Today's guest is a true gem of the Gem State. Jill Ayabei is the Federal Programs Coordinator for the Multilingual Division at West Ada School District — the largest district in Idaho, serving nearly 39,000 students from 91 countries who speak 85 languages. Jill has led West Ada's multi-year initiative to build an integrated co-teaching model for multilingual learners, moving the district away from a magnet school pull-out approach toward a model where ML specialists and content teachers co-plan, co-deliver, and co-assess instruction together. She was recognized for her work on the grant proposal that secured the Idaho EL Enhancement Grant, first awarded in 2023 and renewed through 2029.
Jill: It starts with that community building in that classroom. Really creating an environment of safety, valuing each child in that room, giving a voice to each child, modeling that again with the two teachers. Jill: We always want students to do a turn and talk before I call anyone out to talk in front of everyone. But then, how you respond when that child tries. They might make a mistake and the teacher says, “Excellent answer, I love that,” and values that just as much as anyone else, writes what they said on the board. Everyone knows it's an expectation. The more you have that happening as a regular part of your classroom, it's not the “I shared one thing.” It's everyone's always talking, and we're always valuing each person's input. Brandon: Hey everyone. Hola a todos. I'm Brandon Cardet-Hernandez and you're listening to Leading Multilingual Learning, powered by Medley Learning. Each episode, we're exploring the leadership, the ideas, and the insights that are shaping better education for multilingual learners. Brandon: And today, we're excited for the last episode of our back-to-school brief. And I couldn't think of a better guest. Jill Ayabei is the Federal Programs Coordinator for the Multilingual Division at West Ada School District, the largest district in Idaho, serving students from 91 countries who speak 85 languages. Jill has led West Ada's multi-year initiative to build an integrated co-teaching model for multilingual learners, moving the district away from a magnet school pull-out approach towards a model where multilingual specialists and content teachers co-plan, co-deliver, and co-assess instruction together. Brandon: She was recognized for her work on the grant proposal that secured the Idaho EL Enhancement Grant, first awarded in 2023 and renewed through 2029. It is so great to have you on the podcast. How are you doing, Jill? Jill: I'm doing great. I'm so happy to be here with you. Brandon: Good. For our audience, a little background, I was also privileged just a few weeks ago. I got to hang out with Jill in person because we were at the WIDA conference in St. Louis, and I got to watch you present. It was incredible to see you facilitate a very large room with a lot of educators who wanted to hear from you and one of our former guests and one of my favorite people, Andrea Honigsfeld, about the work that you've been doing with co-teaching, co-planning, co-assessment, multilingual specialists and content educators. So, it was a blast and I feel very honored that I got to see you in person. Jill: I mean, thank you. It was such an honor to lead anything with Andrea Honigsfeld. It was my honor. Brandon: She's the real deal. We like her. This, I think, two-time guest on the podcast. She has an episode that's coming soon, so we feel very lucky that she's a friend of the show. Brandon: Before we dig in, I have a question for you. We always ask this to our guests. I went through your impressive bio, the work that you've done on the ground to really shift the pedagogical experience that young folks are having in the largest school district in Idaho. But bios are bios. That's one paragraph. What's something that never makes it into your bio that you're like, “You know what, I wish more people knew this about me,” that informs who I am and what I do? Jill: Wow, that's a big question. There are so many things I love. I actually am a runner. I love running. I have run at least 20 half marathons. The discipline and learning through that process, and having a goal and doing what you think you can't do, I mean, that is just such a big piece of growing as a person for me. Brandon: I love that and I love hearing that. And I suspect brings you into a sort of parallel process with many of our students that we serve who are being asked to do something really tough. Jill: Impossible. I felt like it was impossible, but you can do it if you plan well and have support. Brandon: Amen. I love that and I love knowing that about you. Brandon: Alright, so we're going to dive into some real questions now, or different questions rather. I want to talk to you about co-teaching for multilingual learners because you're a real innovator in this space. Co-teaching keeps multilingual students in the general education classroom with their peers instead of pulling them out for separate instruction. Brandon: Why does that matter to you? And what do multilingual learners gain from being in the room for the full lesson alongside English-proficient