Dr. Sandra Quiñones-Hemphill
ELD Specialist for Harrisburg School District, "The Language Lady"
Dr. Sandra Quiñones-Hemphill is an 8th grade English Language Development Specialist in Pennsylvania, United States in an urban school district. She has taught elementary, middle and high school in suburban, urban and rural school districts in both Pennsylvania and Massachusetts since 1999.
She has also served as an English Language Development Supervisor to improve the quality of ESL programs and teacher effectiveness in the classroom. As a former English language learner student, Dr. Quiñones-Hemphill understands the experiences of students who are adjusting to learning English. Dr. Quiñones-Hemphill comes from a Spanish speaking background of Puerto Rican parents and has always been fascinated with the process that individuals experience when learning a language.
In 2015, Dr. Sandra Quiñones-Hemphill graduated with a doctoral degree in educational leadership and administration and published her dissertation entitled, “Middle School Teachers’ Perceptions of Effective ESL Professional Development and Teaching Practices.” Her findings led her to start a YouTube channel in September 2019 to share tips, strategies, and resources for teachers around the world.
She has developed curriculum and consultations for school districts with high ESL populations and has recently partnered with Bridge TEFL, the largest provider of TEFL certification training in the United States, recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to produce webinars, trainings, and blogs for teachers abroad. Dr. Quiñones-Hemphill is extremely passionate about supporting teachers with professional development, particularly those living abroad with few resources to meet the needs of English language learners and equipping those in third world countries with educational resource materials.
* Schedule: Dr. Hemphill will be presenting a breakout session titled “Empowering English learners for classroom success: Strategies for Academic Conversations and Classroom Collaboration” on Thursday, March 4th 1:00-2:00 pm MST.
Breakout Session Description: One way to ensure a high quality, personalized literacy program for English language learners is to use the learners’ own lives and experiences as curriculum. Creating spaces for students to compose and share stories results in a strong sense of community, facilitates the development of authentic literacy skills and increases student motivation and achievement. In this session, participants will learn about how an ESL teacher and a co-teacher used a personal narrative project to help students develop necessary literacy skills through building community while fostering empowerment in their cultural identity.
Outcome: Participants at the conclusion of this webinar will be able to:
- Integrate technology to facilitate and enhance language acquisition
- Acquire lessons where scaffolding is central to differentiation for proficiency language levels
- Apply a framework for differentiating writing assignments that promote student voice and empowerment
- Expose students to collaborative conversations that promote academic language acquisition
