Educating with Love: Using Powerful Talks to Cultivate Habits of Success w/ Lizette Roman

Episode Summary: In this episode, Lizette talks about the impact of being “all in” in education, and being part of a “systematic change” through her dynamic EMS Talks event. She delves into her childhood experience of being educated in a system with no bilingual academic support, and how that shifted into a career in bilingual education where she fully evolved in her mindset of how that support should be provided in a way that “appreciates the bilingual mind”.  What does it really mean to be a culturally responsive educator? What methods are we using to really ensure we are in tune with our communities? How can we push ourselves past professional stagnation and into redeveloping our passion? How can we show our students that there is real world purpose in what we’re teaching them while instilling “habits of success”? These questions and more will be addressed as Lizette educates us with love to inspire us to reach higher heights as educators.

RBERNing Questions for this Episode: 

 1- What is EMS Talks and how does it benefit the community of ELL & ML educators and students?

2- What is “Educating with Love” and how can our listeners play an active role in its mission? 

3- What does it mean to truly connect with students, families, and educators and what are some practical tips on how to do so?

Guest BIO:  Lizette Roman is a proud TESOL member and conference presenter. Lizette Roman is recognized as a multilingual learner advocate. She is skilled in bilingual education methodology, culture, and family engagement. Prior to founding Educating with Love, Lizette was an elementary and middle school bilingual educator and MTSS coach in one of the most heavily integrated school districts on Long Island, NY. She is a strong professional with a master's in educational leadership and administration, currently an adjunct professor for bilingual education at Stony Brook University, NY, and Founder of Educating with Love. Lizette consults & educates teachers of multilingual learners to understand second language acquisition and instructional modifications that are beneficial for their students. Lizette creates and tailors PD to support teachers to thrive, inspire, and LOVE their bilingual students by providing educators with face-to-face workshops, one-on-one coaching, online courses, and webinars. One of her most current projects that Lizette feels is near and dear to her heart is EMS TALKS. Lizette is the founder of the event where over 40 local Long Island professionals and entrepreneurs are contacted and then elected by students to visit East Middle School in Brentwood, NY. Visitors share their life purpose and journey with immigrant and first-generation students. During this event, Educating with Love, LLC. presents a scholarship in memory of Roman’s father to support a multilingual child in seeking their American Dream!

Resources:

Websites/Social Media:

https://educatingwithloveny.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizette-roman-m-s-in-ed-0800a21a3/

IG: Educating_With_Love 

X (Formerly Twitter): LizetteRoman13

Update: This year, Lizette is a keynote speaker at the 4th Annual EMSTALKS event on March 20, 2025 where she will be awarding another student a scholarship to Mid-Island Air in her father’s memory.

To find out more about Mid-State RBERN at OCM BOCES' services, listen to season 1 of the show with host Collette Farone-Goodwin, or to receive CTLE credit for listening to episodes, click here: https://midstaterbern.org/

Transcript

Yasmeen: 0:05

They can take everything away from you except your education." These are words instilled by Lizette Roman's father since she was a little girl. The child of Cuban and Peruvian immigrants, she recalls her parents working diligently as business owners and later U.S. citizens, doing everything they could to adapt, learn English, and contribute to a nation that gave them so much, all while prioritizing education. An unidentified ELL, Lizette grew up in a bilingual home. Today, she is a proud TESOL member and conference presenter. Lizette Roman is recognized as a multilingual learner advocate. She is skilled in bilingual education, methodology, culture, and family engagement. She is a strong professional with a Master's in Educational Leadership and Administration, currently an Adjunct Professor for Bilingual Education at Stony Brook University, New York, and founder of Educating with Love. One of her most current projects that Lizette feels is near and dear to her heart is EMS Talks. During this event, Educating with Love, presents a scholarship in memory of Roman's father to support a multilingual child in seeking their American dream. Welcome to RBERNing Questions, a professional learning podcast where we answer your most compelling questions about teaching, serving, and supporting multilingual learners. I'm your host, Yasmeen Coaxum, and through our talks, I look forward to bringing the methods, philosophies, and stories behind teaching multilingual learners to light. Let's get into the show. Okay, so Lizette Roman, thank you so much for joining us today here on RBERNing questions. I would like to share with the audience first how we actually met. So we were both doing presentations at LaGuardia Community College, I think that's yeah, we were at LaGuardia and I was doing a presentation on YouTube using YouTube as a resource. And what was your presentation on again? And you have a great memory, because wait, I want to say that I didn't really remember that presentation back in 2020 right before the pandemic, and Lizette, I just saw her at the NYS TESOL conference in Albany, and she came up to me and said,"Hey, we presented together," and I'm like, okay, so yes, she has a great memory. So what was your presentation for that event?