peers? Jill: Well, yes, co-teaching is my favorite thing to talk about right now. It's so important for those students because they're part of that classroom and they're part of that community. And we do not want them to have a fragmented education. So staying in their classroom, being with their peers, learning alongside each other, not missing out on content is so important for those students. And their language development really develops the best with strong language peers. We all learn better when we're immersed and we have people to collaborate with and hear from and learn from and share our experiences together. So, it really helps all the students in the class to have a diversity of learners around them to learn from each other, practice speaking, writing together, editing together, giving feedback, all those things. Brandon: I love your frame, that it's actually a really important experience for every learner in the room, whether they're multilingual or monolingual, or have exited out of their EL status. It's a great learning opportunity for all students. Jill: Absolutely. Even my own child, she's in co-teaching. She's been in co-teaching two different elementary and middle schools, and just her experience as a monolingual English speaker, it's been so great for her as a learner as well. Brandon: I want to dig in here more, but at the top, I talked about the real language diversity in the community you serve: 82 languages across the district. So, you can't hire an ML specialist for every language group unless there's some story you want to tell me about the incredible resources in Idaho that are going to allow you to do the unthinkable across the country. So how does co-teaching help you serve students whose home language your staff just may not speak? Jill: I think that's one of the biggest misunderstandings about ML specialists, or ML teachers, is that you have to speak the language in order to teach students English. When really, they're an expert in language development. How do we, any of us, develop language? How does our brain process new vocabulary and new things we're hearing, right? And so it's really about understanding the difference between social language and academic language, and that every student in that classroom is actually learning academic language. So, anything that they're doing with their strong instructional strategies is going to help every student develop the language of math, the language of ELA, the language of writing, the language of science. So they just know how to develop the language in that room by using reading, speaking, listening, and writing. Brandon: It's really important that you said that. I remember when I was a school leader, when I was a principal, sometimes I'd have my teachers, well-intentioned and I totally get it, but particularly content area teachers, come to me and be like, “I don't speak insert language. And so what am I supposed to do?” We'd have to really shift mindsets. That actually may not even be the most useful scaffold for that kid if you're really trying to push language development. And so the frame is really important, and I wish we could lead all in-service educators with that frame. That's like, that's not the job. It's not translation. The job is language development. Jill: That's an important thing you're also adding to the misunderstanding, is that translation is what we need for everything. And really, it's that bridge between the two languages. You're adding a language. You don't have to understand everything completely in the new language, but how can you add some meaning, have some keywords, have some sentence frames to support that? But you don't have to translate every single thing for that student. Brandon: I see you. Alright. In a co-taught classroom—let's talk because you're talking about pedagogical strategies, so I want to dig in a little bit further. In a co-taught classroom, we've got two teachers. Tell me a little bit from your lens, what you've experienced, what becomes possible for student discourse that's just harder to pull off when you've got one teacher in the room? Jill: Oh yeah, so much is possible with two people. Particularly modeling. Those two teachers can model strong language between themselves for those students. They can also show non-examples, right? Like, “This is how I'm talking to my partner,” and the kids are saying, “No, no, no, that's not clear,” right? They can model how to give feedback and then the students can do that with each other. It's so interesting to go into a co-teaching classroom and see the students interact with each other, and you can see that they are repeating what they've seen those two teachers doing. And it's just very powerful. Yeah, the modeling is very powerful. Brandon: And it's interesting, it's sort of like parenting, right? There's the modeling that's intentional, and then there's the unintentional moments of modeling, and that's just the students are watching this relationship live. And so it's everything, the sort of planned and scripted moment of interaction between the two educators, but then all the other moments where dialogue and discourse is occurring. Jill: