¿Quién soy? 🤔
Hello and nice to meet you! I am so excited to start my third year of teaching and to get to know all my students and families at Ray Elementary School 😁 I imagine that you will want to get to know me as well so I'm happy to share some information about my personal identity and my life.
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I was born in Chicago and lived there until I was two years old, which is when my parents, younger brother, and I moved to Lake Forest, which is where I spent the following 16 years of my life. I attended Everett Elementary School, Deer Path Middle School, and Lake Forest High School. That picture is from one of my performances in my middle school's production of "Oliver!" in which I had my own fan club sit through two hours of a middle school musical just to hear me scream my one line; "BILL SYKES!!!" Those boys are my younger brother Scott (the one handing me the bouquet of flowers) and his friends. I've always loved singing and was in choir from 5th grade until my freshman year of college.
When I was 12 I was fortunate enough to take my first trip outside of the country, which was a family trip to London and a cruise around Italy. It was this trip that planted the seeds for my love of travel and experiencing different cultures. That's me with the jean purse and the tie dye jacket, and next to me is my aforementioned brother Scott who is one year younger than I am. My older siblings are my step siblings since we have the same dad but different moms, but we grew up as if we were blood siblings since we saw each other a lot and lived close to their mom so they could easily be with their mom and our family. My older sister Jenny is 5 years older than I am and my older brother Michael is 4 years older than I am, and our dad is in between them. And the tall pointy guy to the left? Well, that's Big Ben, and he's kind of a big deal so it was an honor to get a picture with him. ☺️
After we returned from the trip of a lifetime, we adopted our family dog, a miniature schnauzer we named Cole! We adopted him from Lambs Farm which gets their pets from shelters or reputable breeders and not puppy or kitten mills, which was very important to me and still is. From the moment we first saw Cole we knew he was the one, and when we took him into Petsmart right after we adopted him he showed us how fearless he was by approaching AND barking at not one, but TWO Great Danes walking by. Nothing has changed since except how much my family and I love him. 🖤
Growing up I played soccer, softball, and some tennis. The summer before my freshman year of high school my older sister convinced me to do my high school's cross country summer camp since she loved it so much. I was hesitant since I had never run a mile nonstop before, much less 3 miles for races and more on some practice days. I fell in love with the sport and team instantly and continued running for the track and cross country teams until I graduated in June 2014. To this day I keep thanking my sister for convincing me to join, and myself for trying something new and outside my comfort zone. I run almost every single day now and if you keep reading you'll learn about how this sport positively affected my life again.
This photo is from my senior year in which I earned the Sportsmanship award for track, and as you can see from the photo the pom poms I brought and used at every race to cheer everyone on definitely helped me earn that award and make many friends, even though it was unconventional. Who says only cheerleaders and pom pomers can use pom poms?
Before graduating, the spring break of my senior year of high school I was extremely lucky to go on a trip to Germany and Switzerland with my high school's choir to sing in several churches in both countries. We had spent several months in choir preparing songs in German which was really fun and cool to be able to sing in churches in Germany in German. We even got to sing at the church in which Bach is buried, and I hope we did his music justice. I had officially gotten the travel bug, and it has only gotten stronger over time.
This picture showcases some of the seniors on one of our last days of high school in first hour Spanish 5 with our teacher. I don't have any pictures with any of my other Spanish teachers from the past, but they all had a major role in inspiring me to become a Spanish teacher. Not only did they seem to genuinely love their job, but they also cared deeply about each and every one of their students. The defining moment that solidified my desire to become a Spanish teacher was at the beginning of class one day a student who is usually happy, loud, and peppy entered class silently crying. Our teacher noticed and extended our warm up to give her a few extra minutes to discreetly speak with the student alone in the hall until the student felt better. I'm sure that I was the only one who took note but it has since had a major impact on me. That moment showed me that teachers are more than just teachers; they're social workers, coaches, educators, role models, first aid providers, inspirations, and so much more. Two summers ago I was diagnosed with mild depression and looking back I was genuinely depressed my entire life, some of my earliest memories are dark ones. However, growing up nobody noticed since I was so good at faking a smile and denied it until a few years ago. Why am I mentioning this? Well, for several reasons, the first of which is that as a teacher I'm in the perfect position to get to know each and every one of my students well and hopefully detect whenever a student is struggling mentally, emotionally, physically, or otherwise and help them get the professional help they need. Another reason is to destigmatize mental illness and incorporate Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) into my classes to teach students how to cope with negative emotions and how to help others who are struggling. Especially with everything going on in the world right now it's more important that students learn how to cope and where to seek professional help if they want.
