Daisy Figueroa

Teaching is my passion and being in the classroom and having fun with my students is one of the best feelings I could ever ask for. It's been extremely difficult to imagine how this year will look like in the middle of a pandemic. Our usual hugs and high fives are a thing of the past, for now, and that won't easy for my little first graders. I used this summer to practice a lot of personal growth which included mindfulness, social-emotional learning and yoga practices. It has been an inspiring experience and I want to get the necessary training to successfully share these lifelong skills with my students and their families. My students come from backgrounds that don't often address the social-emotional needs that they are dealing with on a day to day basis. Often parents, much like my own, work two even three jobs to provide the basic needs for their families. My students are left deprived of attention and deep conversations to address the roots of their problems. Without the proper skills some students do not even know where to begin to communicate their needs. With this training I will be able to send a message to my students that they matter in a world where a lot of forces are already setting them up for failure. The tools that this training provides will help my students to cope with the trauma that accompanies growing up in poverty as a result of racism and systemic oppression. Teaching is my passion and being in the classroom and having fun with my students is one of the best feelings I could ever ask for. It's been extremely difficult... read more