They can even model asking questions, right? The teacher's teaching something, and then their teacher says, “Oh, I'm confused. Did you mean this or this?” And then you can see the kids learn how to self-advocate as well. Brandon: Yeah, and that process of doing that think-aloud, right? Modeling that great learning is a constant state of questioning and that you can put words behind it. And I think culturally too, for some of us who grew up in cultures where maybe it's not appropriate to interrupt with a question in the middle of a lesson, you're also creating this permission to be like, “Well, in this space it is safe.” Jill: Absolutely. We do have students from other countries that that's not a space for them in a classroom to ask questions. And so to see a different way of an interaction between students and teachers helps them know how they can maneuver this new environment that they're not used to. Brandon: I love this. Brandon: Alright, because we're doing this back-to-school edition of Leading Multilingual Learning, and a lot of our audience has shared with us that they're excited because we're talking about some practical things they can think about doing tomorrow. So for a multilingual learner who's still building English proficiency, speaking up in a classroom full of English-proficient peers can feel really risky. I talk about this all the time, learning as the most vulnerable thing we can ask someone to do, and then we ask kids to do it publicly. What structures or routines do your co-teaching teams use to make discourse feel safe and productive for those students, really holding both that safety and that productivity? Jill: Yeah. That definitely starts with that community building in that classroom, right? Really creating an environment of safety, valuing each child in that room, giving a voice to each child, knowing the strengths of all the students in that room and pointing them out in different areas of the day, right? And then also, modeling that again with the two teachers. And when a student, let's say, okay, we always want a students to do a turn and talk before we have them talk out in the classroom, right? Even with adults, when I do trainings with adults, I let them talk to each other before I call anyone out to talk in front of everyone. Jill: And so having them be able to practice that language with a partner before doing it in front of everyone else. And then when we hear a student giving a good, strong answer, let's say, we say, “Hey, I heard a student saying this. Can you repeat what I already heard you say?” and kind of giving them that scaffold and support before they do that. But then, how you respond when that child tries. They say it, they might make a mistake, and the teacher says, “Excellent answer, I love that,” and values that just as much as anyone else, writes what they said on the board. And then the other students start to see that. I've seen that in a high school senior co-teaching class in ELA where there were very brand new newcomers in that class, and it was just part of their day. Like, try, he had some broken English, awesome, and write that on the board, another student adds on. It was just part of that community. Also, in our district, discourse is a goal for the entire district and so everyone is working on that. Everyone knows it's an expectation. And so, the more you have that happening as a regular part of your classroom, it's not the “I've shared one thing.” It's everyone's always talking, and we're always valuing each person's input. Brandon: Listen, when I saw you present recently, you talked a lot about discourse as the move for rigor, and I really valued that because two things are happening in discourse. There's that sense of belonging that naturally occurs. This is a place where my ideas matter. And I love the way you're building that psychological safety. You're just like, “Great work. I loved it,” and we're keeping it moving. Brandon: I'm wondering, in that moment as an educator, and I'm thinking about our educators listening, when's the moment where I say “good work,” and when's the moment where I say “good work” and maybe I paraphrase or synthesize or try to show because the student got syntax wrong, let's say, and then try to make a language move that's a bit different, maybe more correct? Like how do you, what's the tension there for you? How do you think about that when you're coaching? Jill: Well, it brings me back actually to research that I read once about how many times you should correct a student when they're making those little errors, right? And it's really should be no more than twice. And so, we are modeling language and we don't always have to get it perfect. Even, I've been speaking for a long time, right? I still use the wrong word at the wrong time. And so it's just part of using language. And I'm going to continue to model that and I'm going to say, “Does anyone else want to add on to that?” And maybe a different student says it in a different way. And so we're always trying to say, “How can we add an adjective for that?” or it's just part of using language and developing language. And so it's not necessarily that we have