Lizette: 2:51

I am so glad that you asked me that question because life has kind of come on to full circle. A lot of things we're going to discuss today goes back to that initial presentation. My very first presentation actually was when I met you and it was on the importance of listening and the skill of listening and how we don't put an emphasis on that enough on teaching the skill of listening. And so we talked about how that is all tied into culturally responsive education and I actually was, when I did that, culturally responsive education wasn't hit so hard. You weren't hearing so much of it, you know, in social media or whatnot, when I was actually speaking on listening, but. It was a pretty powerful presentation. I had people I remember all dressed up and pretending to be a part of the United Nations at that point, a bunch of diplomats in the room, but we had a lot of fun. I do remember most definitely your presentation and you were ahead of your time at that time too, because I remember how you were explaining how we can use social media or technology as a powerful tool as opposed to looking at as something negative, and you explored that, and I think that's so fascinating now with AI. I'm sure you have a lot to say about that.

Yasmeen: 4:09

Yeah, for sure. you know, it was something that I had just, started to study. I had just gotten my M. A. actually, the year before, and my topic was on, learning online versus, studying in a classroom. All of those things that were still, they were happening, but not like, so, in the forefront. Right? Yes. And so after the pandemic, and we were like, it was like right before the pandemic, everybody, it was like January or something, or one of January or February.

Lizette: 4:41

It was in that time, winter.

Yasmeen: 4:43

Yeah, and so, it was right before then and as soon as the pandemic hit and people started to notice all of the inequities and also how much we really were going to need to lean on technology. You know, it then everything just kind of blew up. Okay. So why don't you just tell us a bit about your current role in education now?

Lizette: 5:06

Absolutely. My current role in education is I am an Adjunct Professor at Stony Brook University in the Professional Development, department in supporting teachers and earning their, bilingual extension or TESOL. And that is one hat I wear. The other one is I offer professional development through BOCES and as well as mentoring and coaching, you know, independently for teachers. So those are some of the hats that I am currently wearing and, always evolving, and these last few years have been a huge change in my life and how I, see the direction we can take education and being all in and being a part of a systematic change for the better and advocate. For my students, for the families and for the teachers, our teachers.

Yasmeen: 6:01

Okay, and, definitely, what we are going to discuss, shows this kind of foundation of passion that you're talking about now in terms of advocacy and giving back, et cetera. So, I want to take a few steps back though, and go to your background. So, I mean, what really inspired you? Because. before this current position, you were a junior high school teacher. is that correct? Yes.

Lizette: 6:28

I was an educator, bilingual education for eight years in a school of almost 20, 000 students that were predominantly, you know, bilingual, multilingual, I don't know the exact ratio, how many students are, classified as ENL students, but it, was a very beautiful environment, but also an environment where there were many challenges, and supporting our students and, supporting them and having the right mindset as to how we're going to support one another and the students. So, a little background on me, I am, my father's Cuban, my mother's Peruvian, and I grew up out on the West Coast, and growing up out on the West Coast, automatically you speak Spanish, you are considered, you are Mexican. Whether you want to be, or not, you're Mexican because you speak Spanish, and I, my best friend's Mexican, I love Mexicans, I love Mexican culture, but my family is not. Right. And so, growing up, it was strange because I also I lived in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood where I was not classified as a multilingual learner, ENL, student that needed support. There was no such thing as being a part of a bilingual program, and I think back. What would my education and my confidence have been like as a student if I would have had those academic supports? Yes, that looks does it all. I think would have been so different not to say I didn't have a great education. I had a wonderful education, had wonderful and caring teachers, and I learned so much and I was so proud to be where I was from and, however, I remember sitting in the classroom as a little girl and listening to my teacher go over vocabulary and think to myself, I don't know any of these academic words. I don't know, like, what are you talking about? You know, we don't use these words in my house. But when I really dig deeper and think back, wow, if my teacher would have pointed out some of those cognates, I would have felt much more confident. So, that is a little bit of my background as a child, but with that said, over time, and when I first started, this is embarrassing, but I'm going to share it. When I first started as a teacher, I was already a teacher for about 10 years when I started working on Long Island within bilingual education. I kind of fell into it. I needed a job. I had a girlfriend that said, we have an opening. You speak Spanish, get your bilingual extension. You're going to have an excellent job, excellent benefits, and I went for the interview. I was nine months pregnant. I didn't think they were going to give it to me, and they did. And my mindset at that time, this is actually me saying what I'm embarrassed of. My mindset at that time was, we should not be accommodating any family or any student with translations. People should be learning English. I thought that they were doing a disservice. I thought they were trying to hold back my Latino community. I was like, they're holding our children back. Our children over here are not learning any English. They're not proficient. They're holding them back. How can they do this to us? I was actually angry and I thought it was better at the time to push the English only. What ignorance, so much ignorance, until I started taking my courses with Patricia Velasco. I love her. She's at Queens College. And I started taking my courses for my bilingual extension, did my mind open up learning about Ofelia Garcia and translanguaging and all this research. All this current research has shared what I should have been receiving as a child. And boy, did my mindset change. And there I was now advocating for those bilingual programs. So that's a little background on me on, what inspired me to eventually become the bilingual educator that I am.

