This semester, I am also taking a class that is supposed to teach future teachers how to work with English Language Learners, so when I read about Lily in Sara Kajdar's book, I started to realize that there is still so much more to do to help all students, including the ELLs that many of us will deal with at points in our teaching careers.
I found it extremely interesting to see that Lily was able to network with others and it improved her English, but it also helped her become more aware of the things that she could do to reach a bigger audience. Her story also made me realize that teenagers are very talented, and I feel like many of my teachers in high school forgot about that. I would never want to discourage my students, so reading Lily's story makes me think about possibly incorporating a "show and tell" in certain classes if possible. I think it would make students feel more accepted by teachers, but it would also allow them to share more of who they are with their peers.
Even though many of the sites that teenagers use are blocked by schools, it would be important for a teacher to figure out how to incorporate these new technologies so students can share them and bring what they do outside of school into the classroom.
It is unfortunate that many of these sites are blocked, but one thing to keep in mind is that there are sometimes sites created specifically for schools that "mimic" these sites. Teacher Tube and Fakebook come to mind.
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