to pinpoint or point out something that needs to be corrected, but we just add on, make it more descriptive or whatever, add a conjunction. So we just keep playing with language and using it. Brandon: And I love that if you're modeling discourse, then it's happening by osmosis. You're picking up the patterns of the language. I really appreciate that. This is a personal aside, but I have moments I am sometimes also, I feel really self-conscious about my language because I'll get something wrong or a tense wrong, and there are people who will go for the correction. And you immediately are just like, oh, the next thing I have to say, I'm just a little bit shakier. It has to be perfect. I'm a man in my 40s. What is that like for a young person who's in their teens? I just think it feels like as a teacher sometimes, the first thing we do is correct. And I love the way you frame this. It's like, not really. If I'm modeling enough language, I will be improving language. And I'm creating enough moments for speaking, I will be improving language. Jill: Absolutely, absolutely. And of course, there's a lot of oral language happening, and a lot of teachers do a lot of explaining verbally, right? And so something I always encourage our ML teachers to do is write what you hear on that board. Make it visible, right? And so even if there is something said, when I write it, it's going to be correct. So even though I heard this, I see it written that way. Brandon: I love that. And that's a really good strategy for our educators who are listening, right? Yes, there's one thing to say it, but then where am I writing it? Again, all the different ways our language is being assessed, our kids' language is being assessed, right? That using that multimodality to really show language in all of its forms. Brandon: I have one more question here, and then I want to talk a little bit about the sticky part of co-teaching, which sometimes is about relationships. But before we get there, how do you think about the relationship between student discourse and language development? Based on your experience, what happens to an ML student's English growth when they're talking in class versus what I think all of us have seen often with our students where they're sort of quietly following along? They're keeping pace, they're trying their best, but the class has less of that discourse opportunity. Jill: We have an ML teacher that always says, “If you can say it, you can write it.” And so we always want to connect those two things, right? We use thinking maps in our district. It's a visual way to organize your thinking. We always want to speak from that, and then we write. And so discourse is language development, right? You cannot develop your language if you're not using it, trying it out, hearing it, processing it. So actually using discourse increases the speed of language development. Brandon: I am holding this, and from that educator in your community, “If you can speak it, you can write it.” I love that. And it doesn't mean you're going to spell everything right. It doesn't mean it's going to be perfect, but you'll be able to write it down. I love that. Jill: And then we want them to speak in a complete sentence, right? So if they're giving us phrases, we say, “That is excellent. Can you say that all together in a complete sentence? Or who can add on to make that a sentence?” Because speaking in that complete sentence, yeah. Brandon: Yeah, then we're doing that building off of each other. Which is the relationship building as well. Jill: Yeah. Brandon: And then I'm thinking about something you said earlier, which happens in a good co-teaching model: The teachers are doing that. They're building off of each other's ideas. They're modeling that that's actually how we do learning. Jill: Yes, I love it when a teacher says something and then the teacher says, “Oh, that just made me think of something else,” and then they get excited about that learning and the kids are watching this in real time. Brandon: I remember when I was a principal as well, I had this conversation with a group of teachers. We did a lot of what you're describing, this sort of turn and talk before we ask kids to publicly, sort of in the big group, share out. And the connection I often think about is, we do that in every relationship. I practice a difficult conversation that I need to have with a friend before I have the difficult conversation. Right? We use relationships to go do a harder language task typically, a harder thing. And we sometimes forget that that's also really necessary in school because we're ready for the pop quiz, raise your hand. Jill: Mhm. If I hear a cold call reference, I say let the kids talk first, and then we can call. And we're going to let them know, “We have your name on sticks. Everyone's going to talk about it. You're going to have a team, you're going to decide together, then I'm going to pull the stick to answer the question you answered together,” right? Let them know what's coming. Brandon: Let them know what's coming. Jill: Everyone wants that in life, right? I want to know what's coming. Don't just surprise me with something. Brandon: