{"id":1334,"date":"2020-11-18T19:36:55","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T19:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/?p=1334"},"modified":"2021-05-28T16:51:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T16:51:02","slug":"speaking-her-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/speaking-her-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking her language"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When she was still in high school, Anay Mendoza, \u201919, witnessed the power of language in a classroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was shadowing a reading specialist in an elementary school, and after the teacher read a story she asked each student a question about it. All except one boy, whom she skipped as she went around the circle.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t speak English well enough to answer the questions,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cI asked him in Spanish, and you wouldn\u2019t believe the look on his face when he understood what I was saying. He knew most of the answers, but he didn\u2019t have the opportunity to show it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendoza, one of the first graduates of EOU\u2019s Oregon Teacher Pathway Program<\/a>, spent her first year as a teacher in a dual-language school. She taught her third graders in Spanish each morning and English each afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents who are learning English thrive during Spanish time, and vice-versa,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cIt helps students understand and learn a lot about empathy, perseverance\u2014things we\u2019re still learning as adults.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendoza uses images and creative curriculum to engage her students regardless of their language skills. She said cooperation and communication are always the top priority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned that it\u2019s better to be flexible,\u201d she said. \u201cThis year threw me a ton of curveballs on top of learning how to teach in dual-language: how to be in a new place, brushing up on my own Spanish, and then a global pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like her students, Mendoza is finding opportunity amid the demand to adapt. Her classroom met virtually throughout the spring and commenced in the same way this fall. As the global community discovers new ways to stay in touch, Mendoza\u2019s students are already developing a robust set of communication skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of benefit to learning a new language. You\u2019re given this key to a much wider community,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to learn a new language. It\u2019s a great opportunity because down the line these kids can connect to a much wider audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendoza\u2019s horizons broadened when EOU faculty members introduced Oregon Teacher Pathway (OTP)<\/a> at her high school. The program collaborates with schools to offer \u201cIntro to Education\u201d classes to teenagers interested in becoming teachers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendoza shadowed elementary teachers each week, cementing her desire to become an educator and spend her days with young students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOTP played a huge role in my own college experience,\u201d she said. \u201cDuring high school it gave me the opportunity to discover that teaching was what I wanted to do \u2026 it gave me good insight into what it would be like to be an elementary school teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program offers credit reductions and scholarships that made higher education affordable for Mendoza and her family. With its grow-your-own-teachers model, OTP aims to increase the number of racially and ethnically diverse educators in Eastern Oregon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOTP is also about representation,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cIt\u2019s a powerful moment when a student sees themselves in a teacher and they realize they can do that, too.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alumna teaching in dual-language classroom taps into the power of communication. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":380,"featured_media":1336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,55],"tags":[23,56,41],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-fall-2020","tag-alumni","tag-diversity","tag-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1337,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions\/1337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}