Working with Peabody students – those who are the educational leaders of tomorrow – is a joy. The classes I frequently teach include Methods of Educating English Language Learners, Sociocultural Foundations of Educating English Language Learners, Practicum for Teaching English Language Learners, and Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
Since joining VU in 2012, much of my work has been with in-service elementary teachers who are earning their endorsements to educate multilingual students (“ELLs”). The students, teachers, and administrators in Nashville work so hard to ensure multilingual children are developing the language, literacy, and disciplinary skills students will need to succeed. These awesome efforts strike me every time I’m in teachers’ classrooms. Through this 2012-2017 project, I visited 5-6 teachers each week, as one-on-one mentoring was the heart of our in-service endorsement program. I am delighted to have had this opportunity to develop partnerships with local teachers. Currently, our program partners with stellar teachers throughout Nashville as we prepare new teachers of linguistically diverse learners.
The pre-service teachers in my classes and I collaborate to develop diverse, creative perspectives on effective instruction for multilingual language learners. In the past years, teachers in my classes have come from diverse regions including the US (NJ, MD, MI, MN, OH, CA, GA, TN, etc.), China, Iran, Myanmar, El Salvador, and Pakistan. Each day, I learn with my students who work diligently to develop their instructional and analytical skills. Students from our M.Ed. ELL program go on to teach in local schools and internationally, join doctoral programs, and engage in a range of work in the field of applied educational linguistics (ranging from researchers to translators to language program administrators).
Other efforts that inform my instruction have included my participation in the Peabody Curriculum Committee and the Academic Standards Committee.
I would love to connect with you. Email is the best way to contact me. My email address is shannon.m.daniel@vanderbilt.edu.