This takes me to the next chapter of my life, college. Words can't describe how ecstatic I was to get accepted into and attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I began there by studying math to become a math teacher, before realizing that my personality was better suited for being a Spanish teacher. That, and I really wanted to study abroad and that would have been nearly impossible as a math major and education minor but it was expected if you were going to be a language teacher. So my junior year began my journey that takes me to where I am now in being a Spanish teacher.
My freshman year I joined Sigma Kappa and grew so much through my time with them on campus. I learned how to speak to superiors and how to plan big events such as Formals and Barn Dances during my time as the social chair. Most of my closest friends to this day are from my sorority, and they're so diverse and such incredible people. Through the recruitment process I overcame my fear of meeting lots of new people at once and mastered the skill of small talk and getting to know people on a deeper level in a short period of time.
The summer of 2016 I went on a trip around Costa Rica through the travel group Education First (EF) College Break that taught me so much and provided me with so many incredible adventures. Not only did I get to try fresh, native, and new food, but I also had the opportunity to meet a few people from a tiny village called Maleku. The Maleku people have a long history and their very own language, as well as cultural practices and products. I purchased a few trinkets they made by hand to raise money for their village. We heard one of their senior members speak in his native language about their history and culture and had a younger member who knows English translate for us. I'm excited to share their story with my classes and teach them about the importance of cultures and traditions as that is a major reason that I went on this trip.
Some of the more adventurous activities on the trip included zip lining across a jungle, bungee jumping, white water rafting, going to Playa Manuel Antonio and seeing Capuchin monkeys up close, going horseback riding, and watching our tour guide pick up a live scorpion like it was nothing. 😱
The first semester of my junior year of college I realized how much I missed running with friends and competing in races so I took a leap of faith and decided to join my university's Cross Country club. Since I didn't know a single person on the club AND I was joining as a junior I was extremely nervous for my first day, so much so that I almost turned around and just ran on my own that day instead. However, I was trying to push myself to try new things and go outside of my comfort zone, so I stayed. I was immediately welcomed by every person who showed up to that practice, and a lot of people even mentioned how cool it was that I was joining as an upperclasswoman. Originally I joined just to run casually with other people, but after giving the first race a shot (which was my first 6k race) I was hooked. Throughout my time on the cross country and track clubs at UIUC I made countless friends and memories, from talking about life on long runs to traveling all the way to Hershey, PA and back for cross country nationals in vans one year.
I'm most proud of my own personal improvement though. I went from being one of the slowest runners on the club when I joined to the number 4 runner on the girl's track and cross country clubs. That really proved to me that hard work, dedication, perseverance, and teamwork pays off. I want to use that story to show all my students that they CAN do anything they want if they put in the time and effort. And just like my journey on the club, there will be obstacles and it will get really difficult at times, but it will all pay off in the end. And who knows, maybe you'll make some incredible friends along the way 😊
All that training and hard work I did with the cross country and track clubs paid off when I ran the half marathons my school hosts every April when I finished with person best times that blew away my sister's half marathon best times (something that I had been trying to do since I joined cross country my freshman year of high school #siblingrivalry 😏)
This takes me to my semester abroad in Granada, Spain in the Spring of 2017. The lovely woman in the middle photo next to me was my madre Española, aka my host mom. Her name is Pilar and she is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. Right from the moment I met her she was super helpful with getting me settled into my home for the next few months. She eagerly took me on a private tour of Granada and showed me some spots about which only locals know. The food she prepared was always mouth watering and I miss it and her everyday. Spanish mothers actually are the best, they always make sure you get plenty of food, make sure you eat with them to get quality time as a family, and even help when you get sick. My Spanish speaking skills were still not great at the time but she was completely understanding about it and happily repeated things and spoke slowly at times. She didn't understand any English so this was the perfect opportunity to improve my Spanish. It didn't help that she has a thick Andalusian accent at the time, but by the end of the semester I could understand her much more easily, and to this day I've had native Spanish speakers tell me that I have an Andalusian accent. I had also 4 incredible native Spanish teachers at my school there who were super helpful and spoke in Spanish unless it was absolutely necessary (one of them didn't even speak English) so between that and my host mom my Spanish improved a lot over that semester.
