Amy Heritage-Mcdonald Email and Phone Number

With over 20 years of experience in teaching and curriculum design, I am passionate about creating inclusive and engaging learning environments that foster academic and personal growth. I hold a master's degree in English Language Learners, National Board Certification in Early Adolescence English Language Arts, and endorsements in ELL, ELA and Social Studies. I am an alumnus of Teachers for Global Classrooms, an IREX / Fulbright Global Education program and a participant in the 2017 US Department of State program SUSI, Study of the US Institute for Secondary Educators. I am a Multilingual Learner Specialist Teacher at TAF at Saghalie, a Project Based Learning focused public secondary school. At TAF at Saghalie, I coordinate services to our 155 Multilingual Learners. This includes mentoring and managing our Multilingual Program staff, partnering with other teachers to promote best practices and ELL strategies, coordinating the yearly English proficiency testing and tracking and disseminating data and advising administrators on ELL policy and student placement. Additionally, I teach Beginning-level classes and co-teach with humanities and science teachers. For my Newcomers class, I design games and activities that compel students to use original language so that they experience authentic communication in English. For my Emerging courses I create activities and projects that scaffold use of academic English and provide authentic experiences in self-expression and inquiry-based learning. I support Progressing Multilingual Learners by meeting with them to facilitate goal-setting and providing academic support. I co-teach with Humanities and Science teachers, and adjust curriculums to meet the needs of our Multilingual Learners. For many years I have served on our site leadership team and in other capacities including testing coordinator, AVID, PBIS and MTSS committees. Currently I am the technology integration coach for my school, and a proponent of using Canvas LMS to provide visual-context rich lessons in every class. At the district level, I have served on the Social Studies, Language Arts and Social Emotional Learning curriculum adoption teams. Every summer I work with district department heads to revise curriculum guides for language arts, social studies and science. I wrote the Newcomers curriculum guide for our district and I mentor other teachers in my capacity as a PLC lead for our district Multilingual Learners department. For the past two years I have worked with our superintendent on the district Staff Development Advisory committee.