Let them know what's coming. And again, just another thing for our listeners to hold. Yes, there's a space for cold call, but there has to be an opportunity for practice before. You want to set me up for success. Am I going to be ready? Jill: Exactly. Set them up for success. We want to hear what they're thinking, but give them time to put it together. Brandon: Alright, we talked about this when we were at WIDA and I loved this part of our conversation, just one-on-one. We also got to have a breakfast together. Co-teaching is sometimes described as the best professional development a content teacher can get on serving multilingual learners, because they're learning alongside a specialist every single day. Tell me how you've seen it play out. What shifts did you notice in content teachers after they've been in co-teaching partnerships? Walk me through a little bit of this. Jill: Well, I actually have some quotes to read to you from some co-teachers. Some classroom teachers, they weren't sure about co-teaching, right? “Someone's coming in my room. I have to take time to plan with them and all of this.” But here's some things they've said. “Co-teaching has been the most impactful learning experience in my teaching career.” Jill: Another one, “Through the ML co-teaching model, I have improved the way I teach, the way I plan, the way I communicate, and my overall perspective as a teacher.” Jill: And then one other, “Co-teaching was one of the most impactful parts of my teaching. I learned so much from that experience and still use many of the strategies I learned during that time that I had together.” Jill: And so the thing that happens is, as a teacher, I have so many things I want to go try in my classroom, right? But then things happen, I'm very busy, whatever. But with co-teaching, I have intentional time to plan with another person, and I might try something that I wouldn't try on my own. I've heard teachers say that. I've heard about this certain strategy, but I didn't try it until it was intentional with my co-teacher. We together were trying something new, and then we together experienced what happened with that, right? A Socratic seminar or whatever it is that you took that one step. And it's really the intentionality and then that reflection together, that's where I see a lot of that learning together. Yeah. Brandon: Some of the best learning happens in moments where we fail. Right? And that's true for teaching. Some of my best moments as an educator were the moments where I totally got it wrong because the next time, I made these moves here and I was able to nail it. Yes. And it's hard to take that risk when you're alone with 30 kids in a classroom. It feels a little safer to be like, “Okay, I can take this risk because we're taking this risk together, and if we fall on our face, it's going to be…” Jill: “Did you see how bad that was? Oh my gosh,” and then they can laugh about it, you know. Another person saw it. Brandon: It's totally that. And then you can be like, “This is how terrible it was,” and then the next time you do it, you can be like, “Oh my god, this was so good. Do you remember that one time we did it and it was, X happened.” I think it's really special. Jill: There are two key things for that, right? You've got to have the trust with that person so that you can have the vulnerability. So those are the foundations for strong co-teaching, is having that trust and vulnerability. And when you have those two things, it's magic for sure. Brandon: Alright, million-dollar question. How do you build that trust? How do you strengthen that relationship? Two people, two different experiences. Sometimes they're not even age peers, you know? We're seeing new teachers with teachers who have been at this for 20 years. How do you build that rapport that then turns into trust? Jill: Yeah. That is definitely a challenge that we take very seriously because that is a good foundation for that. We always have training for any new partnerships. So they come together for a whole day together and we go back and forth. We talk about co-teaching and we talk about ourselves. And so we talk about, what are the things that you love and the things that you hate, just personally? And they have to actually make a double bubble about each other, like things they have in common, things they are different. Then we talk about how we handle conflict. Do we like to talk about things? Do we need a day to process? How do we communicate when we're upset, right? And then we have conflict scenarios. Like, “Here's a scenario. What would you do in this situation? What would you do in that situation? What could have made this better to not have this conflict happen?” So we really dig into a lot of different things in that training. I've been known to use love language quizzes as well. And some people love it and some people don't, but the more you talk about all those things, the better. We talk about how you like to plan, how you like classroom management, how you feel about interruptions. So we try to talk about a whole lot of things in the beginning, and we even tell them, “You know, it looks all good now, but something's going to