Have you ever wondered how newly immigrated City School of Decatur (CSD) students communicate with their teachers? F.AVE Upper Elementary has a stellar ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) team that works tirelessly to assist their students, but sometimes the process of having information translated or scheduling a live translator takes too much time. To increase efficiency and ensure that all our families receive timely information about their students, the ESOL team was awarded a grant for Pocket talk translators for use at every CSD school and the Wilson Center. Now every ESOL team in the district will have the ability to communicate directly with the more than 200 non-English speaking students and their families.
The Pockettalk translators work in every language represented in CSD, (except Dari which is similar to Farsi). This grant also directly addresses the district’s five-year strategic goal of “helping ALL students feel connected, while breaking down the inequities around language access in the classroom and with families.” The translators will make the school experience more positive and inclusive for our ESOL students, especially in the schools where no one else speaks their native language. These little handheld devices are diversity, equity and inclusion powerhouses, and we are pleased to support this important grant.
