Teaching Languages Today | What is the Seal of Bilitercy? (feat. Arthur Chou and Nicole Rybak)

What is the Seal of Biliteracy, and how can K-12 students get it? In this episode, your host Emily Sabo (linguist, PhD) gets the answers to key questions about what World Language educators simply call ‘“the Seal.” Be a fly on the wall in this fun and informative conversation that features two very special guests: Arthur Chou (one of the Seal’s founding fathers) and Nicole Rybak (a student who actually graduated with the Seal). Enjoy!

If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe to the show and leave us a comment or review! 

Seal of Biliteracy website: https://sealofbiliteracy.org/ 

Connect with Arthur at info@sealofbiliteracy.org 

Connect with Nicole at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-rybak/  

What to listen to next? Listen to our episode on how to access ESSER funding  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1818324/10822127

Click here to access the recap we put together on the 8 things to know about the Seal of Biliteracy:  https://info.mangolanguages.com/hubfs/Downloadable/K12%20Gated%20Content/SealofBiliteracy_GatedContent.pdf

#languageteaching #worldlanguages #mangolanguages #languagelearning #SoBi #SealofBiliteracy #ESL #bilingualism #multilingualism

Transcript

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:00:00] You are listening to a Mango Languages podcast. Language teaching is hard, but there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic. That's why we created this show, Teaching Languages Today, a podcast for world language educators about what's working and what's not. Listen in for the problems fellow teachers are facing. Learn what solutions they found. And get some much needed self-care reminders of why you fell in love with teaching in the first place. Hi, I'm Emily, your host for the show. In each episode I'll be taking you on a journey into seeing world language aid through a new lens by sitting down with an all star lineup of teachers, administrators, parents and students. It's my hope that the stories you hear in this show will get you thinking and feeling different about what you do in the classroom. Hola, que tal? Hello and welcome back to Teaching Languages today. I am your guide, Emily. In today's episode, we're talking about the seal of biliteracy. This is kind of a big deal. But interestingly, not a ton of people know about it still, which is in part why we're doing this very episode. Actually, I'd love for you to let me know if you've ever heard of the seal of biliteracy prior to listening to this episode. When I set out to do this episode, I really had three main questions to tackle. What is the seal of biliteracy? Why would a school and students want it? And how do schools get set up for it? We've got all those questions answered and then some. So buckle up. It's a good listen. Now, this is a pretty special episode because you're going to get to hear from two people with different perspectives and experiences with the seal of by literacy. As you know, usually each episode of Teaching Languages today centers around one guest. But this time I felt like to do the story justice, we really needed a couple different perspectives. So we got our Arthur Chou and Nicole Rybak. For those of you who don't know them, let me give you just a little overview. So Arthur is a social entrepreneur. He advocates for bilingual language education and works to promote education equity for English language learners. As you learn more about in the episode, Arthur was integral to the origin story of the seal biliteracy. He's the founder and managing director for Academic Learning Company, which operates the Seal of Biliteracies website, and he's personally helped more than 30 states establish their seal of biliteracy programs. He's a multilingual native of Taiwan, now living in the West Coast U.S. and some facts about Arthur that I just can't help but share: he is a publisher at Velasquez Press, which published the oldest and largest Spanish and English dictionary based in the US. He speaks not three, not four, not five, but six languages, and he's traveled to all 50 U.S. states and  over 50 countries. And he's also really funny. Part of me resents him for being so cool, which means I still have some personal growth to work on. But, you know, it's okay. I'm not a perfect person. But in all seriousness, Arthur is just wonderful. And you can think of him as like the man behind the curtain of the sale of bi literacy. Now, who is our second guest? Nicole Rybak. Nicole is a rock star master's student at Georgetown University studying language and communication. And she has a really different story from Arthur. She is a real life student who earned her seal of biliteracy in her home state of Illinois. She earned the seal of biliteracy during her senior year of high school for her proficiency in, get this, four languages, which you'll hear about later in the episode. Well, sneak peek, one of them is Polish, and I made her teach me some Polish during our conversation, which means surprise. You get to learn some baby polish deal. This episode was a lot of fun to make and I hope you enjoy. So without further ado, let's get to the episode. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:04:02] Thank you so much, Arthur, for being on the show. So let's start off by having you tell us a little bit about yourself. So who are you? What do you do and what's your language story? 

