UpRiver Education

03/31/2026

Roll call! Who’s done? Who’s in it? Who’s next? 🫶

02/20/2026

UPRIVER WILL BE AT !!!
The Convention is in Salt Lake City in March! A few very exciting developments:
1. We’re presenting!
2. We’re presenting again!
3. We have a BOOTH at the Expo hall ( # 515) and will be launching our online community and learning platform!

More details if you’re still here :)
On Wednesday I will be presenting, “Connected but Not Alone: Designing Online Learning that Feels Human,” sharing our learnings as we have navigated making professional learning that is convenient but not just a digital talking head.

On Friday, I have the GREAT privilege of presenting with Wendy Nassar Perron and her team of incredible Manchester School District teachers to share our nearly 2 years of work aligning the WIDA 2020 standards with their curriculum resource using a functional approach to planning. We will share our process, tools and insights as well as answer questions should you want to replicate this work in your district

Finally, we are designing an Expo booth in the spirit of the coziest classroom reading corner you can imagine. 📕 😊 We’ll have plenty of fun gifties and would love to chat in person. Plus, we are GIVING AWAY our cozy corner and all its furnishings to one lucky local Salt Lake City School District classroom! Anyone you’d like to nominate?

If you’ll be at drop a comment and let me know! If you know an amazing SLC teacher and ML rockstar, tag them below!

02/12/2026

Thank you to Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth, Inc and Greater Lawrence Technical School for hosting UpRiver Education's seminar: "Leading for Multilingual Learner Success: From Compliance to Coherence." Thank you to the dozens of instructional leaders from across the state who came together to learn, share and commit to building systems that advocate for multilingual learners. We can't do this alone.

Behind Margie Daniels and I? Just a small portion of the many commitments and reflections our colleagues left with. Some examples:
-"I used to think I was alone in this work, but now I know there are others standing with me to do it."
-"My next best step is to triangulate data with the rest of the leadership team."
-"My next best step is meeting with district leaders to discuss how we can all have shared responsibility for ELs."
🥹

Want to bring this training and all of the goodies and tools our participants left with to your leadership team? Reach out and let's dig in together.

10/01/2025

Hey Massachusetts friends! Did you know? UpRiver Education is on the list! Please hold while DESE updates their website but it’s official! If your grant requires you select from those who have been pre-vetted, we are here for you!

Our pre-approved service categories and areas of content expertise include:
Strategic Planning, Co-teaching/Inclusion, English Learners
Consulting/Targeted Assistance, Co-teaching/Inclusion, English Learners
Professional Learning Systems, UDL, Co-teaching/Inclusion, English Learners
Curriculum Selections & Implementation, English Learners
Assessment Literacy, English Learners
Student Support Systems, English Learners
Program Evaluation, English Learners
On-line learning and assessment platforms, English Learners

We are so proud to have the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education stamp of approval on our work.

09/23/2025

It’s not UpRiver PD if we’re not checking in on some ridiculous scale. Dog scale, Homer scale, Bridgerton scale…

Suggest our next scale! I’ll buy the winning idea a cup of coffee wink 😉

Can’t stop, won’t stop making PD engaging and even fun!

02/27/2025

Heading to 2025? Be sure to check out my roundtable session: Supporting Multilingual Learning and Learners where we’lI will be discussing all things ML with a powerhouse crew!

DM me to connect in Austin!

02/25/2025

New blog post! Check it out and please share!

The terminology takedown of the past few weeks has positioned diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the center of a political target, and as someone in the field of multilingual learner education, where our work extends from these very concepts, I find myself considering a paradox. The very word...

04/19/2024

What's Up with ORAL LANGUAGE for ? This week we unpack the way this theme has played out in our work with schools, districts and more.

Watch the video, or pop in your earbuds and join me. Let me know your thoughts!









://youtu.be/QLxaJ1NIXRM

This week we notice the theme of oral language across our work. What does oral language really mean for MLs and beyond? And how does it show up in...literacy...

04/02/2024

When we are willing to trust that our students come with a deep well of knowledge and experience we can leverage that for engagement, for connection, and of course for learning.

It’s ML Advocacy month and the very best way I can think to be an advocate is to center students in their own learning. They have all the background they need to become beautifully multilingual.

Pictured is a terrific example. Any guesses as to what this is?

This is an example of how a local student used tape and socks to make a soccer ball. He made this for his teacher, so that she could understand the detail in his written story which took place in Brazil.
His teacher guided him with the language targets, he provided the context.

Love this example of your teaching and connection to kids, - great work!

02/29/2024

Can’t wait 💕💕💕💕💕

02/05/2024

Sustained - adjective. Maintained at length without interruption.
-Cambridge Dictionary

As we continue unpacking ESL guidance, let’s explore this concept of English language development that is SUSTAINED.

In schools this may get at the administrative and programmatic conditions for ESL. If a program is sustained it includes:

🌍 consistent and adequate staffing
🌍 protected and adequate time
🌍 staffwide recognition of the role of ELD, it’s benefits and value

Essentially, we can have the most trained ESL instructors, delivering evidence-based ELD, but if their students’ access to this great instruction is not consistent or includes a great deal of interruption they cannot benefit from the explicit and systematic.

Is your ESL program sustained?