Yasmeen: 10:40

Now, when you tell the story and you say that you're embarrassed, I mean, I feel as though it's not really your fault. Right? You said that it was a level of ignorance, etc. But, it's something that really was embedded through just what's going on in society at that time, right? When you were a child. And, this is something having grown up in the Bronx, and being around, a lot of Puerto Rican and Dominican, students, people I went to school with, and I didn't understand when they would say that they don't speak Spanish, right? Like I would be shocked. Like, aren't you, well, you're Puerto Rican or you're Dominican. What do you mean you don't speak Spanish. I don't understand. Okay, but now of course I realize it's because speaking Spanish was looked at as a deficit, right? And it's like, what's coming out of your mouth should be English, and that's the way you're going to be successful, and that's the way you're going to move forward. And so, I understand, of course, the mindset that you had at that time. Right? And again. not your fault.

Lizette: 11:47

Yeah, and I'm so glad you shared that. And I am 100 percent about embracing when my family came here, they embrace and were so proud, and it's in my biography, becoming an American citizen, and what does that mean? And living their dream and appreciating the opportunity they have here, and that comes with also learning the language. But I also want to point out, I've learned, just recently traveling to Europe, I think it's something like two thirds of the world speaks more than two languages or two languages or more if I'm not mistaken. It's something of the like, so we should be embracing the idea. This is my mindset. Now we should be embracing what we know, our home language, and use that home language to support and expand our minds to learning a second language, but utilizing both and appreciating the bilingual mind and encouraging. The reality is that, some stats, according to the National Education Association, by 2025, one out of every four students in the United States will be an English language learner multilingual learner. That's some heavy stuff. So

Yasmeen: 12:58

Yeah, there is a statistic that you also, threw out, I was going to mention this later, but now that we are on numbers, okay, this was like a social media post of yours when you were talking about, an upcoming EMS Talks session, which we are going to dive into, but when you posted information about the event, you also mentioned this statistic with this question. You said,"Did you know there are a total of 148, 933 enrolled ELL and ML students in the state of New York?" So for me, this is really quite an impressive number, and, I was wondering when I saw that, like, oh, is that as of this year? Like, is that this year's numbers last year's numbers? And then I wanted to just ask you, hearing a number like that, what do you think that this means? Like, what kind of alarms might go off in the heads of K through 12 educators in terms of what should be done due to these numbers?

Lizette: 14:09

I am so glad that you asked that question. I think that we need to dig deep on two spaces as an educator. One, our mindset. Our mindset is huge like I just explained. Being a culturally responsive educator is huge. And I'm not talking, when I say culturally responsive, I am not talking just about race, about what we think when we hear the word, we might think when we hear the word culture, food and, you know, religion, culture can be so many things. There's a culture within someone's neighborhood. There's a culture within, just, it goes deeper. There's a culture within a school, you know, so culture just means so many things. So when I say culturally responsive educator, I'm talking about being in tune with your community. Digging deep, doing your due diligence to better understand who it is that you're working with. In the business world, you're dealing, you're doing sales and marketing, you have to know who your audience is. Teachers, we are sales people. We have to know who our audience is to sell our product. Our product is education, right? So that's one. Next is methodology. So what are the methods? What are the tools, the strategies and the methods and the most current research that we have in our pocket? We need a lot of tools, that we have to support our students, to support our teachers. Right? Because so many of our teachers are working so hard and our administrators. but we need to be consistent with our professional development and I cannot emphasize enough to my teachers. Don't wait for anyone to do it for you. I started to become a stagnant teacher. When I met you, Yasmeen, is when I had one administrator. It only takes one person that snapped me out of that stagnant phase. I was getting so used to and so comfortable to just receiving my paycheck and knowing I was going to get a paycheck and just rolling with the punches. But I had talent and that one administrator said to me, I sense your passion. You're doing amazing things. And she recognized my efforts and boom, she said, you need to run with this. You need to share the things that you do. And I stopped being that stagnant teacher, and I didn't wait for my district to give me professional development. I went and searched for it. I became a member of TESOL, New York State TESOL Association, and SABE, I highly recommend for people to get involved and get with their colleagues, because together we are better. So there's, again, mindset, being a culturally responsive educator, and think, dig deep, listen. I really want to talk about the skill of listening again. We're going to touch on that, and then knowing, your latest research, and keeping yourself educated, and continuing your education, so you will not become that stagnant educator. Look for your mentors.

