Halla Jmourko

Originally from Ukraine, Galina (Halla) Jmourko is an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) instructional coach in Prince George’s County Public Schools, MD.  Her primary professional engagements are focused on advocacy for children coming from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. What began as a personal experience as a parent of an emergent bilingual child became a professional investigation about the role of language in mathematics learning and a commitment to equitable practices for English learners (ELs) in mathematics.  Halla designs professional learning opportunities, creates language-based instructional tools, develops and implements a variety of coaching structures to support mainstream and ESOL teachers of ELs across content areas, but particularly in mathematics. Due to her vision and determination, a comprehensive and sustainable structure of collaborative knowledge transfer, support systems, and teacher leader development is now established in the district to better serve ELs in mathematics.  She has presented at numerous national conferences such as NCTM, Innov8, WIDA, TODOS, ASCD on professional development for teachers of ELs and instructional tools for integrating mathematics and language learning. Over the years, Halla has been working with Center for Mathematics Education, University of Maryland to support university-district outreach efforts and is currently co-teaching a course on middle school mathematics instruction for ELs.