
Keynote Speaker: Valentina Gonzalez
Valentina Gonzalez is an educational consultant and content creator for Seidlitz Education. She is also a longtime educator with over 25 years of experience serving emergent bilingual students and their families from around the globe. Her personal experience as an immigrant from Yugoslavia and a language learner fuels her desire to advocate for multilingual children and support teachers with the best research-based teaching methods. Valentina grew up as a bilingual child and was the first in her family to graduate from high school and college. She is currently a doctoral student.
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Valentina leads engaging professional learning opportunities and coaches teachers on effective sheltered instruction strategies. She also creates highly sought-after infographics and resources to support educators of multilingual students. Her work's primary focus has been on literacy, culture, and language.
Valentina has presented and been a keynote speaker at literacy and language conferences. In addition, she is the co-author of the popular book, Reading & Writing with English Learners: A Framework for K-5, and the co-author of a new children's picture book, Krofne with Baba, highlighting language and culture. Her work has also been published in numerous journals and professional publications such as Edutopia, MiddleWeb, TEPSA, Ed Week, and School Library Journal. Valentina's advocacy also includes founding and running the Advocating for ELLs Facebook Group for educators of ELs around the world.
Keynote Address: All Shook UP about Teaching Multilingual Learners
During lunch on Friday January 12, 2024