Hays CISD Multilingual Department

The last stop on our Multilingual Learner Rock Star recognition tour was McCormick Middle School. Newcomer/ESL teacher, Mr. Portillo, nominated Mr. Valdez, 8th-grade Social Studies teacher, for his effective use of the 7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive Classroom in his instruction. He specifically highlighted, "Step #5: Use of visuals and vocabulary strategies that support your objectives and Step #6: Have students participate in structured conversations." Mil gracias for your dedication and commitment to your students, Mr. Valdez!

The celebration continued at Uhland Elementary School! Dr. Guzman, 2nd-grade, dual-language teacher shared the following about her colleague, Ms. Moncada.
"Andrea Moncada is a ROCKSTAR standout in her leadership abilities. She participates as an effective second-grade-level leader and team member. She also participates as an effective grade-level leader in her role as the Second Grade Team Lead. At the Campus level, she serves as a member of the Campus Leadership Team and UES Academic Action Team. In addition, she is serving as Host Teacher to a Student Teacher this semester. At the district level, she participates as a member of the Math Influencer Group. Andrea Moncada gives tirelessly of her time and expertise to assist Uhland teachers, families, and administrators.
Despite devoting much of her time as an educator leader, Andrea works tirelessly to meet the needs of all of her students, but most especially her struggling students. She provides them with consistent and specific intervention, progress monitoring, and utilization of accessed data to differentiate instruction." ¡Qué honor celebrar a la Sra. Moncada, Roos!

The 2nd stop on today's Multilingual Learner Rock Star Tour was Hemphill Elementary School Kyle, TX. We got to celebrate two 5th-grade teacher leaders, Mr. Cearley and Ms. Pennel.
Assistant Principal, Ms. Rosales shared, Ms. Pennel "...has developed campus PD that supports the 7 steps. She has also facilitated PLCs which included learning walks and the creation of interactive anchor charts that teachers created all the meanwhile incorporating more writing on the charts. She also created language conference forms that all teachers can use to individually conference with students about prior TELPAS performance and goal-setting. Through these PLCs we have discovered other language rock stars and showcasing their work to other grade levels."
Assistant Principal, Ms. Rosales shared, Ms. Pennel "...has developed campus PD that supports the 7 steps. She has also facilitated PLCs which included learning walks and the creation of interactive anchor charts that teachers created all the while incorporating more writing on the charts. She also created language conference forms that all teachers can use to individually conference with students about prior TELPAS performance and goal-setting. Through these PLCs we have discovered other language rock stars and showcasing their work to other grade levels."

The Multilingual Team was super excited to kick off the first Multilingual Learner Rock Star award tour of 2026 this morning. We got to celebrate 2 amazing dual-language teachers: Ms. Nancy Maquera, 1st Grade, and Ms. Diana Juanes, Kinder. Ms. Garza shared the following about these Rock Star maestras, "Mrs Maquera is such a Master Teacher! Her English-Blue and Spanish-Red anchor charts. She has visuals to help her students use their tools and strategies to be successful." "Mrs. Juanes has done a great job in using sentence stems for her Kinder students. The students discuss, and now they are writing!! Thank you for being so awesome."

The weather didn't stand in the way of professional learning for our Hays CISD Secondary Newcomer/ESL teachers! Thank you to Traci Skrovan for her expertise in bringing language and literacy together.