Ajuste de la Barra Alta (setting the bar high)

This past week was one of the best weeks I have had in the Independent Study and Mentorship program. Filled with many firsts, this week was fun-filled, exciting, and nerve wracking as I had my first research interview. The highlight of my week, meeting with Claudia Yarahuan, was meaningful and made me ready to start my life as a teacher.

On Wednesday, I drove over to Downtown McKinney for an interview at Caldwell Elementary. Caldwell Elementary is a dual language campus filled with bilingual classrooms for all age groups. My interview with Claudia Yarahuan went well and taught me crucial information about what the format the first grade class uses, Primary Literacy. In this schedule, the class is mixed with half of the students speaking English primarily and half primarily Spanish speakers. They rotate between class being taught in English or in Spanish. The goal is to have the kids understanding the lesson in both languages, and spending more time learning from being around children of the other language. This format has been proven to be very successful. At the end of the interview, I got to meet Claudia Yarahuan’s teaching partner, Alison Sanderson. Alison Sanderson is the English half of their partnership. This was unexpected but turned out to be one of the highlights of the interview. After sharing the road she took to get to where she is now, I had a hope for my future in the teaching field. The conversations I had with both Claudia Yarahuan and Alison Sanderson made my excitement for this year increase. This interview set the bar high!

This week in ISM has been amazing, educational, and has motivated me to keep pushing through because the end goal is worth it. I can not wait until the day where I have a class of my own where I can teach children. Simply being inside an elementary school again made me realize that this is truly my passion. I can not wait to start living my dream!