This Teacher Sparks Joy in Classroom with Multilingual Learning Clubhouse

By Amy De La Rosa, Multilingual Specialist at Rocketship Nashville Northeast Elementary

We created this free resource hub at the onset of the pandemic to help elementary school teachers across the country share best practices during an unprecedented time in teaching. Now that school has returned to a degree of normalcy with steady in-person learning, we want to shift gears and spotlight educators within Rocketship that are doing interesting things in their classrooms to inspire and engage their students in hopes it helps other educators do the same.

Today we’re talking with Amy De La Rosa, a Multilingual Specialist at Rocketship Nashville Northeast Elementary. She’s been with Rocketship for four years and has worked as an educator for over 14 years. Listen in to hear how she brings multilingual learning to life in her classroom with a themed clubhouse and what keeps her inspired.

Listen in to the audio interview:

If you enjoyed this conversation, you can check out more Teacher PD Launchpad content here and learn more about teaching opportunities in the Bay Area, Milwaukee, Nashville, Fort Worth, and Washington DC here. You can read the full transcript of our conversation below.

Question:

Hello, and welcome to Rocketship’s Teacher PD Launchpad. This is a space created for teachers by elementary school teachers, where Rocketship educators bring advice and practical things that they’re using in the classroom in hopes that other educators may find it helpful, and today, we’re talking with Ms. Amy De La Rosa, who is a multilingual learner specialist at Rocketship Nashville Northeast Elementary, and she’s been with Rocketship for the last four years. She’s been a teacher for over 14 years, and she is going to tell us about what’s working in her classroom right now with multilingual learners, specifically this concept of a clubhouse that she’s brought, a physical clubhouse that she brought into the classroom, and is using it to help engage multilingual learners and help them use play and spark a joy of learning through playing and learning new words, and building fluency and proficiency in English through that way, and it’s been quite successful and we’ve heard great things about it, so let’s dive in and hear more from Amy.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
I am Amy De La Rosa, and I am the multilingual specialist for grades K-4 at Rocketship Nashville Northeast Elementary.

Question:
Awesome. And how long have you been with Rocketship here so far?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
This is my fourth year. I did two years as kindergarten humanities teacher, and this is my second year as the multilingual specialist for our school.

Question:
Cool. Maybe thinking back to when you originally started education, what inspired you to go into education initially?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
I come from a whole family of educators, so it’s definitely in who I am, who I was raised, how I was raised. So I actually went to school and have a biology degree because I did not want to go into teaching ’cause I was like, “I’m not going to make enough money.” Then, I got to my junior year of college and finally was like, “Yes, I really do want to,” so I finished my degree, and then applied for alternative teaching programs, and that’s when I got into DC Teaching Fellows, and then I taught in DC Fellow schools for nine years.

Question:
I’ve seen you virtually through, you’ve done some virtual lessons with us for the Kinder Readiness Kit, and you seem like a natural with the kiddos and just how you present your voice and seems like a very fun environment for you to me in the classroom, and now you work with multilingual learners. Can you maybe talk about what inspired you to work, shift from kinder to multilingual learners and maybe what you enjoy about each? Let me start there.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Yeah. I made the switch because I’ve always had and always enjoyed multilinguals in my classroom even when I first started, so my whole 13 years I’ve been teaching, and I just really love seeing their exponential growth because they start coming in knowing no English and just the amount of growth that they have is unbelievable, and then also on a personal level, my husband is bilingual, and so seeing the impact that learning English and mastering English has on your life as an adult also just help push me into that direction.

Question:
Yes. I’ve heard through the grapevine that you have this thing called a clubhouse for multilingual learners. Can you tell us what that’s like and what that looks like, and what happens there?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Yeah. So it is a pretty generic, just like mini house structure that I am able to easily redo for different themes throughout the year for the different units that we’re learning about, and then the students are able to have different dramatic play areas that they can play, so we started the year with seasons and fall unit, and so we did a pie-making station, where they got to learn those different vocabulary words and things like that, and since then, we have had a Teddy Bear Hospital, a post office, a grocery store, and next will be a vet.

Question:
Fun, and so how is the setup? Where is it where you’re sitting, where you would set up this kid size playhouse or-

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
It is in the corner of my classroom, and it is pretty substantial. So I fit a full cubby system inside, where we house stuff, a bookshelf next to it, and then there’s actually two larger cubes, which we have used as the oven, but it’s usually used as like a separate, if the kids want to just sit in there and read also, so it’s just kind of a built-in, and then it has a nice ledge that they like to play on, where right now it’s our conveyor belt for our grocery store with a cash register. So a lot of different ways you can manipulate the area.

Question:
Yeah. How’d you get this idea to bring this into the classroom?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Last year, I had a few little dramatic play things, so like I would sometimes bring out some food, and we have some puppets, and I really saw that they opened up a lot more and they were trying to speak more in English when they were able to play. So when me and my coach were figuring out what units we wanted to do and that it kind of flowed well, I was thinking about it and thought about how it would be nice to have some kind of actual play area for the younger students to work on those skills. So then, I actually reached out to my dad, and he is the one who built it for me, so I gave him the idea and he ran with it, and he built it, brought it to the school and put it together for me.

