Xiomara Gonzalez - ENL and Bilingual Department
Xiomara Gonzalez – Director of Bilingual, ENL and World Languages
When we published our original blog on November 30 under the URL https://rooseveltufsdscoop.wordpress.com, we did not have information regarding Xiomara Gonzalez. Since them we received an outpouring of emails and have included here the general theme of those emails.
Last school year (2020-2021), Xiomara Gonzalez told the bilingual teachers that they were moving towards an 80/20 model of teaching for the bilingual classes and they were to start implementing this new format IMMEDIATELY. Gonzalez, also mentioned that this model had not yet been approved by Ms. McVea, the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction. However, the bilingual teachers were to proceed with this model in their classrooms. Gonzalez NEVER explained to the bilingual teachers how to teach according to an 80/20 model.
Gonzalez told the bilingual teachers to use the ThinkCentral website which they were using for the Journeys and GoMath curriculums which the school was using in 2020-2021 (it has changed this year because the district cannot make up its mind and is continuously changing curriculum and wasting money). Gonzalez instructed the teachers to use the Spanish resources that were online in the ThinkCentral website to teach Spanish reading and writing according to the 80/20 model. The teachers were not given materials or guidance. They were expected to go online and figure things out for themselves. Every teacher was doing something different.
The 80/20 model had NOT been approved by the district but that is not all. Gonzalez NEVER explained how teaching was to be done using an 80/20 model but expected the bilingual teachers to implement it in their classrooms. Gonzalez NEVER explained that it was 80% of specific subjects that should be taught in Spanish and 20% of a specific subject in English which is what the writers of this article learned when interviewing other schools who implement similar programs. Teachers were confused but most were afraid to speak up. Teachers thought that it meant they were to speak Spanish the majority of the day (something that they thought was the equivalent of 80% if you could even gauge such a thing) so many teachers were switching back and forth between English and Spanish speaking during each lesson, all day. That is not how students become proficient in a new language or their home language for that matter.
Gonzalez came into the role of Director of Bilingual, ENL and World Languages with no more experience than your day-to-day ENL teacher which is what she was prior to stepping into her new role. She throws directions at the teachers without district approval, without learning for herself how the curriculum works, without teacher training, and without the teachers having the materials they need to teach.
Case in point is what Gonzalez is instructing the bilingual teachers to do now (2021-2022) that the District has implemented the EL Education curriculum for ELA. She has told the bilingual teachers that they are NOT to use any of the previous materials used to teach Spanish (Tesoros or Maravillas to teach language arts in Spanish and Estrellita to teach phonics in Spanish.). Instead the bilingual teachers are to use the Spanish resources available online from the EL Education curriculum just as she had told them to do with the Journeys curriculum. THE PROBLEM IS that the EL EDUCATION CURRICULUM DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY OF ITS RESOURCES IN SPANISH! HOW DOES GONZALEZ NOT KNOW THIS? Everything she has told the bilingual teachers to do HAS BEEN WRONG since she started in her role as Director. The BILINGUAL TEACHERS HAVE NO CURRICULUM IN SPANISH! To date, Gonzalez has not retracted her original instructions to abandon the previous curriculum and has not given any guidance as to what materials the bilingual teachers should be using.
Gonzalez’s main goal is to change everything she can about the Bilingual, ENL and World Languages Department merely because she wants to portray the former Director as incompetent. Gonzalez often criticizes the former director and how the program was run under her guidance. Yet, all of Gonzalez’s ideas seem to be reverting back to looking more like how things were under the prior leadership. For starters, there will be NO 80/20 program. The program is remaining more like what it was under the direction of Lissette Laboy. One exception is that in the bilingual classes Math was previously taught in Spanish and now it will be taught in English. However, Science which was previously taught in English will now be taught in Spanish. Therefore, the ratio of subjects in English vs. Spanish is not changing and staying as it was under the direction of Laboy.
Under the direction of Laboy the bilingual teachers knew exactly what was expected of them. They knew what they had to teach, how to teach it, and they had the materials they needed to teach. Under the direction of Gonzalez there is nothing but confusion amongst the bilingual teachers who are being told to teach using MATERIALS IN SPANISH THAT DO NOT EXIST!
Gonzalez is lacking even the most basic skills to run the department. She relishes in the glory of the vocabulary words she has managed to acquire and might be fooling some by their use. However, when teachers bring discrepancies to her attention, she gives poor explanations while trying not to sound incompetent. She does nothing to fix the problem because she does not have the courage to present these discrepancies to her administrators for fear that she will not be perceived well and that it will affect her getting tenure and being able to continue in her role. Instead, she gives direction to teachers without district approval, without guidance, and WITH NO MATERIALS. In the meantime, the bilingual teachers are unsure of their role in the classroom and are stuck with a director who knows less than they do about bilingual programs but who has an ego larger than the Pacific Ocean.
To date, Gonzalez has not retracted her original instructions to abandon the previous curriculum and has not given any guidance as to what the bilingual teachers should be using and teaching in the classroom. Bilingual teachers were hired for the 2021-2022 school year and quit within a matter of months upon experiencing the state of disarray within the Bilingual Department under the direction of Gonzalez. It is incredible that she has managed to pull the wool over the eyes of District Administrators who view her as competent. She has no experience outside of being an ENL teacher and she is way in over her head, having absolutely no competence in how to run a preschool much less a district spanning grades K through 12.
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