Arthur Chou [00:04:12] Hi, my name is Arthur Cho. I'm the managing director at Academic Learning Company. I also manage two websiteL  SealofBiliteracy.org also DualLanguageSchools.org. And my language story here is that many years ago in the early nineties. I spent years traveling South America. I was in Guatemala studying Spanish for a month there, sit with a local family afterward, just a backpack. I didn't have money. I just wanted to see the world. And that's the best time of my life. Learning the language, see the different people, and that become my passion. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:04:52] So what languages you speak. You said Spanish, obviously English. 

Arthur Chou [00:04:55] So I grew up with three different languages because the way I grew up in Taiwan, my family are from Canton. So I speak Cantonese at home, at school, speak Mandarin as Taiwanese. So that's my first three languages. And why, you know, in junior high you had to study English that like every kids in college, I was a math major, so we had to study German, I study German college and then of course, Spanish. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:05:25] Do you have a favorite language? 

Arthur Chou [00:05:27] I love Spanish. It's such a romantic, powerful language. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:05:31] Yeah, I met my husband through Spanish, so I. I agree. I have a soft spot for it as well. 

Arthur Chou [00:05:37] Absolutely. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:05:39] Okay. So this episode, as you know, is all about the Seal of Biliteracy, which you know a lot about. So help us understand, what is this seal biliteracy and why is it important? 

Arthur Chou [00:05:51] So the Seal of Biliteracy is a recognition and this is important part from the government about a students bilingual skill set that when you graduate high school, you can demonstrate in a speech, read, write, listen in two different languages, and the state will give you a recognition, a seal on your diploma. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:06:13] What's the origin story like? How did the seal of biliteracy come about? When was that? 

Arthur Chou [00:06:18]  So the story started in the nineties. So California has a strange law that people can vote to establish a legislation. This is a proposition as Proposition 227, which abolished bilingual education, we formed this group. The goal here is that, you know that we appeal here to 227. We have to get people in California vote for the new proposition to overturn that to 227. So to get people to vote, that is hard. Right. So we're still looking for how can we make that happen? So in 2003, there is a school district near L.A., called Glendale Unified School District. If that sounds familiar, that's where the Kardashian family coming from. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:07:01] Oh, no way. 

Arthur Chou [00:07:04] Exactly. There's a huge Armenian population in Glendale. So the school district starts celebrate this bilingual camp in the Civil War. So California together, look into this, say this might be something we can use to celebrate the students bilingual ability. And 2010 we established the website which I manage right now which is the SealofBiliteracy.org. At the beginning all comes off very simple. We want to establish the seal of biliteracy in California only because we are thinking about how we overturn 227. So after we pass the seal of biliteracy in California, somehow I become the default person to help out the other states to establish the seal of biliteracy, so I started traveling state by state and help them establish the local legislation and that become the the story for the seal of biliteracy. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:07:58] So the seal of biliteracy got its start in California but it grew to be nationwide. Just goes to show you that if you push for something that you believe in, you never know what's possible. Okay, back to Arthur, who has a big point to drive home here. He wants to share his vision for the seal of biliteracy, because a lot of people, even me, before recording this episode with Arthur, think of the seal of biliteracy as a test, an assessment. For him, it's much more than that. 

Arthur Chou [00:08:26] I really want to mention one thing here. Seal of biliteracy is classroom movement. This is education law passed state by state so that the people, the group in their state, the educators, the family, the business group, everyone in their state make that happen because they have the legislation vote on that. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:08:48] So the seal of biliteracy is founded in the law. This is a seal that the government, the state government would be giving to high school students upon graduation to show and highlight that they are proficient in two or more languages, right? 

Arthur Chou [00:09:01] Yes. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:09:02] So if I'm a school district, that does it. Let's say my state. You said we have 48 states. 

Arthur Chou [00:09:08] 48 states plus Washington, D.C., have the Seal of Biliteracy right now. Yes. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:09:13] So if I'm one of those 48 states or D.C. and my school district isn't yet set up with the seal of biliteracy, how do I make that happen for my students? What would like? Walk us through step by step. 

