
lifetime. While she held these treasured memories close, the richness of these
experiences came back to her as she became an elementary school teacher.
Dr.
Tierno attended Marymount College in New York, and spent a month studying in
France because that was her selected second language for many years. Shortly
thereafter, her father was stationed as the Military Group Commander of
Southern Command in La Paz, Bolivia. She quickly turned to the study of Latin
American history and asked the dean for permission to conduct an independent
study in Bolivia, which was granted. As a result, for six months she worked
with a Resurrection Catholic nun and priest in a small Aymara Indian school,
taking several daily bus rides up the mountain to the village school. This
experience laid the profound groundwork for her already well-familiar passion
for teaching, and it added the bilingual perspective that built her background
sociologically and anthropologically with cultures of the Third World. Many
years later, Dr.Tierno was not only teaching in bilingual classrooms, but
received a master’s degree in bilingual education from the University of Texas.
Her experience in Bolivia was the beginning of a deep understanding of her
personal passion for teaching and its relationship to immigrants and their
impact on education today.
Dr.
Tierno’s life’s experiences not only led her to teaching in elementary
classrooms, but also took her to the University of Texas and the University of
Nevada, and to positions in school publishing companies, where she learned the
business of building a business. Thereafter, she designed her first education
501c3 foundation, dedicated solely to school partnerships with bilingual
teachers and their professional development, and to their bilingual students
and their families, with specific training in how to think and learn. During
those years, she received the National Creative Thinking Recognition Award for
innovative programs for teachers, parents, and kids from the Creative Thinking
Association of America.
After
taking a break from four national replication projects, Dr. Tierno’s lifelong
experiences culminated in the dedication of her doctoral work to her mother and
father, who now rest together at West Point. The experiences her parents
afforded her—and growing up within a military family that itself descended from
immigrants—formed her thinking and shaped her career. She believes it is this
upbringing that gave her the security, the structure, and the richness of
travel and cultural experiences. Through these experiences, she gained a
sagacious passion for social advocacy through entrepreneurship dedicated to
English language learners and their families.
Marymount College, New York; BA
University of Texas-Pan American; M.Ed.
Nova Southeastern University; Ed. D.
What inspired you to author this book?
Dr. Tierno is honored to apply her unique skill set to her deepest passion: to
improve education, opportunities, and support for bilingual students and their
families within an organization that encourages innovative leadership. She
feels this to be a tremendous and important opportunity to advance bilingual
development to prepare our children and families of all races for a global
market economy.
University of Texas-Pan American; M.Ed.
Nova Southeastern University; Ed. D.
What inspired you to author this book?
The
research in five major or Urban Centers across the country and my Qualitative
research with Hispanic mothers on the Southern Border of Texas.
Where did you get the
inspiration for your book’s cover?
Who has been the most
significant influence on you personally and as a writer?
Brain-based Learning and
the years of studying the theme and it's strategies.
Dr. Karen Bowser;
Dissertation Chair and Laura Marsala; Editor and Graphics Specialist of twenty-five
years with me.
What were your struggles or obstacles you had
to overcome to get this book written?
Time and
some people's procrastination.
Tell your readers about your book.
Andamio
is written for Title 1 parent coordinators and their liaisons in 19,000 school
districts in the country serving not just Hispanic parents but all lower SES
parents. Out parents need to be more engaged in a way that teaches them how to
help and work with their children ---who are now of the Swipe Generation!
The book covers the demographic issues, issues in lack of engagement how to produce training and more!
What do you consider your greatest success in
life?
The book covers the demographic issues, issues in lack of engagement how to produce training and more!
Who is your target audience, and why?
The
target audience is Superintendents, School Administrators, Title 1 Parent
Coordinators, and parent liaisons. Teachers are included in some sections. This
was written, because nothing much is specifically written for Title 1 STAFF and
how to put training together with the parents of their ELL children.
My
education. Having worked in a mountain school and developed a program for
Aymara Indian children, at nineteen.
My Foundation that served as partners with 5 major school districts training
Bilingual/ESL teachers, the children they served and the parents of those
children.
What one unique thing sets you apart from
other writers in your genre?
In my
genre, it is the research and the practical suggestions
