Josefina's Biography
Education/Profession:
Hi, my name is Josefina. I am original from Mexico I have been here for 20 years. I have been in college for ever, it seams! :-( I am very exited I am taking one of my last class at GVSU. I am graduating with two majors, Spanish and Education. My minor is Psychology. I did my Teacher Assistant at Union High School on winter 2015. The best part of all was that I got to create my Spanish lessons and I got to teach them. It was very exiting every time I got up in the morning and thinking that I had everything ready to go and teach. I think that if teaching Spanish makes me feel excited I believe that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Not every body gets up on the morning and feels this excited to go to work.
I have been employed by Grand Rapids Public Schools for almost 10 years. I was first placed at Palmer Elementary for four years working with ELL Students. Most of the time I work with students that just had arrived in the United States and did not know a single word of English. It was very difficult situation because they could not understand me and I was an estranger for them. I was stuck in a situation that I had no idea of how I was going to get them to trust me. One of my philosophy in education is that students in order to learn from the teacher, teacher first must win student's trust.
I put my self on the students situation to see if I could figure out something. I realized that in order for the students to learn English, I had to first learn their language, even if it was just a few words but I had to show them that I was interested on their language first. During the weekend I dedicated some hours on learning the very basic of Somali Language. The next day I had the students laughing and learning English while they were correcting me with my Somali pronunciation.
I did the same thing with a couple girls that just had arrived from Italy.
As soon as students start to feel comfortable with teachers they will learn what ever the teacher is trying to teach!
After four years my position was eliminated so I got transfer to Harrison School. I worked there as a general paraprofessional helping teachers with interventions and other things that the teachers needed help with.
After four years, again my position got eliminated and the only position there was left was working with children with Special Education. I worked there with a very challenged group and they help me to see my life and others life differently. I learned so much from them!!
I miss them a ton!
Family/hometown: I come from a big family of nine, seven brothers and two sisters. Most of my brothers are all over United States and one of my sister still in Mexico with my parents and my other sister lives in Texas. I have two children and I am getting married on October 17, 2015. My home town is Santa Monica Ozumbilla which is Guanajuato (the state). Guanajuato is known for being the heart of Mexico and also, for las "Momias" Here is a link where you can browse:
http://www.momiasdeguanajuato.gob.mx/english/
My personality/things that I like to do
I am that kind of girl that if I believe on something and I know it is realistic achievable I put my whole mind and find a way to achieve or to accomplish my goals. I remember when I started college, people would asked me "how long will it take you to become a Spanish teacher?" and I would tell them that was a career of four years going to school full time but it was going to take me longer because I was going to school only part time. Family though that I was going to give up half way of my career and they were and still surprised that I did not give up. Also, I am very easy going, I do not worry too much about things that I do not have control of. I do get very nervous with school work specially if I do not know what to do. On my time off I like to connect with people from Mexico, I like to go to the gym and I like to read books in Spanish. I am also kind of boring person if I compare my self to other girls. I rather stay home and watch Telenovelas and relax instead of going out to a Bar and parties with friends, but I do have a very fun night during the week. My fiance and I go to clubs and dance and dance until our feet can't move anymore. We do that every Saturday nights at the downtown.
I have been employed by Grand Rapids Public Schools for almost 10 years. I was first placed at Palmer Elementary for four years working with ELL Students. Most of the time I work with students that just had arrived in the United States and did not know a single word of English. It was very difficult situation because they could not understand me and I was an estranger for them. I was stuck in a situation that I had no idea of how I was going to get them to trust me. One of my philosophy in education is that students in order to learn from the teacher, teacher first must win student's trust.
I put my self on the students situation to see if I could figure out something. I realized that in order for the students to learn English, I had to first learn their language, even if it was just a few words but I had to show them that I was interested on their language first. During the weekend I dedicated some hours on learning the very basic of Somali Language. The next day I had the students laughing and learning English while they were correcting me with my Somali pronunciation.
I did the same thing with a couple girls that just had arrived from Italy.
As soon as students start to feel comfortable with teachers they will learn what ever the teacher is trying to teach!
After four years my position was eliminated so I got transfer to Harrison School. I worked there as a general paraprofessional helping teachers with interventions and other things that the teachers needed help with.
After four years, again my position got eliminated and the only position there was left was working with children with Special Education. I worked there with a very challenged group and they help me to see my life and others life differently. I learned so much from them!!
I miss them a ton!
Family/hometown: I come from a big family of nine, seven brothers and two sisters. Most of my brothers are all over United States and one of my sister still in Mexico with my parents and my other sister lives in Texas. I have two children and I am getting married on October 17, 2015. My home town is Santa Monica Ozumbilla which is Guanajuato (the state). Guanajuato is known for being the heart of Mexico and also, for las "Momias" Here is a link where you can browse:
http://www.momiasdeguanajuato.gob.mx/english/
My personality/things that I like to do
I am that kind of girl that if I believe on something and I know it is realistic achievable I put my whole mind and find a way to achieve or to accomplish my goals. I remember when I started college, people would asked me "how long will it take you to become a Spanish teacher?" and I would tell them that was a career of four years going to school full time but it was going to take me longer because I was going to school only part time. Family though that I was going to give up half way of my career and they were and still surprised that I did not give up. Also, I am very easy going, I do not worry too much about things that I do not have control of. I do get very nervous with school work specially if I do not know what to do. On my time off I like to connect with people from Mexico, I like to go to the gym and I like to read books in Spanish. I am also kind of boring person if I compare my self to other girls. I rather stay home and watch Telenovelas and relax instead of going out to a Bar and parties with friends, but I do have a very fun night during the week. My fiance and I go to clubs and dance and dance until our feet can't move anymore. We do that every Saturday nights at the downtown.
Wow. Quite a life you've had here. One question: it says "you will be getting married" but the date is 2015. Did you mean 2016 or did you already get married?
ReplyDeleteYou read my old work from the class that I dropped on the Fall.
ReplyDelete