Arthur Chou [00:09:26] So I get the phone call all the time. So if your state has the seal of biliteracy, very often it's up to the school district or the school to adopt the seal of biliteracy, right? Because this is this is not a requirement is more option law. So it's important for you as advocate person in your school district to help your student apply the seal of biliteracy from the state. If you have any question, you always call us. I work with every state government agency to help them, to spread the word, to get more schools, to apply for the seal of biliteracy. Even in my state, California, where we've had this for ten years. I think we are don't have the average, we don't have the number of schools that should have the seal of biliteracy yet. So really, it's a classroom movement. Establishing the legislation for the seal of biliteracy is the first step, second step is how do we get more school to participate? And how do we get more parents and teacher and student know about the seal of biliteracy. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:10:20] Typically, in your in your experience, how does a school decide to get it set up what the seal of biliteracy is it through the students asking for it, the parents asking for it? Or is it the school district who learns about it and wants to do it? 

Arthur Chou [00:10:34] It can be any way. Just making this free does allows to have a person who will lead the discussion. And then it's up to the school to find out potential students who might be interested in applying to the seal of biliteracy. But very often we got the call from parents who want to have the seal of biliteracy. One thing happened why I am not here, that five states actually award the college credit for the students who get the seal of biliteracy. The state are: Illinois, Minnesota, Maine, Hawaii and Missouri actually give out college credits in their public university. They do award college credits to the students with the seal of biliteracy. I got a phone call from Howard University a traditional applied university and they are doing the same thing they were recognizing the seal of biliteracy and giving college credit so this is important to know that parents know about that part. So I believe it or not, we got more phone calls from parents now, than from the school district. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:11:32] Wow. So is it am I correct in understanding that it's kind of like the AP exam where if you pass that you might not have to take classes at the college level, you get credit for them. 

Arthur Chou [00:11:44] So every state is different. Depends on the state law. Generally speaking this is an assessment. The key thing here is prove the proficiency, right? And the way you prove proficiency can be many months away. Assessment is definitely one of the easiest way to do that. They managed the state with portfolio. I will share something with you. We did the national seal of biliteracy report, in 2020, the report two years ago. There where 119 language, and you know there's only like six or seven languages that have assessments right? This is how many language that don't have an assessment, so believe it or not very often the assessments numbers are down the traditional commercial assessment. Now AP, AP only have very limited language. Even the common AAPPL, the languages are limited. So there are a lot more language needed to assess and the way they assess are differently doesn't has be that typical test you take the portfolio approach is one way and the main thing, for example in the state of Missouri not only you need to prove that you have the language proficiency, they have the social cultural competence part which I mean you have do some volunteer works, you know, demonstrate your eligibility. So I just interviewed the seal of biliteracy program in Kansas City School District, Missouri, and the school only have programs for two years because of that social cultural requirement, they actually go to volunteer in local school, you know, talk about bilingualism. They actually produce a Spanish movie, won international film festival. So these are the thing you can do, really demonstrate the language skills that. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:13:20] I just love. This is so project based and community driven. Unfortunately, we didn't have this option back when I was in high school. I graduated high school in Pennsylvania over a decade ago now. And I have no recollection of this or the seal at all. In in researching for this episode, I realized why the seal of biliteracy just got passed into state legislation in 2022. So the ink is still fresh in Pennsylvania. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:13:51] Now let's talk money. Arthur So if I'm a school district, how much does it cost? Are there grants and funds I could apply to help subsidize? 

Arthur Chou [00:13:59] So really, depends on the school district and the state and the if you have initial interest you can definitely just do Title 3, management they have money for world language they can use that and then some schools just the one funding doing the less legislation work they actually in the House bill they actually point out that the school can use ESSER money for the seal of biliteracy test. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:14:22] Yeah, we actually had Stephanie Bjork do a whole episode with us on how to get funding, and ESSER was the main pocket of money that that we talked about. [We've linked that episode for you in the description down below.] I do want to talk about the format of the assessment for the seal of biliteracy. So if I'm a teacher helping my students prepare for the test, what should I know about the tests to help them best prepare? 