Yasmeen: 17:22

Okay, so there are so many really powerful things that you've said there. You know, in terms of education being our product and in terms of, teachers being salespeople, that's not really a concept I think is really strong in this field. So,

Lizette: 17:43

Right.

Yasmeen: 17:43

Yeah, and but yet it is something that we should consider, right? Something that we should be thinking about because yes, okay, what do we do? We educate, so that is the tool that we have that we need to be able to hone appropriately, right? Depending on who we are in front of. Now, what you talked about in terms of professional development, in terms of, someone noticing your talent and then that kind of bringing more out of you, this has been something that, a few guests on this podcast have mentioned in terms of that person that really, sees you and that notices that you have much more to give than even maybe you notice yourself. Right. And so in terms of professional development, I think it's a good time now to go into educating with love. Yes, and so, tell us a little bit about. Educating with Love. What is the mission? When did you start it? Just dive into it a little bit for us.

Lizette: 18:52

Thank you. And going back to someone that there are so many people that have been supportive along my journey in my life, going back to that moment that one administrator that came in to speak with me. There are many, but I want to give a shout out, Paula Ribeiro, and as well as Wanda Ribeiro Ortiz. They really pushed me to be better and my team, have to mention these people. Couldn't do it without them. Selene Yoel, my team where I work, Maria Mendoza, and Luzmila Cabrera. I have to mention these people. They were my backbone. When you are an educator, there's moments you want to cry. There's moments you want to cry for the families you want to shake it out of the kids and you know they got it in them and you don't know what else to do and you don't know what tools to get out of your pocket. These people have been there for me, but touching back on being those sales people going into the business. The reason why I mentioned that is because sometimes in education we hear from our mentors in education, but sometimes you need a different perspective. I come from a family of business people. I'm not a business, I never consider myself a businesswoman. They love numbers. That's what drives them. Money, you know, it's a drive, right? They love that. And so, when I start to interact, I start to become a network of women. I want to notice them too. Babes in Business of Long Island and Latina Business Network. They also were powerful women that made me look at education in a different light. What do our children need in the real world? What are these business people do day to day? And what are the skills that they have under their belt to succeed? And how can I use these tools in my world? Because sometimes our approaches as educators aren't working. And then let's dive into Educating with Love. We need to give purpose and you need to have goals. And I started to feel not only was I at a point becoming a stagnant teacher, I started to feel like my students, even before the pandemic, but especially during and after the pandemic. They didn't see what was the purpose of what they were doing in the classroom and what's the purpose? And I'm going to go deeper. What started to happen a lot because of the demographic I was working with, my students are on survival mode and they're living a lot of them in a basement, in a room with their entire family. And this is their life and this is day to day. They're not always trusting of people. They've had traumas in their life. And how am I gonna get them to even see, that they can do so much and have the life that they want to have and that there's purpose in what I am teaching them today. How am I going to do that? So I started to find mentors outside and any resource I could gather. And, that's what I want to bring in with Educating with Love. This different perspective for educators. Yes, as an educator, I'm going to talk to you about scaffolding for a baby ELL. I'm going to talk to you about translanguaging and educate you on that and give you the examples and mentor you through that, and again, culturally responsive, but Educating with Love started to see that we have to dig deeper. We have to teach our students habits of success, being highly effective. So I helped transform the school. I'm going to lead us into the EMS Talks.

Yasmeen: 22:40

I see because you just talked about those habits and I know that was a big theme in one of the EMS talks events was about the seven most effective habits, right? So, okay, you can run with it. Go ahead and run with it. Okay.