come up and how are we going to handle that?” Jill: Then, all of our ML teachers get coaching from our district staff. So I have four consultants and we follow a coaching model. So we check in with each person individually. We ask about how their relationships are going. We challenge them to make a relationship goal of how they can build trust. Sometimes it's just one person or two. There's usually one or two people that are the harder relationships and how can you learn about that person? How can you serve that person, right? And so that whole time of that first year is building trust. So we really support that. We observe them together and give feedback like, “You both were doing this. You did that,” you know? We just flood them with all the things they're doing well. And then a couple questions and then a couple suggestions, but we really want to support that relationship and check in on that. And then there are times we've had some conflict come up, and we have a plan for that as well. I'll meet with each person individually, I'll give them a chance to talk, I'll bring them together, we'll talk through things. And what I find is the biggest, most important thing, hear this: Never think you know what someone else is thinking or their motives. That, if we can get that right, we will avoid a lot of things. So sometimes people think someone thought something and they're offended by that, but when we actually talk about it, they didn't ever really think that. So we talk about that in our training. Be very careful not to think you know. Just talk about it and ask. Clarify what you heard. So we try to work through all those things. Brandon: I will never forget a colleague of mine who has become a real, deep friend, we co-taught together. She said to me that it changes all of your relationships if you do it well, because let's be honest, this is six hours and 20 minutes of the day with another person. That's more time than most of us get to spend with our kids in a single day during the week. That's more time than we're spending with our partners sometimes, right? You will change in the way that you communicate in tough moments, in vulnerable moments, the way you celebrate someone. It really will shift the other relationships you're having. Jill: Absolutely. And I will clarify for you just one thing, because sometimes, secondary teachers have a little more time in the classroom as a co-teacher. Elementary teachers might have five partners. They might be in this classroom, this classroom, this classroom. So this relationship, we really jive, but this one I'm still figuring out. So they might have five relationships happening every day. Brandon: And listen, it's a special role as an educator to be in, right? Then you're joining someone else's classroom, and the ask is, “Actually, we're making that our classroom together.” Jill: And in some ways, they have a superpower because they get to see the whole gamut of all the grades and they can say, “I saw this in second. Let's try this in third. This is what they're going to do in fourth,” right? And those teachers don't get to see each other. So that teacher is seeing all of that and bringing that knowledge to all those spaces. It really is powerful. Brandon: So you're coordinating this initiative across a 60-school district. How do you identify and develop the ML specialist so that they're ready to be strong co-teaching partners? You gave me a little bit, but how do you think about that training throughout the year? What's the sort of support that they're getting besides just the initial, first sort of connecting and convening in that day-long training? Jill: Yeah, so if they have a new partner, they come to that training. Then we also have a training for ML teachers in the beginning of the year to get started, right? And how things are going, we talk a little bit about the things they have to know that are systematic, right? But then also, they can talk together about co-teaching and how it's going in their building, right? And then we do some professional development as well. This year, we're actually focusing on Onward about teacher resiliency. Last year, we worked on co-planning. So we pick a book every year that we go through with the ML specialists. We meet with them once a month, and then we have a fall training all day and a spring training all day. And then we offer a class as well. So we try to have a lot of different options for them to develop, but we also want to make sure they have time to collaborate together. So we also have PLC time for them to work together, focus on something together. Brandon: Yeah, and for folks who don't have PLCs in their district or their communities, these are professional learning communities where there's typically some sort of topic of study that's happening, where we're sort of sharing and learning as a group. Fair description, Jill? Jill: Yes, and it's based on data. So they pick something to look at all year, then we provide data, and then we keep checking that throughout the year, and they do things to influence the success of students, and then we check on it, basically. Brandon: And I love that they're doing that