About Us

Who are we?

Thäis is a Cultural Linguistic Diversity Teacher Specialist who supports schools and MLL students enrolled at Ogden School District. Amanda is one of our English Language Development Teachers that instructs our newcomer students.

Thäis Rodriguez

Hi! I have taught for almost two decades now (When did I start getting older?) and most of that time has included working with English Language Learners (ELLs) in some capacity.  I am almost done with my MA in Applied Linguistics with an ESL/Bilingual Education emphasis.  With an exception of working in the Newcomer program since 2012-ish, I have taught general education grades K-6.  Which means, I know what it feels like to be trying to juggle the demands of differentiating a gen.ed. class when suddenly a Newcomer student is enrolled in your class with needs in a whole other realm.  I wish I had known then what I know now about all ELL needs --but especially Newcomer and SLIFE students (see our glossary for terms used in this field of study). If there is something I can do to help you be more successful, I would love to help.  If there is something I don't know, I promise it will keep me up at night until I figure it out.  I'm not going to lie -- helping these students does mean a little extra work sometimes but if we don't step up to help and advocate for these students and their families, who will?

Amanda Salgado

Hello! I have to start my bio with the disclaimer that I am by no means an expert in Multilingual Literacy (MLL), but I have been fascinated by language acquisition for as long as I can remember. That fascination has let me to continuously seek out strategies and resources and to learn more about how to best support my students. I currently teach in OSD's Newcomer program at both the secondary and elementary levels, at Ogden High and James Madison Elementary, and I feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn with and from my incredible multilingual learners. I earned a BA is Spanish Teaching with a minor in ESL, and have worked with language learners of all ages, from preschoolers to adults, in various capacities. I look forward to collaborating with and learning from other educators through this site. I hope that the information and resources that we provide here are useful to you as you work with our diverse and growing population of ELLs.