Lizette: 22:57

Oh, Yasmeen, I'm just so happy to be here with you. I love that you're giving this opportunity in this platform to show what I'm so passionate about. So I'm going to go a little deeper. When I met you, I had prepared this lesson that I put so much effort into and it was so cute. We had the United Nations there with all the little flags and the hats. And I was going to talk about the importance of listening because when I went to my district meeting, the area that we scored less than for the NYSESLAT was listening. Okay, that was why I used that data to help me decide what I was going to give professional development on at that workshop. Fast forward,, two years later. I lost my father. I lost my father to suicide. He took his life and it was during the pandemic. When you deal with the trauma so deep, so much with the stigma, where family still doesn't talk about it. and then you walk into a classroom where children are wearing their hoodies covered, faces covered, looking down at the floor, I started to research, and I started to think, what happened to my dad? My dad was an immigrant. My dad was fixated on the news during the elections. My father dealt with the trauma of being in communist Cuba where a dictator came and completely changed our lives. Yes. And I don't want to talk, I don't want to get into politics. What I do want to say is my dad's reality when he was fixated on the TV and in his mind, it's over. We have COVID. I'm locked up in here and I see a president that I think, might be affecting our nation a certain way it takes them back. And my father would come and I think I'm sharing a lot of very personal things, but I think it's important to share stories. Storytelling is powerful, which I'm going to get to a little bit more, but, I had to research and try to think back. My father would call me at times, and he would want us to listen. And we're so caught up in our lives, my siblings and I, and not to say we didn't listen to my father, but my father called me a few times, and I know he just wanted someone to listen. And the more research I did, I learned the statistics. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, one of the number one ways you can help someone prevent suicide is just that being a listener, an active listener, and not one that wants to speak over someone or say what they want to say when they're listening to the other person. Being a true listener, and the reason why I think the statistic is important to mention is because the third leading cause for 10 to 14 year olds in this country is suicide. It's the second cause for death for 15 to 24 year olds in this country, suicide is, so these numbers are the ages of my babies in middle school when I was teaching during the pandemic and after and babies that have extra trauma because they're new to this country, their are families on survival mode. Okay. I had a different perspective on life at that very moment. And I had pain, Yasmeen, a lot of pain, and the only way I felt that I can make a very impactful, do something impactful for my school's culture and advocate for my students and live on with my father's dream because he's the reason why I became an educator. He used to tell me the only thing anyone can not take from you is your education and your faith. And I wanted to keep my dad's memory alive. And I thought to myself, I'm going to create a legacy for my father, in remembrance of my father. And that's how EMS Talks was born. I read a fantastic book. I don't know, you won't be able to see it, but it's called Talk Like Ted.

Yasmeen: 27:18

Okay. Yes. Yes. I remember you mentioning this somewhere in one of the intro videos or something during my research of EMS Talks. Yes. Okay. I

Lizette: 27:30

was on the airplane reading Talk Like Ted and it's a phenomenal book. It was about what are the things that Ted Talk speakers do to engage the audience to make that impact to make their speech powerful and oh my gosh. There's so much involved. But one of the number one things is being an excellent storyteller to connect with your audience and to be passionate and to be a great listener. And I thought we are things fall into place. We're going to get everyone in the community nearby the district where I work, and I'm going to get people involved and to share their journey, their secrets to success with my students and let my students know that there are people there that care about you. They want to mentor. They want to share. So many people want to mentor and want to share. Sometimes they don't have the avenue on how to do it. And so we had, I had over 50 very successful professionals, alumni of the district, which I think is very important, people from out of state, from 500 fortune companies come, and I tapped into my personal circle, those networks I had joined, and I just tapped into all my resources, and boy, did people want to come be with our students. And when my students saw that people took the time out of their day, it's not a career day. It's a day of sharing ideas and students sharing their ideas and boy do ideas bring freedom and opportunity to listen and be heard and sharing these ideas you're being heard. And it's so powerful and go ahead.