Arthur Chou [00:14:46] Depends on every state. Some states requiring the medium-high. Most require the medium for the ACTFL skill set. But the media-high has to be more, well, higher, some state require medium-low as a requirement to give the seal of biliteracy. So, we know that if you only study high school Spanish for three years, you might not get there especially the writing part, writing can be very challenging. So your teacher really focus on that, the reading and writing part. But then again, as I said, seal of biliterac is not just about assessment. There are many other ways, how you can receive the seal of biliteracy: by using portfolio approach. Now, very often some students do not pass the seal of biliteracy, because English assessment they forgot about the English part. I mean, biliteracy means that you have two languages. You have to demonstrate your English ability too. So sometime, we got a phone call like this, hey, my kids didn't take that test because they don't think that's important in the English test and they missed that test. That's reason why you didn't get a seal of biliteracy, what can they do? Unfortunately, we are not the state. We didn't create law either. But if you don't pass the English assessment then you might not get the seal. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:16:01] It seems obvious, but everything is obvious in hindsight. 

Arthur Chou [00:16:06] Exactly. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:16:07] Do you know across the US typically what languages are eligible for the seal of biliteracy? 

Arthur Chou [00:16:15] Any human languages are eligible and that's the key with human language. So unfortunately computer language doesn't count. I think, you know, someone. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:16:26] Now. 

Arthur Chou [00:16:27] Pascal, C++ doesn't count. I was a math majors, I know that. But the languages that count, any human language including Latin, including American sign language. And one of the key things we really want to promote is the Native American languages. We really love to see more Native American languages off of the seal biliteracy. If you go to our website, Sealofbiliteracy.org, where we published two reports so far, I can share some data with the 2020 National Seal of Biliteracy report by now a 109,000 student received the SEAL by Irish Sea from 31 states. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:17:04] Wow. 

Arthur Chou [00:17:04] I presented 119 world languages. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:17:08] To say that again. Over 108,000 students from 31 U.S. states have received the Seal in 119 different languages, all since 2008. 

Arthur Chou [00:17:19] So it's not about your typical world language,it's about this actually representing  America. We are immigrants, these 119 language represent the 119 countries where the student come from. This represent the United States

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:17:35] Whose typically doing the assessing are these native speakers. How are they chosen? 

Arthur Chou [00:17:41] Speaking that depends on the county who do the assessment right? Really the testing assessment company can answer the question better than I do, but naturally if there's a native speaker assess. I'm glad. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:17:51] And Arthur, what do you tell students who are asking you like, why should I get it? What is it going to do for me? What do you usually tell them? 

Arthur Chou [00:18:00] Okay, that can be so many things I can share two three story in the past. Okay. One of the most common phone calls we got now. They are surprisingly the students senior in college who got the seal four years ago. But they will call us, say they say, hey, I got the seal of biliteracy four years ago, but I'm applying for the medical school. I'm applying to law school. I want to show on my record that I have the seal of biliteracy. Can you help me to find it? The truth here is that many graduate advanced degree, the law school, the medical school are now recruiting bilingual students. They know the community will need a bilingual workforce. Right? So your bilingual skill set will help you not just to get the college credits like we said earlier we'll help you career in the future. Another thing, I really want to encourage and this is really critical part. Heritage speaker students. Keep your heritage in languages, you know I am Chinese. I'm from Taiwan originally. Many of my friends' kids want to learn Chinese, so that's my parents language, and they might think "ah that's my parents' language, I don't need to learn that" but the reality here is, that's your superpower. You can speak the language most other people can't, right? Cherish that, leverage that and make it become your best weapon. Another thing I want to show was restore with you about dual language school movement. This is one thing we find out. We really are encouraging more school to start that dual program. Now, goal here is that not only youe language is strong enough, you're starting social science in another language, it can be Spanish, can be Chinese. And you know what I think we started seeing that students in the dual program they're applying for college in Europe because the language is so strong that they can  solve math in Spanish. And you know, one thing about university in Spain, or in Europe, they are free, you  can save lots of money from the student debt, right? If your second language is good enough you can solve the math in Spanish or German, French or Chinese. Japanese. You know those cuts for free. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:20:01] I think that might have been the biggest life hack we've ever heard on this podcast. 

Arthur Chou [00:20:07] This is especially important for a lot of students from English these school, right? There's hope believe that language is your key to your new future. You're right. I think you might think about, oh, I am going to stay in my neighborhood all my life. No, learn a language, go to one of these programs, learn math in different languages, apply to college and how you can see the world different way, it will change your life. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:20:28] Well yeah because there is I'm sure you know this there's a whole bunch of research into what's called linguistic relativity, right. Which is that the languages, you know, or study can impact the way that you see the world. And there's there's there's a lot of evidence that this happens in subtle ways, right? It's not it doesn't mean that if you speak one language, you can't understand the world in one way. But it does give you a different lens because there's the language chops up reality into different nouns and different groups. 

