Ms. Espinoza has been a teacher for twelve years. She has done eight years of those at Dublin High School where she also graduated from. She teaches 2 “AP Language and Composition” classes and an “ELD-10” class. While also being the advisor for AVID. I was interested in what inspired her to become a teacher. She responded, “I think I had really good teachers. Particularly I was in AVID, and I remember senior year, like applying to colleges, and my parents told me they would not be able to apply for colleges. That kind of scared me. My AVID teacher agreed to research different loans. And when my parents didn’t agree to cosine a loan, my teacher agreed to cosine alone.” Espinoza says that if that teacher had never stepped up, she probably would have never gone to college. But, thanks to her caring teacher, Espinoza was able to go to college at San Jose state and graduate with her major in English Literature and a minor is sociology. She actually was able to graduate early and get her missing credits from her later classes to receive her diploma.
I asked Espinoza what the most rewarding part of teaching is. She answered, “I think just. when you’re given those moments that students start to believe that they can be successful, and so they start to apply themselves, and actually improve. Or maybe it’s just, they realize that you, the teacher, believe that they can be successful, and so that motivates them. So, it’s been really cool to see students, you know, come to the states, start off as newcomers, enter my ELD class, and then watch them test out and take advanced classes. “Espinoza has had students test out of her ELD classes and go on to take her Ap classes and/or pass the AP exams from others. “…just seeing the growth and seeing their desire to try to improve and do better is really cool.” On the topic of success, I wanted to know how she supports students who need a little extra help. “I think what’s important regardless of whether I’m teaching advanced students or even in my ELD classes, I’m just giving them an opportunity to learn. And so, as the teacher, you are expected. To meet them where they’re at. And so sometimes that looks like allowing students to rewrite an essay, or maybe it’s giving sentence frames so that they can start off their paragraphs. Or maybe it’s giving them examples of what does an A looks like versus what does C looks like?” She believes it is important to give students a chance to practice and improve.
Talking more with Espinoza, she talked of how she likes when classes have a community feel to them. When students feel comfortable with her as the teacher and “…can actually be their true selves.” She feels that, “..in moments like those, I can make mistakes and feel okay… just trying to reach that place where everyone feels just comfortable and safe.” An almost “Homie” feel.
After a long day at school, Espinoza’s way of winding down is reading for pleasure. “In the past it had been unwinding and binging Netflix or whatnot, but I feel like in watching TV, I’m just seeing the same things again and again. “She is currently reading off a book advent Calander where each day is a new mystery book! Her favorite genre is “who done it and mystery books where you become the detective!”
Wrapping up, something fun to know about her is that Ms. Espinoza is actually a twin! Identitical at that. She told stories that when her and her sister were younger, they would switch places in school without getting caught. However now, they could not get away with it as Ms. Espinoza has short hair while her sister’s is long!