Yasmeen: 29:34

Yeah, there's there are a number of things that I would like to just highlight from what you were saying. So first, I definitely appreciate you sharing, such vulnerability, and I think, you mentioned storytelling right the importance of storytelling and sharing your story, and that of course goes hand in hand with listening, right? So, you know, you have your story everyone has right a story, and when you feel like there's no one that cares about your story, there's no one that's, you know, willing to listen to your story or have some compassion with regard to your story and what you're going through, then that's what creates this kind of silo. And, this sense of, well, then why am I bothering? Right? Why am I bothering to exist, etc. And I really like that you threw those statistics out there about suicide, because I feel like it's not something that we really hear often at all. Right. I mean, it's something that is so, it's so traumatic. It's so sad. It's so important to understand why this is happening, yet it hasn't been really brought to light. So, you talked about your father and like him being really involved in watching TV and politics and et cetera, and what if when you're watching TV, you learn these things, these statistics about what's happening with students, what's happening in our schools. And then you feel like, okay, I really need to be able to do something to help this situation, right? Or at least, you're more aware of the situation. And when you see, students walking from middle school or from elementary school or whatever it is, perhaps a friendly hello or something like this, because you're aware that, they could be going through some right. So, those are just some things I wanted to mention. And I also just really, maybe you're going to dive into it a little bit later, but I just want to say that this, EMS talks event, I mean, 1st, Lizette has this YouTube channel called Educating with Love, and these videos are super well produced and, they're really showcasing and promoting EMS Talks. There's even a video that is taking us through the process of creating the event. So definitely, listeners, please go to this YouTube channel again, called Educating with Love to really get the vibe of these events and their impact. I mean, I, when I was looking at these videos, I was like, oh, just so amazed by the enthusiasm that was brought out of the students, and, there were a few things that were even made. Like, so, for example, there were a lot of positive messages in the classrooms and in the hallways as the students were working on this project to create a welcoming atmosphere for these people who were taking their time out to come and speak at their school, and, I feel like it really just brought project based learning to a whole new level, right? They were all getting together and just creating even artwork, based on what they had researched about the speakers and presenting this artwork as gifts to the speakers. Just, I want to emphasize that, you should definitely watch, these videos, go to this YouTube channel because you will just really truly be touched by, everything that went into these talks and to these events. And it's just, I mean, everything's so pretty and so really well done. Yeah, I

Lizette: 33:24

want Yasmeen you touch on so many important things. I do want to say some things about this event. Okay, we need to build trust with our students. The moment you release, when you build trust by listening to them, maybe you're going to make eye contact, maybe you won't, you have to know about their culture, that's being culturally responsive, you're going to laugh with them, you're going to be at eye level, you're going to be vulnerable and let them know you're human too. It's very, what I shared about my family is a stigma almost. It was a stigma in my family. I, but I'm being vulnerable because I need to build trust with the audience who's listening to us to understand that you are no less. You are you are no less by something like that happening in your family. When you do this with your students and you are sharing similar interests with them, you know, you run a triathlon, you do this, that you have a similarity. You like art, you release oxytocin in the brain. I learned that from Zaretta Hammond Culture Responsive and the Brain. And one moment you release the oxytocin in the brain, creativity happens. Learning happens. We have higher order thinking, and so when your students can trust you, they will do anything, and things are student-centered, they're ready to rock. And so what I did with EMS Talks is I empowered our students, myself and my colleagues and my students at that time, it was tough. You know, we were feeling very discouraged. It was right after the pandemic, and we also were being looked at by the state. Our school is pretty much a failing school, and we need to transform our culture. I had read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, which is well known in the business world, and they have the Lighthouse Schools. And we ran with it, but how did we run with it? We had a project, a big project to take on, not led by the teachers. Led by our families and our students and teachers and administrators, everyone and community members had a role in this huge EMS Talks project. We were going to come together this day and make some powerful things happen. And in preparation for that event, students joined clubs. Like you mentioned, students learned about the seven habits of highly affected people begin with the end in mind, be proactive, synergize, I mean, I can go on and on because I love all of the habits they're amazing. I could talk about that forever, but the students started to realize I need certain skills to make this happen. If I'm going to interview one of our visitors or discuss with them, I need certain speaking and listening skills. If I'm going to type up a forms on Google to take a survey or create the spreadsheet, I, there are certain skills that I need to prepare for this event. And, there were there was so much involved in creating that event. It took us months. And guess what? I'm so excited that this is, we didn't just happen one day. It's now, going to be our third. I think I accidentally posted one time it was March 4th. It's going to be our third EMS talk, this upcoming February 10th. It's called EMS Talks because it's the name of the school, East Middle School, and they are talking. Our babies are talking, our families are talking, and our community is talking to one another. And so we just want to get bigger and better, and my greater goal as the founder of Educating with Love and the founder of EMS Talks is, I want to see this happening at schools all over the nation. I'm dreaming big. And, I want to encourage and that's why it is up on YouTube the process and if anybody needs coaching on making this process happen, that's why I'm here. That's a part of Educating with Love as well. And lastly, I want to mention that every event I have linked up with the Mid Island Air, which is a pilot program in Long Island and I give a scholarship in remembrance of my father to a student. And it doesn't matter your status here in this country. to go to the school. If a student has demonstrated that they have passion and their grades and they're working towards succeeding and contributing to better, they are nominated to be eligible for the scholarship and they go through a program to learn to become a pilot. And, we're in need of pilots. We're in need of pilots and it's a career that is hands on, it's not your, maybe your college ready student, but it's a career that they can take on. So, that is what happens. That is what happens with EMS Talks.

