Supporting bilingualism in K-12 kids (with Briana Wagner)

I’m SO excited to share episode 96 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast, where I sat down with Bilingual School Psychologist, Briana Wagner. Briana started out as a teacher, but soon made a career transition to school psychologist. She’s also bilingual and knows a ton about how to support culturally and linguistically diverse students. In early 2022, she started the @educationallypsyched Instagram account where she shares information about the school psychologist’s role, as well as a number of topics related to special education eligibility and service delivery. In our conversation, we get in to a number of topics that will be helpful for clinicians, educators, and parents including: ✅What’s the difference between a school psychologist, educational psychologist, and a psychiatrist? ✅How to educate parents and outside medical professionals who don’t fully understand school eligibility guidelines ✅The problems with teaching “whole body listening” and what to do instead Plus…and you don’t want to miss this part…we get into a fantastic discussion about advocating for bilingual and culturally and linguistically diverse students (plus I pick her brain a bit on how I can improve my Spanish). In this episode, Briana mentioned this video about why you shouldn’t encourage bilingual students to only speak English. She also mentioned her collaborator for the video who can be found on Instagram @bilingualplaydate. You can connect with Briana on her Instagram account @educationallypsyched. In this episode, I mentioned my “30 Skills and Tools to Foster Generalization” guide that walks through assets you can build to ensure clients get support outside your sessions. You can download this free resource here. Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:Learn more about Renaissance:As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:Simplify and streamline technologySave teachers’ timeReliably meet Tier 1 standardsImprove student performance on state assessments🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.