I’M SANJUANITA ALVAREZ

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Welcome to my teaching portfolio ! My name is Sanjuanita Alvarez and I am a graduate of Wayne State University. I have a Bachelor of Science in Education with a concentration in Early Childhood Education. Below you can find my information about my teaching philosophy, experience, and contact information.

ABOUT ME

My name is Sanjuanita Alvarez. (Ms./she/her)

I am from the northern part of Mexico where I finished a pedagogical baccalaureate. I am earning my bachelor of science in education with a specialty in elementary, and a concentration in early childhood.

My experiences in teaching are more focused on my community and my experience as a mother having a language other than English. I see how there are parents who are not involved because they do not feel comfortable that they do not know how to speak English. I really like to help them and be a communication bridge between the school and the parents so that there is a closer relationship and thus focus more directly on our principal goal, which is the emotional and academic growth of the child. That is the most important reason for me when deciding to resume this career, helping students, decreasing the language barriers, and above all else involving parents in the academic growth of students.

My commitment as an educator is very important to me. I teach in heartily Hispanic Southwest Detroit. I also happen to be Mexican. I did not have much help learning English when I moved to the United States. Because of my experience, I am determined to help my students overcome this.

I have already committed myself to mastery of administering the WIDA test which is what the state has designated as the English language learner’s main assessment. I have been my school’s main WIDA assessor for 3 years now. This helps tremendously in identifying students’ reading comprehension level and where to begin remediating.

My philosophy is to focus on my students and their needs. The best way to evaluate the academic progress of students is during classes. This can be done while reading independently, while writing, or communicating informally with peers. Many times the anguish of knowing that they will be evaluated in exams that qualify by percentages of the state makes them not really focus and perform well. For me, the most important thing is the tranquility and safety of my students both physically and emotionally. For them, my classroom will be their safe place where they can be themselves and express themselves without being judged, with the conviction that they will only be corrected to improve as individuals and academically.

EFECTIVE URBAN EDUCATOR

I want to become an urban educator to make non-English speaking parents (specifically Hispanic) feel more empowered over their children’s education. I moved here from Mexico at 18 years of age not speaking English. When my own children started school here I experienced a language barrier that intimidated me. My daughter was put into special education because the school personnel convinced me that she needed an IEP. For years I participated with the special education department even though I did not agree with them until a teacher came along and recognized that there was no need for an IEP. The teacher realized that the school was unnecessarily labeling too many students of foreign descent with learning disabilities. My daughter has been a high honor student since she had that teacher. Because of that personal experience, I want to develop a bridge between the school and the parents at home that makes parents feel very comfortable providing input that helps their children’s academic and emotional growth.

INOVATIVE PRACTITIONER

For me, innovation in teaching is the development of actions that allow the achievement of the skills and competencies of students. An example is a method that is based on carrying out learning activities together where students can work as a team, both within and outside the classroom, to be able to interact with each other with the goal of achieving a common goal. Innovation fosters an environment of healthy competition, that is, it inspires people to always keep moving forward and keep looking for new ways to improve as a student and teacher. By innovating, we seek to create a healthy environment where students learn to love knowledge and encourage continued learning.

REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER TEACHER

I try to reflect on what has worked or not worked with my lessons. No one ever wants to utilize trial and error. However, we all are well aware that every student is so different, what practice works for me for some or even most, may not work for others. I am always modifying either my delivery of the lesson or the way a lesson plan is even constructed based on how my students’ success was the lesson before.

I have come to use self-reflection from interaction at school with my students foremost, their parents, secondly, and finally the staff. My interaction and instruction with my students must continually be reevaluated for their success. If my instruction does not go as I planned it, I must reflect on what worked and what did not. The same goes for my parents, I must constantly reflect on how the parents and myself can improve our communication and expectations to ultimately help my students achieve success. Interaction with my peers is also important as a school’s staff offers a great amount of knowledge and experience to use that can help me be as successful as I could be.

COMMITTED TO DIVERSITY

A school open to diversity requires teachers capable of recognizing that they are all part of a single group, but are different from each other. My approach is that all children can learn, adapting the teachings to the needs and rhythms of individual learning.

The diversity of students is a consequence of their social and cultural origin, and of their individual characteristics in terms of their personal and educational history, abilities, interests, motivations and learning styles. These factors mean that no two students are identical, and by using the differences that are presented, it can serve as a potential to bring diverse talents to the group which benefits everyone. We must be ready to open the world to our students from its own roots. My goal is to offer a climate in the classroom in which children feel free to share their thoughts and feelings, to teach each one to defend themselves, to defend the rights of others, use multiethnic materials and textbooks whenever possible.

UNDERGRADUATE ARTIFACTS EVIDENCE

Samples of My Work

RELIA

Visual resources are support instruments in which linguistic elements, signs, drawings, and their relationships, among others, can intervene, in order to mediate information quickly, easily, and efficiently. They are efficient because They expand communication capacity. Excellent tool for EL students to build vocabulary.

OBSERVING STUDENTS DURING READING TIME

Monitoring is the follow-up of the progress of the students through the means of communication established with them so that they tell them what their difficulties are, how they developed the activities, what learning they have developed, what other help or support they require, etc.

TEACHER REFLECTIONS

The reflection after teaching a lesson is a fundamental part of it. In order for a teacher to improve and evaluate himself, it is necessary to ask himself what he would do better in the next lesson? Reflect can help teachers modify and plan future lessons, see what strategies are helping and which students need extra attention, and what connections they make between the lesson and what they see outside the classroom.