We strive to meet our clients where they are and customize every workshop and professional development activity to the context in which we are working. Don’t just take our word for it. Hear what some educators who have worked with us have said:
"Turning research on the education of emergent bilinguals into meaningful professional development activities for teachers is not easy. I have seen this team develop highly engaging interactive workshop activities that are based on academic research very successfully. For years, Daria Witt supported the work of CUNY-NYSIEB as we developed pedagogical practices based on translanguaging for ESL/ENL and bilingual teachers of all levels – from early childhood to higher education. Daria was able to turn difficult academic concepts into practice that teachers valued. This team knows schools, knows students, knows communities, knows policy, and especially knows how to work with teachers. You will find very few others with their commitment to improve the education of emergent bilinguals and the practical set of skills on how to do it."
— Ofelia Garcia, Professor, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and author of The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning and The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society
Our team of experienced curriculum writers raved about ElevatED's training on modifying units of study to meet the needs of English learners. We learned an array of specific planning moves and the pedagogical principles undergirding them that we could immediately apply to units and lesson plans to increase clarity and rigor. Our team appreciated ElevatED's blend of the specific, clear and practical with a grounding in theories about how students learn most powerfully. At the risk of sounding grandiose, our team walked away from the sessions with a great appreciation for the craft of teaching - as it is so rich and dynamic that one can always learn more.
- —Jeff Sudmyer, Director, Leadership and School Design, Springpoint
“I can’t say enough good things about working with ElevatED Learning Services. They just know their stuff and are deeply committed to sharing their knowledge broadly so that multilingual learners across the country have access to grade-level content. One of the most enjoyable things about working with this team is their willingness to adjust and adapt content so it’s “just right” for the team receiving the development. Our teachers have RAVED about the experience of attending Elevated PD – from the warmth of facilitation, to the engaging activities, to the easy to implement strategies. Educators have loved that they can take best practices and use them the next day in their classrooms to support multilingual learners. Highly, highly recommend for smart, tailored, timely, genuinely enjoyable development of all educators working with ELs.”
— Paige Carstensen, Senior Director of Special Services, Achievement First Charter Network
"The ElevatED Learning Services team is deeply committed to equity, to ensuring that ELs have access to the same learning objectives and complex concepts and content as their English-speaking peers. Facing History and Ourselves participated in a customized ElevatED workshop, which drew from our pre-existing Reconstruction unit. We were both grateful for and impressed with the time Michael and Daria took to understand our organization's mission, explore our content, and prepare a range of scaffolded materials for us to use during these sessions. I have been lucky enough to have participated in an ElevatED in-person workshop in New York and an online workshop that Facing History scheduled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even when co-facilitating remotely, Daria and Michael maintain the same high-quality learning experience, which speaks to their professionalism and creativity. In-person or online, after working with the ElevatED team, you find yourself prepared with a solid rationale, materials, and strategies to better meet the needs of the English Learners in your classroom."
— Jenny Nauss, Senior Content Developer, Facing History and Ourselves
"I worked with ElevatED Learning to develop three curriculum units for students who are newcomers and beginners, and they are exceptional. Michael and Daria are committed to engaging, rigorous, and culturally responsive instruction. For a unit on Financial Literacy, they did extensive research of our standards, laws and community resources given that we are in Massachusetts to ensure that their unit was empowering to our students. Additionally, they created a feedback cycle with leaders and staff to ensure that the units were aligned with the goals and needs of our community. Teachers using their units say how detailed and easy to use the materials are. Moreover, they love the embedded practice in all of the language domains that are an essential part of each unit. Even teachers who aren't specifically teaching the units benefit from them because of the ways that Michael and Daria created banks of strategies for content and language integration activities and reading protocols that can be adapted and used in any unit. If you are looking for highly experienced and talented educators to design curriculum for English Language Learners in your community, I would definitely recommend ElevatED Learning. "
— Ann Whitney, Managing Network Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Phoenix Charter Academy Network
"As the brains behind ElevatED Learning Services, Daria Witt and Michael Soet both have an unmatched wealth of expertise in multilingual education. Daria Witt’s depth of knowledge in curriculum development, instruction, and adult learning makes her a gem of a resource. Her intellect, extraordinary skill, and dedication shows her deep commitment to creating meaningful learning experiences for students who are new to learning English.
Michael Soet is, in my opinion, one of the rare school principals who can both understand the complexities of leading instructional change in a school and also create hands-on and engaging learning experiences for teachers. He has a keen instinct into how to structure learning for teachers so that they can take complex theory and translate it into designing powerful instruction for immigrant youth.
Just a heads up though: if you do sign up for one of their workshops, be ready to be transformed, enlightened, and challenged to go deeper in your work as an educator. They will get you to think, plan, and develop ways to work with immigrant students in entirely new ways!"
— Joanna Yip, ENL Instructional Specialist, New Visions for Public Schools
Our multilingual students don't have the benefit of seeing language separately from the learning they do throughout their school day. And yet, our systems all too often create unnecessary barriers that limit our students' access to learning.
Daria, Michael, and Jessica at ElevatED lay out simple practices and considerations for creating a coherent, language-rich learning experience for our multilingual students. One of my favorite professional learning experiences was sitting in a lesson, delivered in French, by Daria to illustrate the effect of schema building, using visuals, and explicit attention to academic vocabulary. It was remarkable to see the impact of just a few instructional strategies in how they created onramps into the learning for me, despite my limited French proficiency. If you want your colleagues to have tools for extending language development throughout the school day, look no further than Daria, Michael, and Jessica at ElevatED.
— Tim Blackburn, Title III Administrator, Tigard-Tualatin School District
“Daria and Michael's support has been invaluable to our school staff, leadership, and ELL population! Through in depth and practical workshops, staff have been able to rethink the way they teach in order to make content more accessible for our ELLs. As the ELL teacher, having Daria as a one-on-one coach has helped me to grow my skills and strategies in both planning for and teaching my students. She has a wealth of experience, examples, and ideas to help with any question I've come to her with! I can honestly say that my professional growth over the years is directly contributed to Daria's coaching and support.”
—Brianna Petruccio, English as a New Language Teacher, Equality Charter Schools, Bronx, NY
