Spanish Teacher

I dedicated more than 15 years of my life to Spanish language education. I am very passionate about world language education and I strongly feel that learning another language opens an individual to many parts of the world they would otherwise not experience. Through learning about other languages and cultures, students learn cultural sensitivity, empathy, and global awareness. They begin to see the world through multiple perspectives and develop a deeper appreciation for diversity.

In my years of teaching Spanish, I witnessed how language learning builds confidence, curiosity, and a sense of connection across cultural boundaries. I have always strived to create a classroom environment where students feel safe to take risks, make mistakes, and celebrate progress, because learning a language is as much about understanding humanity as it is about vocabulary and grammar. My ultimate goal has been to help students not only communicate in another language, but also engage thoughtfully and respectfully with people from all walks of life.

I started my journey as an educator as a graduate student teacher at the University of Northern Iowa. For three semesters I instructed undergrad students in Spanish 1 and Spanish 2. Soon after I was hired for a semester as an adjunct Spanish instructor in which I taught Spanish 2 and Intermediate Spanish. This led to me pursue my teaching license. 

While I earned my teaching license and a Master's of Arts in Teaching, I worked for 3 years in Chicago Public Schools as a Spanish teacher. The first year I taught K-8 Spanish and soon found that my passion for education was is with the older students. I then transitioned to teaching high school Spanish and taught for 2 more years at a local Chicago high school. 

 After tiring of big city life, my husband and I made the decision to move to a smaller city. We moved to Peoria, Illinois and I spent the next 13 years teaching high school Spanish at East Peoria Community High School.