Arthur Chou [00:20:56] Just so many research talk about this. We really want to encourage more people to learn different languages. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:21:02] Not every learner, especially heritage language learners, speak a standard variety of the target language. So whenever students are preparing for this seal, whether it's a portfolio or a test, how does a state usually evaluate these nonstandard dialects? 

Arthur Chou [00:21:19] So I give a very good example in New Mexico. In New Mexico, they use a portfolio approach a lot. And assessment is definitely one option, but they use the portfolio approach and basically the portfolio demonstrate their ability in speaking, reading and writing and the listening. And that the the school will invite local business like banker bakery people you know business owner come here to evaluate the students on their ability. I actually saw some of them hire those kids for the summer job right away. So that's a good way to assess us. I mean, I understand that there's a certain expectation is these certain standard, but actually we I personally believe Spanish can be any other form. Doesn't matter where you're from. All Spanish are valid. We encourage diversity of Spanish, right? This is not just a European Spanish or or your dialect is not proper. This is your language. This is your cultural heritage. Nobody can tell you. You are not going to know. We are as good as everyone else. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:22:18] After having listened to this episode, what is one thing that you hope that school districts remember about this movement and about the seal of biliteracy? 

Arthur Chou [00:22:27] The seal is not the assessment. It's about celebration. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:22:32] Excellent. Well, thank you so much, Arthur. It was a joy to have you on this show and stay safe and hope to talk to you again soon. 

Arthur Chou [00:22:40] Thank you Emily. Thank you. Bye bye. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:22:44] Okay, so that's the perspective of the seal of biliteracy from one of its founding fathers, Arthur Chou. Now let's talk to someone who recently graduated from high school having earned her seal of biliteracy. Here's my conversation with Nicole Rybak. 

Nicole Rybak [00:23:02] I'm a very language oriented person. [Nicole presenting herself in Polish] seal of biliteracy. I grew up speaking Polish, learned English and Polish simultaneously as a child because my parents are Polish. And then I picked up Spanish when I was about eight years old and French. I picked up, I think, in high school and have just been continuing with it ever since. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:23:32] Thanks for giving us the background to your language story. Now I'd love to know a little bit more about the seal of biliteracy. So can you tell our listeners what was your experience with the seal of biliteracy. I want to know everything. When did you find out it was a thing? How did you know it was something you wanted to do? What was it like to get it? Have you leveraged in any way with your professional career? Academic career yet? 

Nicole Rybak [00:23:57] Okay. Yeah. So I first found out that the seal of biliteracy was a thing my senior year of high school, because that was the first year that my school decided to do seal biliteracy. So that's how I found out. I think I found out through my language classes, which is another it's an interesting thing that I don't remember it being very marketed towards the rest of the high school population. And we were a very diverse high school in like a suburb of Illinois, like a suburb of Chicago. So, like, incredibly diverse. There's definitely a ton of like heritage speakers, native speakers. And yet it was still like marketed towards language learners learning Spanish for the first time, learning French for the first time. So I took it my senior year. I took two my senior year. So I started off with the Polish one and then I and then I took the French one. So the Spanish one I didn't actually take because I took the AP exam in Spanish and I got a five. And for some reason I didn't know that it like transferred over like, but my school was like, oh, since you got a five, like you're getting it anyway. Like not going to complain. So I took the Polish one. I do remember again finding out about the Polish one through research, after finding out about the the exam in language classes, because the languages that were offered at my high school were French, German and Spanish. And so in those classes, people were talking about like, do the Seal of biliteracy and other languages were not mentioned that were not offered. And then I like asked around, I was like, 'It's Polish. Can I, can I take it?' I got the response like, 'Yeah, sure, you can arrange it.' And really the reason why I decided to take the Polish one was because I kind of wanted something more like official to show for it. Like, Yes, I could speak Polish, but like, let's get it certified, I guess. So I took the Polish exam first. I do remember being very surprised by the questions. There were three essays and I remember writing those three essays or like getting those essay questions and being like like I've never I don't know if I have the vocabulary for this. Like, I remember writing about the danger of water sports and I was like, I can't tell you things about water sports in Polish like this is not like I very much know how to communicate. I know, I know a lot of Polish. But did I learn about water sports at home, about water sports in Polish school? No, I didn't. And I'm like, how do I do this? And so I just remember being like super surprised by the essay question. And then I sat down to take the French one and I was like, coming in, like super prepared for something incredibly hard. And then I got the essay questions and I was like, 'This is fine', this is for some reason. I also remember having the feeling that the French was easier than the Polish. Yeah, so that was my experience. 