Question:
Oh, I love that. Family affair. That’s fun.

Also, for teachers listening who are imagining how this could work in their classroom, how does this kind of get structured into a block or kind of how do you incorporate into lessons, or that kind of thing?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
For my pullout space, because I’m all pullout, I do my time structured, kind of the guided reading block, where it’s all small groups, so they’re just rotating between centers, and then it’s just one of our daily centers that they get to go to, and it ends up being about every other day, so it’s just taking the place of one of those center time activities, is in that little house.

Question:
Oh, nice. Okay. And so in terms of how … Well, I don’t think I’ve seen how your exact structure is in terms of the centers. Do you have different centers that are all just for multilingual learners so they’re all in the same classroom, and then they have different stations that they’re doing specifically with you?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Yeah, so I have my own classroom space, which is phenomenal, so I pull out anywhere from 12 to 22 kids at a time from one grade level, and so they’re grouped similar to like gen ed teachers do with graded reading, so I have my table where I’m doing my guided reading lessons, and then they have a computer center, a writing or other technology center, and then the playhouse for the younger kids or a different type of writing or something for the older kids.

Question:
Okay, great. So it sounds like you’ve been in education for quite a while. It’s over 10 years, I think you mentioned? I’m guessing maybe along the way, you’ve had some exposure to other multilingual programs in other schools or just how it’s done in other places. Can you share what you think makes the multilingual program at Rocketship kind of unique maybe to other ones you’ve seen or why you enjoy what you’re doing right now?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
I really enjoy how we do it at my school, and partly it’s because of how it’s structured with the number of students we have versus staff, but I think for our younger students, in particular, it is helpful to have some pullout time instead of only in the classroom, because then, they can have that very specific targeted time to build those foundational skills more so than in a gen ed classroom. So yeah, that’s what I really enjoy about my school.

Question:
Yeah. Is there a moment that you can think of maybe that’s happened in the last year or so that’s made you kind of grateful to be a teacher in this, particularly with your students?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Yes. It’s usually about this time of the year when I stop and we’re about to start all our testing, and I think back to August ’cause we start the very first week of August, and I think back to all of, in particular, my kindergarten students. I have this year 22, and I would say of those 22, three or four came in knowing English, and now, they’re so much more, not fluent, but so much more capable of being in a gen ed space without crying, without being confused, being able to tell their teachers what they need, ask for help, all of those basic things on top of all of the academic skills that they have picked up in terms of their testing growth, their reading growth, and everything like that.

Question:
Yeah, I love to hear that. It sounds like, one, the clubhouse is helpful in making that happen, but is there any other thing that you’ve kind of done in the classroom, like an activity or a system, or a book that you’re using, you’ve been using that you think other teachers who are working with multilingual learners may benefit from?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
There is one thing that I really, really love and my students love, and it’s called Osmos. It’s this interactive tablet game, where there’s a little mirror that goes on the camera, so it sees you manipulate the pieces to interact with the game on the tablet. So we have all kinds of different ones. I have these little sticks and rings that the younger students can make letters out of. I have a storytelling one where it tells them a story, and they have to dress up the character to match, and then we have these letter tiles for the older kids who even love it, who get to play games with each other, to spell words the fastest.

Then, they also have math games too. I don’t have them in my room, but it’s a super, super cool system that all my students love no matter their grade level.

Question:
Oh, fun. Yeah, it sounds super interactive. I love that.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
It is.

Question:
I’m learning Spanish. I’ve been trying to learn Spanish for a long time, and this is making me want to integrate this in my own practice, like some games involved. So games are really helpful for making things stick.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
They are.

Question:
Yeah.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:

They are.

Question:
Thinking through over the 10 years you’ve been teaching, what’s something that you learned from trial and error that you either maybe something that you let go of that wasn’t successful that you tried on for a bit? Anything like that come to mind?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
For me, thinking broadly, I think it would be trying to finish all the to-dos I put on my list, because as a teacher, you are constantly feeling like you have to finish this, this, this, this, this, and this, and it’s not always realistic, so just learning to manage how long of a to-do list and what is a realistic to-do list would be what I have learned.

Question:
Yeah, that’s real solid advice, I would say. Yeah. Something maybe that you’ve … Is there any kind of piece of advice that you’ve either maybe like you’ve come up with or you’ve heard from someone else that stick with you through your career of something that you found helpful?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
My first year teaching, I had a mentor who told me to find a hobby outside of school that you can do in your free time and to make free time for this hobby so that you can decompress and you can let go of school and not worry about it, and so that’s what I’ve kind of focused on doing, and it’s very helpful.

Question:
I love that. Yeah, you got to have passions outside of work for sure. What’s your hobby? Do you have a hobby right now?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
I have started doing all kinds of crafts, and I love doing different crafts, finding new crafts, anything crafty.

