In my bilingual, multilingual, and multicultural world, I get to meet amazingly talented people that remember when bilingualism was not a household word and when raising bilingual children was not as popular as today. Alexandra Guilamo is one of those people. One that has been serving a wide range of language learner programs for over twenty years. Of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, Alexandra is a fearless advocate for emerging bilingual students and social justice. In her post at TaJu Educational Solutions, she and the company are dedicated to professional development, coaching, & technical support for the educators, leaders, and communities of dual language & bilingual programs.
When I asked Alexandra what TaJu meant, she quickly explained that Ta for teaching and Ju for justice. “Because our bilingual students, all our students, need to be heard and we all need to listen and find ways to make their learning valued and respected.”
I invite you to watch our IGTV!
Alexandra and I talked about the role of parents and teachers in the education of our children moving forward.
“If we reaffirmed anything from the pandemic is that parents are the first teachers of their children,” she shared.
5 tips for parents to stay involved in their children’s education:
- Parents are all experts. Nobody knows their children better. That knowledge is very important.
- Parents are their children’s first educators. Language, speech, social, emotional, all aspects. The lessons from the parents apply to everything in their lives, even education.
- Use culture as a vehicle to promote language, daily!
- Share your story – Children love to hear anecdotes, memories about those that came before them, their heritage, their roots.
- Become an advocate of bilingualism and social justice – be the example.
Thank you, Alexandra!
