Claudia Gonzalez

I attribute my success to my mother for being the beacon of why I wanted to become an English as a second language teacher. She has limited English skills, and helping her made me want to help others who don't speak English. I also attribute my success to my former colleagues at Masters Elementary in the Judson Independent School District, where I worked for the past 6 years. They have definitely been very thoughtful and willing to provide me as much support as I can, so I can thrive, especially throughout my first year when I taught kindergarten and up to the very present day. Without them, I don't think I could thrive and understand what it's like to work with young children and get that theoretical understanding that children desperately need to be heeded so they can definitely thrive as well and reach your expectations. A couple of my former supervisors even attended my Educator of the Year ceremony last year, and I have paid tribute to them on my LinkedIn profile.

The best career advice I received was from one of my former colleagues who mentioned that I must work smarter rather than harder. This has enabled me to grow professionally over the past 6 years as an educator. When I'm encountering multiple tasks, I prioritize them in order of importance, so the most important task that has the nearest deadline, I make sure I update that first, and then I address all the others that are less important or have a further deadline at the very end. Whatever I don't complete at my workplace, I would take it home because I wanted to leave home at an earlier time rather than just staying all night. I used to work a few hours a week at home, but I have cut that down during the last 2 years because there's no need, and my former colleagues have been mentioning that I was facing a lot of burnout, just like a lot of teachers have been experiencing. I wanted to create more of a work-life balance, and that is the greatest advice that has resonated with me and I have taken to full account and wanted to start practicing, because I wanted to be the best that I could be for my students and other staff members, and to instill more of a favorable learning community. It all starts with my behavior and how I model it in front of the students. By taking care of myself first, that work-life balance is extremely essential.

My proverb that has resonated with me sharply from the past 6 years in my career as an educator is that it takes a village to raise a child. My advice is don't go it alone into working with children, to shaping young minds, without losing your own. Seek advice, seek support as much as you possibly can, as needed, from colleagues, supervisors or administrators, former teachers, and others who have profound knowledge in their area of expertise. Have them share their expertise and form networks, because it definitely pays a large dividend for anyone who wants to excel in their profession. Even the parents, I should mention, so please touch base with the families and collaborate, and then create a tracking log of the communications to and from parents or families and supervisors, because they do serve as an essential evidential piece. That way, in case you need to attend ARD meetings or any kind of meetings for families and students, you can provide evidence of what has been going on and show that you are trying to provide as much support for the students on your part. I call them stakeholders, the adults that are responsible for nurturing the child throughout various contexts. That would definitely be my advice. It definitely takes an entire village of stakeholders to make sure that the child succeeds beyond the classroom.

The biggest challenge is how to balance multiple tasks without feeling the burnout and maintain sanity and composure, and to seek composure whenever you need it. What I have been doing the last 5 years I've taught kindergarten was to take a moment to vent frustration, so I would try to model the expected behavior of the students. When they feel sad or upset by any means, I have them take a moment, let's say up to 5 minutes in the calming corner, or what we call a peace and quiet station, where the students feel safe and feel appreciated and belong. When they feel sad or upset, I have them sit out for a while and then come back into the community in the classroom and engage, which has helped a lot. I think the strategy of creating and having the students use the calming corner is one of my challenges, dealing with young children who are definitely emotional, especially when you're in a classroom with 23-some-odd students every day, every year. I also go over as a class how to address one's frustrations, any coping strategies, and how to make sure that it's a success so that the students can remain calm and focused throughout their instructional day. I make sure they have outlets like recess and time off from the academics for them to undergo any unstructured activities. That's definitely one of my challenges, but then again, it's an area where I had shown growth.

My values are collaboration, frequent communication, love, understanding, total respect, responsibility, sense of belonging, and also being goal-oriented. Those are my strongest values that have sharply resonated with me during the past 6 years, and I also want to receive improvement. Those are the values that I carry on with me at work and throughout my intimate contexts.