I won't go into too much more detail about my semester abroad since I'm saving those experiences for class, but I was able to travel to a different country or city every weekend (we had 3 day weekends). During that semester I traveled to Barcelona, Madrid, Sevellia, Cordoba, and Roquetas del Mar in Spain, and I traveled to the Netherlands, Belgium, Paris, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, and even Morocco! I also had the opportunity to help out in an English class at a local high school which was really cool and I learned a lot from that :)
I became much more independent through a lot of solo travel across the continent and gained a lot of confidence. Not only that, but I learned a lot about the culture, tried new foods, went sky diving over the Swiss Alps, and acquired the language. I want to share my experiences to convince my students to travel, learn about different cultures, seek discomfort, and meet as many people as they can (safely of course).
To wrap up my undergrad experience I student taught Spanish 3 and 4 at Champaign Central High School. As difficult, stressful, and exhausting as it was, it was also rewarding, educational, and fun. I was fortunate to work with an amazing language department with an expert cooperating teacher who helped me every step of the way. I wouldn't have survived the semester without the support of the head of my department and my University Supervisor. I want to thank them, my family, and friends for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself.
Valencia, paradise, the best city, whatever you want to call it, it was my second home for 6 months before COVID hit. Before arriving in Valencia in October 2019 I spent the month prior traveling around Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, and Greece, all of which are incredible countries.
I moved to Valencia in October 2019 to be a Culture and Language Assistant at CEIP Castillo del Real, which is a Pre-k through 6th grade school in a tiny town called Marines that's about a 20 minute drive North of Valencia. While there I led presentations about holidays in the United States, answered questions in their English classes, led some gym activities (their gym classes were in English), and worked individually with a 5th grade transfer student from South Africa. Twice a week I individually tutored him in Spanish since he only spoke Afrikaans and English, and through those sessions I got to know him very well and helped him adjust to such a massive change in his life. Whenever the staff would speak with the student's father, who also didn't speak Spanish, I would sit in on the meetings as a translator who also added my own observations from working with the student. That was such a rewarding and incredible opportunity that I was not expecting to have but I'm really happy I was able to help out.
Outside of the classroom I went hiking around Spain every weekend and made friends from all over the world. Through this I really got to experience parts of Spain that most people never will and experience different cultures and parts of history. During my time abroad in Spain I traveled to Náquera, Xátiva, Alicante, Cartagena, Buñol, Zaragoza, Denia/Montgó, Olocau, Calles/Chelva, Monasterio de Piedra, Bilbao, and L'Albufera.
I'll save more details of my experiences in Spain for class, since I hope to use my experiences there to educate my students on different cultures within Spain, as well as encourage them to travel and follow their dreams, whatever they may be.
Finally, this takes us to today. Back in May 2020 my fiancé and I adopted a 1.5 year old dog from Chicago Canine Rescue. His name at the shelter was Jasper, but we decided to name him Barry after Barry Allen/The Flash. He's been such a joy to have and everybody adores him since he's so well behaved (aside from when he sees squirrels) and so goofy. We got a doggy DNA test and while he's mostly Golden Retriever and Lab, he's also part Pit bull, part German Shepherd, part Chow Chow, part Rottweiler, and part American Staffordshire Terrier.