Empowering Education: Spanish Teacher's Conference Presentation Ignites Transformative Learning at University School

11/15/2023

Many of us have been fortunate to have an experience during our education that changed our lives. As a result, we know how outstanding teachers inspire exploration and discovery, opening new worlds to their students.

Such transformative experiences occur when teachers pursue, develop, practice, refine, and execute good ideas. Professional development opportunities made possible by our Annual Fund fuel this process.

Last June, Upper School Spanish teacher, Yesenia Godinez, presented to the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese in Salamanca, Spain. At the conference, she shared her work with our Spanish 3 Honors and Spanish Topics students. Specifically, her presentation focused on using the study and learning of language to promote creativity and critical thinking along with cultural awareness and language development.

The opportunity to present at a conference is, of course, an example of Ms. Godinez’s leadership and skill as an educator. As her students will attest, Ms. Godinez is a passionate, demanding, and thoughtful teacher who challenges her students every day.

Less obvious, though, is the impact the opportunity to present has on teachers and their students. Ms. Godinez shared that “the process of preparing and presenting has led me to adopt a more nuanced and thoughtful approach to my work” and the “questions and interactions that occur shaped my perspective and influenced my work.” As a result of a question Ms. Godinez received during the conference, she created new opportunities in her classroom for students to meet with her and reflect on their improvement in language proficiency.

As a conference presenter, Ms. Godinez was also able to interact with other expert teachers and bring their ideas into her own teaching practice. Attending a presentation on the Aztec tradition of the tradition of Día de Muertos, for example, inspired a segment in Ms. Godinez’s Spanish Topics course on Pre-Columbian America in which students explored the origins, history, and modern cultural relevance of this tradition. This study led to students designing, researching, and presenting related projects in Spanish to their classmates and exciting celebrations throughout our language department.

This past August, Ms. Godinez shared her experiences with colleagues as part of our annual Teaching and Learning Institute – a day set aside for faculty to learn from each other as they prepare to begin the school year. Her presentation, Social Justice, Politics, and Hispanic Culture in the Classroom: A Way to Connect and Navigate in a Diverse and Complex World, encouraged further conversations in our language department and helped to inspire all of our language classes to create even deeper opportunities for students to gain even greater cultural understanding as they pursue their language studies.

The opportunity to join with other educators to share ideas and strategies is an essential element of professional development, the impact on the classroom is substantial, and our community’s commitment to making this possible ensures our ability to offer young people transformational classroom experiences.

Thank you for your support of our teachers and the students whose lives they shape through University School’s Annual Fund.

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- Ms. Yesenia Godinez in Spain summer of 2023
- Students of Ms. Godinez prepared and presented Día de Muertos altars (Andrew Scheeringa '25 and Anthony Marcia '25)