Creating a Sense of Belonging for Immigrant and Refugee Students: Strategies for K-12 Educators

Discover how to create a sense of belonging and connection for your immigrant and refugee students. This timely book, written by four award-winning teachers, offers compelling stories and practical applications to help you reach your students in the classroom and beyond.

Topics covered include advocacy, using literacy to create a welcoming environment, connecting with families, building staff capacity and best practices for virtual learning. You’ll also find easy-to-implement lesson plans, as well as reflection questions throughout to help you on your journey.

Appropriate for K-12 teachers, English Learner specialists and school leaders, this inspiring and useful book will help you make the necessary changes to create more positive outcomes for your immigrant students.

Mandy Manning recently transitioned from a 21-year career as a classroom teacher, to advocating for educators, public schools and students as the Digital Content Specialist for the Washington Education Association. For the previous 8 years Mandy was the first teacher for newly arrived refugee and immigrant students at Ferris High School in the Newcomer Center in Spokane, WA. Mandy is the 2018 National Teacher of the Year.

Ivonne Orozco Sahi teaches high school Spanish in Albuquerque. As a first-generation college student, immigrant, former DACA recipient, queer woman of color, Ivonne has found her voice in education through her intersectionalities. Ivonne is a co-founder of Teachers Against Child Detention and is the 2018 New Mexico Teacher of the Year.

Leah Juelke, the 2018 North Dakota Teacher of the Year, is a high school English Language Arts teacher, K-12 English Learner specialist and literacy coach in Fargo, North Dakota. She is a decorated educator whose passion for global education, literacy and creating a welcoming community for refugee and immigrant English Learners earned her a spot as one of the top 10 teachers in the world and a finalist for the Global Teacher Prize in 2020. ​

Sarahí Monterrey is an English Learner teacher at Waukesha South School. She was named Wisconsin's 2018-2019 High School Teacher of the year. She was selected as Wisconsin’s 2019 State Teacher of the Year representative to the National Teacher of the Year program and is the first Latina in the state of Wisconsin to have this honor. As a child immigrant from El Salvador, Sarahí Monterrey recognizes the pivotal role teachers play in students’ lives.