Just a Second Year Teacher?

This past Friday was the annual Latinos in Action conference which rewards students for their dedicated tutoring and participation in the program. One highlight for the past two years has been that my students are chosen to perform (Video to follow). This year I had sent my phone backstage with my students because they needed a song on it to rehearse while waiting to perform. Halfway through the event, one of my students silently passes me a phone. On it, is one of the dancers asking me to come backstage and be able to film them from the side. I wanted to tell him not to worry about it because I had already scheduled for someone to go down in front and film, but he was insistent. Still, to be a good role model for my students, I decided to wait until the speaker was done presenting before heading down. But suddenly a volunteer came up to find me and lead me down. It was worth it to wait backstage with my students though to try to help calm their nerves and it was thrilling to be off-stage filming because I felt like a proud parent. I almost wanted to cry as I watched them dance and felt overwhelmed by how much I loved them (and how much work I had put into them). As they finished, the LIA Associate Director of Operations, Talia, said "You are going to want to wait right here and you will want to put those phones down." I was looking around, confused, but I also knew what was next on the agenda because I had studied it to tell my students when they were performing. All I know that happened next was that my legs were shaking and Dr. Jose Enriquez was announcing that I was the LIA teacher of the year. Instant guilt flooded me because there are so many more qualified teachers but then my two girls who had been dancing rushed at me in a huge embrace on stage and the tears silently came. Although I don't deserve the award, it is nice to feel like maybe the hours weren't all for naught. Although we haven't seen perfect results from my program yet, I am grateful at least some of it has meant something to the students.

6:30 am

A few days before February 27, 2015 approached, I warned my Latinos In Action students to be at the school at 6:30 am. We needed to get up to Logan, Utah and Utah State University for the Hispanic Leadership Conference, which was two hours away. Even as I would announce the time to students, I doubted their ability to make it to school that early. For one, it would mean that they, teenagers, had to wake up even earlier. Two, they were Latinos who traditionally run late or do not focus on time. Thirdly, most of them live on the West side of the valley, far away from the school and do not have cars, meaning that they are bussed. But I was asking them to arrive about half an hour before their busses would. In actuality, I was asking their hard-working parents to arrive that early. Three strikes and I'm out, right?

That is not what I saw on February 27. Instead, as I walked out to the bus, I saw nearly 60 students dressed professionally, waiting even before 6:30. 60 LATINO students. We all boarded the bus and made it as the conference was starting. As I was giving directions, I acted like they merely met my expectations. Secretly, I was in shock. If I accomplish nothing else this year, I want it on record that I was able to get 60 LATINO teenagers to school early. Success.