Emily Sabo, Ph [00:26:52] What have you been able to leverage that seal of biliteracy for? So like have you put it on your resumé, your CV? Do you think it had an impact in getting into the linguistics program? Tell me a little bit. About what you think you got from it. 

Nicole Rybak [00:27:06] I'm actually I'm sure if I have it on my resumé, I think I think I might, but I definitely have it on my LinkedIn for sure. Initially when I got it, I was very much like one track, but I did like, Oh, will this help me in college? And so I took it and I was like, Oh, I can definitely put it in like somewhere. I do remember that after the seal of biliteracy, during our like senior awards ceremony, that's when like medals were given out for the seal of literacy. There were like a ton of people who like took the Spanish exam and like got seal biliteracy. There were a little bit less in French, but it was still like, I think we only have like one French class up at the time, like an AP. And I think like about like maybe three fourths of people like passed and like got the seal biliteracy. And then when it came to Polish it was two people. And so but I know of so many people who took it. Because it is a very much the town that I grew up in is very much, like I say, half divided Hispanic/Latino and Polish. And so so many people took that and they're like, oh, this kid got it. Congratulations. And Nicole Rybak. And I'm like, just two... 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:28:17] It was the water sports questions. 

Nicole Rybak [00:28:18] It was the water sports question apparently. I mean, I guess I wrote something correctly on it. Kind of returning to your question for sure, coming into college, if somebody is proficient in language, takes the seal of biliteracy, gets it, you're proficient in this language officially. I can't see how that wouldn't be a benefit. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:28:39] Well, as we wrap up, can you teach me how to say thank you for being... Maybe that's too hard. Maybe just like "thanks" and "bye", in Polish.

Nicole Rybak [00:28:49] So thanks is "Dziękuję" yeah. Yeah. Yes. And then bye is "Do Widzenia" Yeah. Yes. Cool. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:29:00] That's so it's so similar. So, my dad side is Croatian and Slovak and so I've been using Mango to reconnect with my Croatian roots and I'm pretty sure that "Do Widzenia" is goodbye in Croatian as well. And, and I know that a lot of those those languages in that area are very similar. 

Nicole Rybak [00:29:21] It is, it is. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:29:21] Is "hello" Something like "Dobar dan" 

Nicole Rybak [00:29:26] Mhh, it's "Dzień dobre" but which is like basically because "dobre dan" is "good day" so it's it's "dzień dobre". 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:29:33] Well thank you so much, Nicole, for being on the show. And I hope you stay healthy and keep doing what you're doing. 

Nicole Rybak [00:29:40] Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. I had such a great time. 

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:29:44] Thank you. Bye

Emily Sabo, PhD [00:29:45] Well, that was my conversation with one of the Seals founding fathers, Arthur Chou, and a high school seal earner, Nicole Rybak, now of Georgetown University. This episode was just absolutely jam packed with really helpful information about what this deal is, why it matters, and how to implement it. So to help y'all out, me and my team here at Mango put together a really nice, tidy summary of the eight things that you should know about the seal of bliteracy. You can download it for free by clicking the link in the description. If your school doesn't yet offer the seal, visit the SealofBiliteracy.org website. If you'd like to connect with Arthur, you can reach him at info@sealofbiliteracy.org. If you want to connect with Nicole, you can reach out to her on LinkedIn by her name. Nicole Rybak. That's r y b a k. Well, that is all for today's episode. Stay tuned for our next episode of Teaching Languages Today. If you want to be the first to know when that episode goes live, then make sure you follow the show. If you like today's show, I invite you to give us a follow. Give us a like, leave us a review. And if you have some teaching friends who you'd think would benefit from this podcast, then feel free to share with them as well. The more the merrier. Well, for me and the Mango Languages family, we hope you have a great rest of your day. Ciao. This episode was hosted, produced and edited by me, Dr. Emily Sabo, our production manager, is Dr. Erika Caturegli. And our audience was Oh, wait, that's you. Thank you so much.