What is the name of the school where you work?
KIRA: Newlon Elementary, Denver Public Schools
What was your favorite subject growing up?
KIRA: Spanish and French!
What clubs and extracurricular activities did you participate in as a student?
KIRA: Roaring Fork Pre-Collegiate Program (1st generation college student preparation), Intercambio, Soccer. I worked full time during high school to help pay my family’s bills, so I spent most of my time outside of class and work doing homework!
What influenced you to go into teaching?
KIRA: Education saved my life! When my life was in turmoil at home, I could count on safety at school and I had a lot of wonderful teachers who supported and loved me. I also saw how my latine friends who were new to the country were siloed into lower lever classes just because of their English proficiency. So many of them were so intelligent, but couldn’t show what they knew and so they didn’t get the opportunity to learn higher level math/science. My mom also started working as a special education paraprofessional when I was in high school and I would visit her in the classroom sometimes to volunteer. I loved facilitating learning and started doing independent studies on bilingual education for my research papers when I was a sophomore in high school. I was and am still passionate about allowing students to thrive and utilize their home languages and identities at school!
What is your favorite part of your daily teaching life?
KIRA: The moment when a student realizes that they can persevere on a difficult task and then feel successful is what I live for in my career. For example, yesterday, while I was teaching a math lesson involving comparing three digit numbers, one of my students was avoiding the work completely. I sat down with him and broke the work into small steps. The big smile on his face when he figured out how to use his strength of counting by ones to count tens and hundreds was priceless!
How many years have you been teaching?
KIRA: 10
In what ways are you active in your school’s community (coaching/clubs/volunteer/work)?
KIRA: I am currently an instructional coach (Senior Team Lead) at my school as well as a math specialist. I teach a professional development unit outside of school hours called “Problem-based Instruction in the Elementary Math Classroom.”
What is something interesting about you that your students would be surprised to learn?
KIRA: During college, I lived in Senegal and honed my skills in French, but also learned some Wolof. My school does not have any students from this part of the world, so I would love to share more of my experiences with them when time permits in the classroom!
If you could pass along one piece of advice to your students, what would it be?
KIRA: Every teacher I know has your best interest at heart and wants to help you learn the most that you can! Learn how to tell your teacher what you need to do your best in class and don’t be afraid to ask for help!
