Career highlights....
I've gotten to do, and love to do many different things. My first time teaching was as a senior in college, when I was selected to teach Spanish 101. I'll admit it was very stressful. I had gone to college early so I was only 20 years old as a senior and it was overwhelming to teach students that were either my age or only a few years younger. Despite the stress of this first teaching job I was not deterred and went on to teach middle school Spanish in Cincinnati, Ohio. I then taught Spanish at an elementary school in Cincinnati, Ohio. I enjoyed both of these experiences but especially loved the freedom to use games and songs while teaching the elementary students. These jobs were in the "dark ages" of teaching, where we still used mimeograph machines. I spent many hours coloring, cutting, pasting and laminating pictures to create many of the games I still use in my language classes today.
I worked for one year as a second grade teacher for Equity American School in Guatemala. I had so much fun and loved being with my students all day! We had a pet rat that students could play with when they finished their work. He was a very loved rat and I got special pleasure out of seeing my children grow attached to him as I enjoy helping children overcome common fears. We incubated eggs, which was something I had always wanted to do. I read a book to figure out how to candle the eggs to see the embryo growth. It was a magical learning experience to sit in a dark room with my students and see the live embryos through the egg shells. Watching them hatch was so exciting!!! You'd have thought that we gave birth to those chicks! When the chicks grew too big for the classroom, I needed a solution for giving them away. I explained that there were many poor children that would love to have a chicken to lay eggs for them. Since these were second graders that loved their chicks, I omitted the fact that some of their chicks were likely to be male and end up in a soup rather than become laying hens. It was near Christmas time, so we put red ribbons on our young chickens and took them to a poor neighborhood to give away. As we drove back to the school, one of my little girls said, "I feel just like one of Santa's elves!" I secretly loved the way they would fight to be the one to sit next to me during reading time, but had to create a chart to make it fair and end the conflicts. There's something so wonderful about the way small children love their teacher. This was a very memorable year for me.
I worked for one year as a second grade teacher for Equity American School in Guatemala. I had so much fun and loved being with my students all day! We had a pet rat that students could play with when they finished their work. He was a very loved rat and I got special pleasure out of seeing my children grow attached to him as I enjoy helping children overcome common fears. We incubated eggs, which was something I had always wanted to do. I read a book to figure out how to candle the eggs to see the embryo growth. It was a magical learning experience to sit in a dark room with my students and see the live embryos through the egg shells. Watching them hatch was so exciting!!! You'd have thought that we gave birth to those chicks! When the chicks grew too big for the classroom, I needed a solution for giving them away. I explained that there were many poor children that would love to have a chicken to lay eggs for them. Since these were second graders that loved their chicks, I omitted the fact that some of their chicks were likely to be male and end up in a soup rather than become laying hens. It was near Christmas time, so we put red ribbons on our young chickens and took them to a poor neighborhood to give away. As we drove back to the school, one of my little girls said, "I feel just like one of Santa's elves!" I secretly loved the way they would fight to be the one to sit next to me during reading time, but had to create a chart to make it fair and end the conflicts. There's something so wonderful about the way small children love their teacher. This was a very memorable year for me.
I believe that we need to create and that learning handcrafts and arts help teach focus while giving us pleasure. I taught my second graders to knit and they each knit at least one square. We then made the squares into a baby blanket which we gave to a baby in an orphanage.
After this I was the elementary school principal for three years. It was a small school, so I also had to teach one reading class a day, teach the students music and organize the bi-anual musical performances. The school had a strong focus on community service and each class put together Christmas gift baskets which we would go and deliver. It was a very rewarding project that not only helped the local people but also helped our students see the needs of others around them and recognize their ability to help others in important ways.
One of my favorite things about being the principal, was getting to know the teachers and helping them to be successful.
I've kept this letter from one of the teachers that I helped when I was a principal at Equity American School.
This is another one from one of the teachers at Equity. She says: "Thank you for everything I was able to learn from you, for your kindness and trust and for all of the many times that you listened to me and gave me guidance."
