Context and Positionality

In order to understand me as a teacher, you have to understand me as a student and a daughter.

From "Tahnx·geev·eeng" 🦃 to "Kindergarten" 🏫

My first language was Spanish, so I learned how to speak English through a local, bilingual prekindergarten. Come Thanksgiving time, I was bopping around telling people it was "Tahnx·geev·eeng." While I was proud of my progress, I was embarrassed about people's snickers in response to my accent. My older siblings, who learned English when they moved here, would coach me a little bit everyday after school. With the help of local television and movies, I shifted to a slightly more academic utterance until I got to a more acceptable "Thangks·gi·vuhng."

Fast forward a few months into kindergarten, and I was the only student in the 33 person classroom who could spell "kindergarten" correctly. It was a source of pride to be able to progress with the English language and have people understand me. Mutual understanding became one of my priorities thereafter to the point that I always looked forward to my English classes and eventually majored in English at Vassar. Still, because I was drawn to communication and stories across multiple formats, Film, too, became another adored vessel for storytelling. In my journey as a teacher, I hope to motivate individuals to seek out a wide range of subjectivities through narratives.