Question:
And I feel like hands-oriented activities are so meditative as well, so it’s like a very calming activity to do.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Yes.

Question:
Oh, that’s fun. How do you stay inspired day in, day out in your work as a teacher, I guess?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
For me, it’s all about the kids, seeing their growth, seeing the passion that they have for coming to school, and then also just that you never have a dull day. I can come to school, and no matter what’s happening, at some point in my day, one of these kids is going to make me laugh.

Question:
Yeah, totally. Maybe on the flip side of when you’re having a tough day, which happens, how do you refill your cup after that day or that week, and maybe some of, or other teachers who maybe have that, this week or something when they’re listening to this?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:

I like going for walks. I have a park by my house that I have this big loop I go for a walk around, and if it’s raining or I don’t feel like it, then I do crafts. I have a whole craft room at home.

Question:

Oh, cool. Nice. A whole room. That’s nice.

So you’ve been in Rocketship for the last four years.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Yeah.

Question:
What keeps you here? Why do you enjoy working at Rocketship specifically?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
For me, it’s the support, the support we get as teachers, and not just with our practices, but just simple things like supplies, checking in. All of those little things add up, and then also the support our families get. So I feel like Rocketship is just very supportive for everyone, which then turns into a big, giant community, which coming from a public school, it felt more like a job, but this feels more like a community.

Question:
I like that. That’s great to hear. Before you had mentioned, briefly, you had mentioned your coach, I think when you were talking about the clubhouse, like getting ideas for how to work it in. How do you find that the coaching is helpful in terms of that support, like giving you support in the classroom or outside of the classroom?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
I’m very fortunate that my coach, I’m the one who replaced her job, so she was a multilingual specialist before me. So it’s great getting to brainstorm with her, getting to come up with what we want to do in the space together, so I feel like the collaboration we have and the support she can give me is phenomenal.

Question:
That’s super helpful. I love that, yeah.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Yup.

Question:
Why do you love working at your school specifically, at RNNE?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
I feel like there’s a lot of trust built in here, all the way up and down, so trust from my coach that if I come to her with an idea, like the clubhouse, she sees the value in that, she trusts that it fits into our goals for the students, and she trusts that it will be executed correctly, and then trust from the families, that I’m able to support their students the best way possible, and then also, just trust from my admin, not just my coach specifically, that I feel like there’s a lot of trust to where I can do what I feel is the best for my students, and that I’m able to execute it the way that I feel is the best for my students. So yeah, I think that is what definitely keeps me coming back here to my school specifically.

Question:
Yeah, I think that autonomy in the classroom and bringing able to bring your ideas is something that I’ve heard a lot of teachers appreciate, and especially you, you have a lot of great ideas, one of which Dariela Heredia, who my colleague just mentioned. You were the first to bring in the book vending machines into Rocketship, so for those who don’t know, we have some campuses have actual vending machines that instead of being stocked with snacks, are stocked with books that students can check out when they have tokens. Since you started it and it’s now since scaled across all of the schools that were … Not every single school, but many schools have implemented this, and it’s something that’s now in California and other states, and you’re in Nashville, so it’s super exciting that you were able to bring this idea to life and how other people have gotten inspired. So can you tell us how you got this idea and what kind of impact you’ve seen it have on the kids?

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Sure. I honestly got the idea … I follow a lot of teachers for DonorsChoose on Twitter ’cause they share tweets and stuff to get funding, and I saw somebody’s project, and so I saw that, and at our launch every week, they would give out books to students and they would come up to the front and get to pick a book, and so I brought the idea to my principal that maybe we should try and get one of these vend machines so that we could give out the tokens instead, and then they could have all these books to choose from, and it would be not a lot more, but a lot cooler of an experience, getting to go to the vending machine to pick out their book. They love getting to get a book a lot more now, and they love showing it off a lot more. That’s what I’ve noticed, that once they pick out their book, they love showing it off and showing off that they got to go to the vending machine, so yeah, I think that would be the biggest change I’ve seen.

Question:
That’s great. In terms of how you, say, get inspiration and ideas for the classroom or outside, are there any educators that you look to for inspiration on social media or at your school or …

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Honestly, my sisters.

Question:
Aw.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
My mom and both my sisters are all teachers, so our family chat often turns into sharing ideas, problem-solving, sharing successes, so we do a lot of collaborating as a family.

Question:
Well, that’s fun. Like you get all kinds of ideas when you have that many teachers in a family. That’s cool.

Ms. Amy De La Rosa:
Yeah.

Rocketship:
Well, thanks so much for joining us today. That’s all the questions I have for you, and it was so great to hear more about your clubhouse and the book vending machine idea, and how these things came to life, and the impact they’re having in the classroom, so we super appreciate you and your time. For any educators who are listening, who are wanting to get more content like this, you can go to rocketshipschools.org/teacherpd-launchpad, and check out more articles that are from educators sharing their thoughts and ideas. Have a great day.

Published on May 2, 2023