Yasmeen: 38:24

Now, so I did see a post. February 10th, I thought, was that of this year or there's going to be another?

Lizette: 38:30

Upcoming. February 10th, 2024, we're having our next EMS Talks.

Yasmeen: 38:36

Okay, so is that the one because I read about all these amazing participants, so Suffolk County Legislator, Sammy Gonzalez, New York State Senator Monica Martinez, Frank Sestaro, Don Lawrence of Mid Island Air and then youth activist and singer songwriter Meredith O'Connor and Miss New York 2021, Briana Siaca So was that from the previous one or is that for the upcoming and upcoming?

Lizette: 39:07

All those people you mentioned have come already both years. I have to say Briana, our former Miss New York is actually a graduate of Brentwood School District East Middle. I have to give props to our district there. We're so proud and all those people, are heavily involved and there's a long list of not only people that belong to that community, and I think it's good that we have our alumni coming back. We also have people that have taken time out of their day who, have traveled outside of the state, you know, Jeremiah Montana, who is a big sales executive for Facebook and a dear friend of mine, basically a brother, he is a believer in this, and he's flown out from California to New York. My brother Jumani Fernandez, a real estate developer came out. My brother in law, Richard Roman, he's a New York City lawyer, came out and we have a long list. We have a long list, and I have to also give credit to, I am no longer in the school. I have now taken another role in my profession. I have passed this great task on the day to day planning to two former colleagues of mine. All the colleagues, all my colleagues have a huge role in this, but the ones that are taking the lead, Sarah DeVita and, my other colleague, Jessica Magaleto, she just got married, so I was trying to remember her new, her married name. They have taken it on, and they have done a phenomenal job. So, like I said earlier, a greater goal is to have the teachers from all schools think about what does problem based learning and project based learning really mean? Right? You have to dig deep to really see what is going on, what is around you, how to get your students motivated, what are their interests, and you're going to hit that learning pit, but Gatik talks about that. It's going to be a struggle. Kids are going to get frustrated. They're going to want to give up on whatever task it is that they're working on. How do you scaffold things for them to get them back up that hill to Eureka, right? It's a learning process also for us as educators. Things can be very frustrating. But we have to be resilient, and I have to say, this demographic I work with, our newcomers, our ELLs, they are one of the most resilient people I've ever met. So, can they get through the learning pit? They can if we give them the opportunity.

Yasmeen: 41:44

Okay, now, I also want to talk about another event that you have coming up soon. It's with the Eastern Suffolk BOCES.. It's all day professional development workshop focused on methods of engaging multilingual learners through a culturally responsive lens. So, I'm looking at these dates, December 5th and 6th. Can you tell us a little bit more about this upcoming event?

