Bilingual teacher, from nursery to high school

Teaching English, from toddlers to adults

I taught English through projects that gave students a real audience. One of them was the Famous People Fashion Show with my fourth graders in 2014. I was also their homeroom teacher, and taught English across preschool and primary grades.

Featured project · 4th grade · 2014Famous People Fashion Show

The classroom became a runway with a red carpet. For each character I built a Prezi with red curtains and their own music or sound effects.

1. 1Each student chose a famous person
2. 2Dressed the part, with a dress rehearsal
3. 3Introduced themselves in English
4. 4Then introduced a classmate, and so on down the runway

Families took part too: a letter explained the project, the materials and how to support homework at home.

I co-designed and launched a bilingual immersion program for the youngest students: songs, movement, art and routines entirely in English. By the end of the year, children performed a full song in English at the school festival. I taught nursery and 1st grade of preschool in full English immersion, gave ongoing formative feedback with a qualitative assessment of each child, and helped design the transition for 3rd-grade preschoolers moving up to primary.

80% of students made a successful transition to elementary-level English.

I designed the content for Civics, Ethics and Citizenship and led a Human Rights campaign with six civil society organizations. I taught Civics and Ethics to 1st grade and Citizenship to 3rd grade, entirely in English: with no Mexican material available in English, I translated and redesigned all of it and created bilingual content from scratch, and students learned to compare the political systems and social movements of Mexico and the United States. In 2019 my students organized a forum for around 700 people across three sessions, including parents and teachers. When the pandemic arrived in 2020, I moved to support the preschool team.

Taking my preschool class online

When the pandemic closed schools, I took my preschool class online: short videos, home activities families could follow, and an avatar to greet the children every day. In 2020–21 I also taught intermediate English to primary grades 1, 3, 5 and 6 through remote and hybrid learning. I also ran workshops for staff and students on digital tools, wellbeing and remote teaching. When schools reopened, I went back to teaching in person and supported 100% of students in their return to the classroom.

I designed instructional strategies and assessments for advanced high school learners, adapting content and pacing from continuous formative feedback. It was a three-year program: B1/B2 in year 1, B2/C1 in year 2 and C1 in year 3, with lessons aligned to CEFR levels and progress assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. In guided essay-writing workshops, 9 of 11 students who were falling behind raised their grades every term. I gamified activities in Moodle with H5P, Genially, Wordwall and Articulate, gave extra tutoring and time-management support, and accompanied one generation from their first year of high school to graduation.

What every age taught me: people learn when the content meets their world, and when they get to do something with it.