This spring SEAL proudly offered seven interactive workshops for educators, families and community partners at the 48th annual California Association for Bilingual Educators conference in Long Beach. More than 6,000 attendees participated in this four-day event focused on growing, expanding and advocating together in support of multilingual education.

Thousands of individuals engaged and walked the halls of the three venues, with a mutual passion for advancing multilingualism. SEAL’s team of experts shared practices from our research-based approach during packed, interactive sessions with educators who can utilize them in their classrooms. On Thursday evening, our team hosted an invigorating reception, gathering with more than 100 partners and educators representing a variety of regions, school districts and communities to break bread, get to know each other and celebrate our work together.

Our Sessions:

Featured Speaker: The Power of Stories for Equity-Focused School Transformation

Testimonios: How Powerful Stories Transform Dual Language Learning Communities

Discover Successful Approaches to Designated ELD that Responds to YOUR Students Needs

Centering Multilingual Families + Communities within the $4.1 Billion Community Schools Partnership Program

Supporting Bilingualism in PreK & TK

Taller para familias – apoya el éxito académico en casa

Designated & Integrated ELD: Using Language Functions as a Bridge

Our Impact

It’s empowering using testimonios. It’s empowering being able to live with and share that truth.” – Attendee

“The experience of doing this [testimonios] activity together was very profound. It made me feel comfortable and was a nice icebreaker. What I enjoyed the most was I could almost see it come alive. It was also very inclusive.” – Attendee

There’s so much excitement to it. Each person read, listened, processed and decided how to organize statements. What empowers it are the testimonios. You want to hear someone else’s story, that makes you want to pay attention. That’s what makes it engaging and that much more powerful.” – Attendee

Whether you like it or not, I am deserving.” – Attendee

“I’ll be taking strategies I learned and emotions I felt back into my classroom. It’s important to listen to student’s stories as well. Giving them an experience to be safe. I’m taking this back so I can use it in my classroom to make connections with students and staff.” – Attendee

I appreciate how encouraging this experience was. Thank you to the presenters for your willingness to share your testimonios. Now how can we learn from that experience and recreate it for ourselves and our students.” – Attendee

About SEAL

SEAL (Sobrato Early Academic Language) is a powerful English Learner-focused approach to education rooted at the intersection of research and educational equity.

We work with more than 132 preschool classrooms, 113 elementary schools, 24 preschool Local Education Agencies and 24 school districts to equip educators with knowledge that fosters language-rich, rigorous and joyful learning environments year-round. Together, we serve more than 50,000 students.