Lizette: 42:10

Most definitely. Thank you. So I'm working closely with BOCES and Eastern Suffolk County in Long Island and I'm one of the consultants for their network, which has been phenomenal to be working alongside these amazing other educators. My specific professional development workshop is geared towards having that culturally responsive mindset. How do we help? Because it's one thing if you tell someone, Oh, what does it mean to be a great listener? Everybody raise their hand. What does it mean to you? What does it mean to you? Okay, now listen to this and we're going to have a discussion. Get in your groups, think, pair, share. We've got to go deeper, everyone. Don't assume your students know how to have a conversation. Don't assume your students know how to be an excellent listener. You have to go through all the motions and tips to help them succeed. So I have created, you can find out my Teacher's Pay Teacher's account. I have created an activity and a template that provides a guide with discussion sentence starters and both in English and then in Spanish, so that when you have to model with your students to sit down and a lot of modeling, and, showing how do I have this back and forth interaction with someone? What do I do when I run out of things to say? How do I keep the conversation going? How do I encourage someone to elaborate? So there's certain vocabulary, including cognates, on this, template that I've created to teach the students the skill of listening and discussing, so that is something I'm providing in my workshop. Another thing that I am providing the workshop are things of such like, how do we get students to release dopamine in their brain so that they want more from you? Because when I read Zaretta Hammond's book about culturally responsive and the brain, the science, it brought me to a whole new other level as an educator, I feel like. There were things I was doing in my classroom that I would be like,"Oh, that works. Oh, cool." But you know what? When you understand what's happening in this brain and why it's working, then you know, you're being more of an informed educator. Decide I'm going to do more of that, or I'm not doing more of that. So how do we get children to be curious, to be creative, right? So what are some things that we can do to engage our students? And those are the things that I talk about and, I also talk, I'm going to be talking about, scaffolding. How much is too much scaffolding? When should you scaffold? At what level you should scaffold, things like graphic organizers, thinking maps that lead into writing and, sentence starters versus, you know, sentence stems, what else did I want to share with you? There was one other thing I want to share with you, making things comprehensible, the storytelling. So those are all things that we are going to be sharing and learning about at the PD.

Yasmeen: 45:36

I'm curious, is this an in person event or a virtual event?

Lizette: 45:41

In person, it is in person. So, to sign up, you can sign up through MyLearning Plan if you're an educator in New York, my learning plan is how teachers can sign up for this. I am also available to provide coaching for others any other school district that is interested in contracting me as well as one on one coaching for someone that doesn't want to wait for their school district they can just contact me, and I can provide mentoring and coaching as well. So, yes,

Yasmeen: 46:15

I mean, because I'm wondering, access, like, if someone can't make it in person, will it be recorded? Or is it going to be like an annual, type of PD event?

Lizette: 46:26

Well, you're giving me some ideas now, Yasmeen. I am, listen, I have my website that's going to be officially up, it's up, but it's going to be official by January, where, there, I do have some good ideas about providing some courses where people can on their own, take some courses for themselves live, or, asynchronous. So, thank you for asking that. It's in the works.

Yasmeen: 46:54

Alright, great. So that leads me to, my second to last question, which is where people can find information about your work and, any of the upcoming projects or events that we have talked about?

Lizette: 47:09

Absolutely. So I am mostly on LinkedIn and on Instagram. I also, like I said, my website will be fully ready to go for everyone by January of 2024. The website is educatingwithloveny.com It all started in New York so I've had to put my NY in there. So yes, that is where people can find me.

Yasmeen: 47:35

Okay, great. And so finally, I mean, you have thrown out just so much food for thought so much really for us as educators. Of ELLs, of MLs of pretty much every everybody, right, as educators of all children to really think about, but what would you say is one burning question that today's educators should consider to improve their service to the ELL or the ML community?

Lizette: 48:11

I'm gonna do a little storytelling, and in answering that, I'm gonna take me a minute.

Yasmeen: 48:15

Fantastic.

Lizette: 48:16

I was reading Talk Like Ted. It mentions of a man named Dr. Ernesto Siroli. He is a renowned economic development expert. He went to Africa when he was 21, and his goal was to teach villagers about agriculture in southern Zambia, and they wanted to grow tomatoes. They grew all these beautiful tomatoes. They were gorgeous. And they started to get ripe. And one morning, when they were ripe and beautiful, overnight, about 200 hippos came out from the river and ate them all. And, my God, they were so upset. The hippos thought his team and the Zambians from the village we're laughing and they said, yes, that's why we have no agriculture here. And then the, team asked, why didn't you tell us? And they responded, you never asked. What does this teach us? This teaches us if you want to help someone, you need to shut up and listen. Don't go into any community and tell them what's going to happen. Don't go to talk to parents and tell them what they need to do. You need to first stop and listen because most of the time they know what they need from you. And so my question to all my educators and colleagues is, how much am I listening? How much am I listening? That's it, my Yasmeen.

Yasmeen: 49:58

Well, thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, Lizette Roman. It's really been a pleasure talking to you today, and there's just been so much really deep knowledge that has been shared during this conversation. So we are so happy that you joined us today here on RBERNing questions.

Lizette: 50:19

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Yasmeen: 50:31

Thank you for tuning in to RBERNing Questions, produced by Mid-State RBERN at OCM BOCES. If you would like to learn more about today's guest or any of the resources we discussed, please visit Mid-State RBERN's webpage at ocmboces. org. That's o c m b o c e s dot org. Join us next time where we hope to answer more of your questions.