MARTHA

Hello,

My name is Martha Alicia Lizcano Rueda de Flores. How is that for a long name? Well, not many people will ever see or hear my full name, so I just wanted to share. I am a woman of vintage years of which I am very proud. I am neither all Mexican nor all American. I am just the right blend of two cultures for what constitutes ¨me¨

I am many things to many people. I am a teacher, a mom, a grandmother (abuela), a mentor, a Zumba dancer, a scrapbooker, a sister, an ex-wife, and so much more. An extremely important part of my life are my 4 sons, their girlfriends, and one very incredible granddaughter. I became a grandmother in March of 2015. Last December, I met my Princess Yuna for the 1st time. Lupe made all of the arrangements for herself, her daughters, Steve, and myself to spend Christmas in Oregon. It was fabulous! Lupe is incredible.

Academically, I earned my Spanish Ed. degree at UIC. I studied one summer in Mexico City at the Universidad Iberoamericana and took very intense graduate courses. I also took a few courses at the Museum of Anthropology and dreamt of being a social anthropologist. I spent over 3 decades teaching Spanish for the School City of Hammond to both middle and high school students. Teaching Spanish was both challenging and rewarding.

As of two years ago, I embarked on a new teaching venture. I applied for and was hired as an ENL (English as a New Language) teacher. Over the past 2 years, I have been re-energized. Many of my students have demonstrated excellent growth in their language development and quite a few have earned high enough scores to pass the WIDA ACCESS exam. I am very proud of my students' accomplishments.

I applied to the Summer Institute based on my need to acquire essential writing strategies in order to enable my students to become proficient if not prolific writers. I now have a multitude of lesson plans,writing strategies, and have a treasure chest of teaching resources. I am most thankful to both Connie Farrell and Dr. Boiarsky for empowering me with excellent teaching tools for the teaching of writing.

I am also thankful that I have met each and every one of you. Each of you is unique, intelligent, and has already either begun a very rewarding educational journey or is about to embark on his/her journey soon. This Summer Institute may have ended but it will live on in our teaching and in our students.