together as a team. It's not the ML specialist's job to look at the data, and it's not the content teacher's job to look at their kids. It's like, no, we're looking at this as a community. Yes. How can we make our kids successful together? Brandon: Yeah, because everyone is a teacher of multilingual learners and everyone is a teacher of students who are not multilingual learners. These are all of our students. Jill: Yes, our students. Brandon: Yeah. Brandon: Alright, if another district coordinator is listening and thinking about bringing co-teaching into their district for ML students, what's the one thing you'd tell them to get right first? What's that first thing to do? Jill: The word I'm always, always going to go back to, my favorite word, is collaborate. You cannot do this by yourself. You need to talk to people that know about it, and you need to talk to people within your district and see where they're at, what they would like, how we make a plan together, because there's power in those perspectives and lenses and voices. Everyone has a different pocket, right? So bring that together and make a plan together. Collaborate. Brandon: I love this. Brandon: Alright, I'm looking at the clock. We are slowly creeping in on time. I have so many more questions to ask you, but I want to just circle back to the big theme here. We're sharing this in a back-to-school special podcast for our listeners, really looking for strategies, solutions, things they can do this year a little bit different than the year before. And so, tell me in your mind, what does success look like in the first month of the school year if I am now in this partnership? Jill: What I really love is if I walk into a co-teaching classroom and I do not know which teacher is which. They are both equally leading that classroom. They're both equally a part of that leadership, right? And teaching. And so, that shows that they together are leading that classroom, and that any student can ask anything from either one of them. Brandon: I love that. Brandon: Alright. I have to tell you something that I should have told you at the beginning. And to be very honest with you, I didn't really realize this until we were mid-conversation. I am in New York right now, and part of why I'm here is one, I'm doing some work, but I have a friend who I co-taught with, who was my ML co-teacher. I was a second-year teacher when we started teaching together. She had been teaching for maybe 10 to 12 years. And we became—we taught two periods a day together. We struggled, there was some norming and some storming, and then we really jelled. And for the last decade, 12 years, we have this subscription to a theater membership that we have gone to together. And so tonight is the show. And we're talking. I was like, “That's how!” So shout out to Audrey Beagle. And I was like, “That's how I—that's Audrey and I. That is literally how we connected, built this relationship that neither of us really wanted, to be honest, to start. I was ready to be my own teacher, like, “I've got this.” And she was used to having her own classroom and “she's got this,” and then they're like... and I had barely taught, you know? She's like, “Oh my God, I've got this first-year teacher who's coming into my room.” But I became a better teacher. We built a great friendship. Years later, when I was a principal, she joined me at my school. It really shifted, but the best professional learning, to your point, that I ever had. Jill: Yes. And you know what? She learned from you too. Just even if you were a second-year teacher, right? You brought energy, you brought some ideas, you brought some freshness. So we all need something from the other person for sure. Brandon: I love that. Brandon: Alright, before I let you go, I always ask the same question to end the podcast. You are driving professional learning for educators across an enormous district. You are innovating, you are creating, you are really creating the conditions for students to learn, but for adults to learn how to serve students better. So, what's something or someone that you are learning from right now? Jill: I am learning about self-care for myself. Right? I tell everyone else, “Take care of yourself. Make sure you have self-care.” And even though I've read Onward a couple of times, it is so good to read it again. So I'm learning again from Elena Aguilar about how to have that balance in your life to be able to stay long-term. So, yes, resiliency, taking a time to take for yourself to refresh, be rested, be well-fed, have friends, right? Have that time because this is the long, long journey, and you've got to stay in it. So… Brandon: I see you. I will be coming to you for some advice soon because that is my work as well. Jill: Can't wait. Brandon: Jill, thank you, thank you, thank you. I knew we were going to have a great conversation. I think this will be incredibly useful for our listeners, so I hope to hear from you guys. But thank you, Jill, for a great conversation. Have an awesome school year. Jill: Thank you so much. Brandon: And thanks everyone for listening to this episode of Leading Multilingual Learning, powered by Medley Learning.