Amy Cabrera

I attribute my success to my husband. He's my support in everything I do. He pushes me forward when I think I can, he pushes me forward, and when things get harder he tells me I can. So without him, I know I wouldn't be as successful as I am. I also think my drive and endurance come from being an athlete my whole life. I started competitive swimming when I was young and would go to practice two a day - I'd go to practice before school, go to school, and then when school was out I was back at the pool. That's where I get my drive and my endurance for when things get hard, I just put my head down and I work harder, because that's what I did in the pool. I carry that on into every aspect of my life to make sure that just because things get hard doesn't mean we quit. We don't quit. We just work harder.

When I first started, my mentor was my superintendent, and she told me to never stop learning. I've taken that to heart, and that's exactly what I've done. I've taught myself even during the summer - last summer I went and sought employment at an ABA clinic so that I could tune in my behavior vocabulary and strategies and just all the things. Right now I've currently applied for my principal certification, so I'm doing an accelerated program for that which will start in June. And just this past weekend, one of my mentors at my school I'm at now, Dr. Gina, she told me the best thing I could do is to get on TEA's website and take all the courses I can. I took 5 courses this past weekend and loved every minute of it, and just the opportunity to be able to brag about all the things that I learned and how exciting it was. It was just so much fun to have a mentor that you can actually be excited about the things that you're currently doing, and they're right there with you, and she knows exactly what I'm talking about. To be able to live it in real time, it's just priceless.

I would say don't let anybody - if somebody tells you you can't do something because of your age, or because you're a woman, don't listen to negative talk like that. You need to consistently give yourself positive self-talk, and you consistently need to shoot for the stars, and have goals, and work towards those goals. I think if a woman can have a goal and juggle everything that she's doing with her family, or school, or work, then even if it's a woman that's maybe in her 40s and she never completed her degree but she's always wanted that degree, she can still do it. Nothing is unachievable. You can have your family, you can do school at night after the babies are asleep. We can do it all, especially as a woman. There's - we are unstoppable. The things that we can do that men can't do, the way that we can multitask that men can't do. Being a woman is a strength all in and of its own.

I think the big challenge is a lack of communication between teachers and families, and I wish that that was better. I mean, we strive for that every single day. It's an ongoing goal that we work towards. Working together, we have to collaborate with the things that are happening in the home with the things that are happening at school. The successes we have at school, we need to share that with the families so the families can implement those behaviors and strategies and interventions, so that we're changing families' lives for the better. If we have good communication and we're collaborating, then we're setting up that student for success. If there's a disconnect, we're doing that student a disservice when we could do so much more. It's all about the kids, and we need to set them up when they're young so that they're successful young adults and then adults.

Integrity, being responsible and dependable. Those are my key values, that's what I try to do every day for my general education teachers, for the admin on whichever campus I'm at, for everybody. I try to - for our students, especially, and for those that have to teach - I try to support them as much as I can.