Her Story
About Mary
I have been working in education for 16 and a half years, though my journey has taken various paths. I started in the classroom but left the education field at one point to become an interpreter in the hospital and went back to school twice as we grew our family. I got my teaching credential for preschool since my original credential was only K-8, and I also studied interpreting for the court system while working in the medical field as an interpreter. A friend who was a teacher kept inviting me to sub in his classroom, and after a year I decided to come back to teaching. During COVID, when it was particularly difficult with third graders online, I decided to get my master's degree in technology because I needed to figure out how to reach these students and prepare them for the future. Currently, I serve in two roles at my school. As the parent and community facilitator, I am the liaison between the school and the home, organizing cultural events like Black History Month, coordinating with parent groups, and helping create them. Two years ago, I helped facilitate gathering members of our African American students' families to come together to co-plan events and provide a space to discuss issues and concerns. I bring in community organizations that provide services for our families, like free backpacks and uniforms since we are a Title I school where more than 80% of our students are low-income. I also coordinated English as a second language classes at our site through Long Beach City College for families new to the country. In my other role as a social-emotional coach, I launched the Harmony program, going into classrooms to sustain practices that help students connect with each other in the morning, share, and work on their Harmony goals. I engage students in lifelong lessons so they can understand how important it is to get along with each other and regulate their emotions, especially since we have students who have experienced trauma at our school. Unfortunately, my position is disappearing due to budget cuts in Long Beach Unified, as I am a teacher on special assignment and the district made the decision they couldn't have us outside the classroom anymore. However, I'm excited about flying in different places and continuing my growth, as I've only been at one school and want to take what I've learned here and continue growing elsewhere.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Mary
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would definitely say to stay curious, because there is always new information that comes through. The students that are in front of me are not the same students that I had when I started my career. Life is changing all the time, and we need to learn to adapt. We need to learn new skills to be able to reach our students, engage them in the learning. But number one, though, connect with them. Get to know them as people, as little people, before really building their knowledge in their academia. With my students, we do affirmations all the time. We begin the lesson with affirmations, and some of them are, you know, step outside your comfort zone. And the more I step outside my comfort zone, the more I grow. I think about how do I have them really believe in this when I need to be doing that. I've only been at this school, and I need to continue that growth.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenges are definitely the financial piece, because we can only fundraise as much as we can. We're really asking families to contribute as much as possible, and they are amazing. I mean, they will go out and sell chocolates so that they can have buses to be able to learn outside the classroom and take one field trip a year. Another challenge is that many times we have the same families that come together and contribute and partner with us because most of our families are working, so it's really difficult for them to be here during school hours or even right after. A lot of the times it's the grandparents that are picking up the children or bringing them to school. And then time, right? You want to do so much. I want to do so much. I want to be able to celebrate and bring that passion in to the learning, but there are so many competing programs. We want to make sure that they leave here being able to be fluent in their reading and their math and be prepared for middle school. So how do we incorporate all those other events and experiences for them? There's also a lot of changes happening just across the board in California with education and funding. We have suffered tremendously, and so there's a hiring freeze and a lot of changes happening.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Definitely connection. I value connection with students, with families. Belonging is the other one. It goes hand-in-hand, of course. If you're connecting with your community, if you're connecting with your families and your students, then they have that sense of belonging with school. And partnerships, because we can't do all the work ourselves. We need our parents, we need our community to come together and partner with us to be able to create success for our students.
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