I left Guatemala and Equity American School for the safety and security of the United States. When I left Guatemala, Guatemala City was the fourth most dangerous city in the world and there were an average of eleven kidnappings a week. We lived behind walls and going out for walks or riding a bike were unfathomable activities. I was pregnant with my youngest daughter and decided to start a bilingual preschool so that I could be with my two youngest while they were still little. I set the preschool up in West Linn, Oregon and we had a wonderful time teaching preschool while getting to stay home with my children. These are the years when I perfected my Spanish children's songs.
Preschoolers "digging" for worms. (All worms were humanely treated and were released into the wild.)
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Preschoolers going "camping."
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Completely engrossed in an art project.
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Pointing to his fish print t-shirt. The children painted a fish and I then printed their painting onto the shirt.
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A fun project where each child got to plan their own wheat and then got to give their wheatgrass a "haircut" once it grew.
After a few years of running the business I decided to go back to work. I moved to Houston, Texas where my sister was willing to help with child care. My first job was as a long term substitute for a first grade at a bilingual school. I had a wonderful time teaching first grade students completely in Spanish! This was like my second grade experience only it gave me the chance to work in and see how a Gomez and Gomez Spanish/English school worked. Even though the first graders learned in Spanish the school did the Pledge of Allegiance in English. The pledge was gibberish to them but they dutifully said it. We had been working several days together with them calling me Sra. Justice. Then, I saw the light go on in a few of their eyes as they recognized my name in the pledge. Every day a few more students would figure out that they had been saying my name all along. It was like I was all the more special from that moment forward.
After this I was given a permanent job at the Elsik Ninth Grade Center. It was a huge school with 1,400 ninth grade students and I taught six Spanish classes. It was while working at Elsie that I got one of the best trainings I ever received, called "Capturing Kids' Hearts." It was a three day training where educators learned the importance of getting to know students on an individual basis and learned techniques for building relationships. There was also a focus on teaching students to become a community of learners. I had always believed it was important to develop relationships with students, and had always been successful at doing this with younger children, but was struggling to do it well with teenagers. Half the class liked me but the other half hated me because I was a teacher and was asking them to work. One of my favorite tools from this training is to start each class period with what is called "good news". Everyone is encouraged to share anything important that has happened to them since our last time together. One year one of my student's dog had puppies and every day we heard something new about the puppies. There have been a few times when I've jumped right into the class routine, forgetting to make time for "good news" and the students always remind me because this is their favorite time. I am grateful to have learned from this training as it has added so much to the joy I experience in teaching.
Some of my ninth grade Spanish students on a field trip to a local Cuban restaurant. We nearly filled the restaurant!
During this same time period, I had the opportunity to teach a leadership class at the high school. I had always believed in the importance of service learning but teaching this class further cemented these ideas in me. My students picked a service project and chose to make tie quilts for the Linus Project. They made over 100 quilts and were highlighted on the local news. Following is a letter from one of the students in the leadership class. It's a wonderful feeling to know that I've helped and inspired someone.
The leadership class at the state capital building.
I had dreamed of moving to Alaska for over fifteen years and was thrilled to get a job as the Aniak principal. It was our first year in Alaska and it was full of firsts for all of us. My Alaskan friends will have a hard time believing this but I had NEVER been on a four wheeler or snow machine before! When Aniak played basketball games against "nearby" villages the students would fly but the community members would take the snow machines up or down the river. It was such an adventure!!! The people in Aniak were helpful, friendly and welcoming and we had a wonderful first year in Alaska!
My first silver salmon!
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Picking berries with my youngest. I had no idea the tundra was so squishy!
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A school event where we took boats to Kalskag to do a cross country race up a mountain. Everyone was encouraged to participate. My daughter Naomi made it halfway up and went down with one of the groups.
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My daughter Elizabeth and I made it to the top!
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Everyone was encouraged to come and help the mushers and dog teams as they went through for the races. I loved every new experience!
The school did a lot of great activities and this was taken on a school ice fishing trip. Pavel was so excited to catch his fish!