Angel Doughty

CLAD Reflection
April 15, 2016

Clad Reflection
I grew up in Minnesota, and I lived there almost my whole life with the
exception of when I was in the Navy for 4 years. While stationed in California, I met
my husband who grew up in Davis, Ca. Once we got out of the military, we moved
back to Minnesota to begin our lives. Becoming a teacher was not my end goal. I
was going to go to Pharmacy school. Well, we all know what happens when we
make plans! Three children later, I felt that Pharmacy wasnt an option anymore. I
had a corporate job, and had the opportunity to teach in a corporate setting. This is
where I first got the teaching bug, and I have never looked back! I got my teaching
license through a Masters program in MN, and felt that we were totally set. The idea
of moving to California started to roll around our family, and so I got my teaching
credential in Ca. exactly 5 years ago, just in case. Since my initial teaching license
I have now earned my Specialist in Education Leadership, and have earned my
Principal License in MN.
I tell this back story because, well, the just in case happened June of last
year. We up and moved to Sacramento, Ca. I landed an Administrator job, and I
knew I had to get my CLAD to clear my credential. I went in to these 4 classes
dreading the fact that I had to jump through another hoop yet again. Here I am with
a Masters degree and halfway to an EDD, and I had to do four undergrad classes to
satisfy the state of California.
My attitude quickly shifted! I chose methods and Foundations first, and was
so happy that the assignments forced my out of my office to observe some of my
teachers early on in the school year. We have a very low EL population in our
school, actually less than 2% in the 7-12 building where I am. I also quickly found
out that we have no EL program in place. I started to look at the program as a way
for me to build our EL program. I looked at the lesson observations as a starting
block to incorporate learning strategies that are beneficial to ALL learners. Looking
at the redesignation requirements forced me to look at the California laws as I
became familiar with the workings of a public school.
My next class was Assesment of English learners. This class again forced me
to look at my own procedures and look at ways to improve assessment for all of my
students. I was able to reflect on these assignments and look at what an American
High school class looked for my one scholar that is learning English. I left his 10 th
grade class with tears in my eyes because the level of work that he was producing
was high quality and hard for him. He figured out how to use tools like google
translate and text translators to continue to receive support in his native language. I
went out and bought all of the classrooms books in Russian for him the next day!
What a great tool to use native text to support the learning of English.

The third class I took was Culture and Inclusion. I loved looking at EL and
language development in general from a motivation lens. I was able to look at how
intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are important to well-rounded learning. I have
never not been in a position where my culture is the dominant one. I reflected upon
how scary it would be to have your entire culture taken away from you and now you
no longer know the rules. This is one area that my school is still struggling with. I
will continue to find strategies to embrace our differences and increase the level of
cultural inclusion in our everyday teachings.
The last class I had was Language and Language development. This class was
my favorite. I loved the readings and making the connections on who language
develops over time. I bet I went around and asked 15 people if they knew what jeet
yet meant when they read it in on a paper. It is only after it was spoken did they
see the connection with language morphology. I am so interested to see if we begin
to develop a global language; a mishmash of many language that will help us to
quickly communicate in a global economy. I loved the final Amelia Bedilia project. I
can absolutely see how a person new to the any language can be quickly confused
with overlapping words with multiple meanings.
Overall, what these courses have taught me was that I knew nothing of how
the EL learners develop. I had no lens to compare to. I am so thankful that I took
these courses. I have learned a great deal in the last several months, and I hope to
use these ideas as a springboard for great PD conversations with my staff.
Thank you for the opportunity!