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Magdalena Mata, NBCT - Administrative Liaison Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching
40 Plays1 year ago
Magdalena Mata, NBCT, joins National Board conversations to discuss her unique path to becoming an educator, and the importance of highlighting the diversity of Hispanic culture this Hispanic Heritage Month. She also delves into the importance of never giving up on yourself even when you don't get the results you wanted! Subscribe and share the podcast with all your educator friends and enjoy the episode!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to National Board Conversations. This podcast is a chance for me, Eddie Santiago, to chat with National Board Certified Teachers from across the country. It's Hispanic Heritage Month and in this episode I get the chance to speak with Magdalena Macha. She is a National Board Certified Teacher in San Antonio, Texas, and the Administrative Liaison for the Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching. She has a burning passion for education and history.
00:00:24
Speaker
And we go over a wide variety of types of ways to celebrate organic heritage much over the next month. I won't keep you any longer. Here's my conversation with Magdalena. Magdalena, thank you for joining the show. It's been a while, but I'm glad to have you on. How you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for
Magdalena's Background and Career
00:00:44
Speaker
having me. I'm so excited to be here.
00:00:46
Speaker
Yeah, I've talked to a bunch of people in Texas, so this might as well keep the chain going. So we're going to get into it. What is your current role? Where are you located? And give a little brief intro of yourself. Awesome. Thank you. So my name is Magdalena Mata. I am a National Board Certified Teacher in Texas. I certified in 2014.
00:01:04
Speaker
in Early Adolescence, Social Studies, and History. I just did my MOC, so we'll see if I get to keep that title in December, so that'll be exciting. And I'm also the administrative liaison for the Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching, and I'll get to that a little bit more later. I'm also a mother of three, and I have completed 16 years in education.
00:01:30
Speaker
16 years. Yeah. Crazy. Right. I know I, I started, I was thinking about that the day I was like, man, I started and I was the youngest person in the building. Yeah. Now, now that's maybe that's not the case anymore. Okay. Okay.
Magdalena's Personal Interests and Influences
00:01:46
Speaker
All right. All right. So what are your three favorite foods?
00:01:48
Speaker
Okay. So I was thinking about this and I'm going to make the case that coffee is real food. So I'm going to say, yes, I, there's so many times where I'm like, I can't, I don't know what to eat. I'm just going to drink some coffee. So, um, my teachers understand that my mom's out there understand that. Um, but fun facts. I do love me some, some spaghetti, a love of good pasta. Um, and I'm really into Aussie bowls right now. I mean, I know where do they come from? I don't know. I love them. They're delicious. Healthy, healthy. You love it.
00:02:18
Speaker
All right, so what are the last three songs on your Spotify or music playlist? Well, I am a complete, diverse, mixed music girl. I'm one of those people who has Shazam on her phone. Whenever I hear a cool song, I want to know who it is. Oh, same. I know. I have this cool feature, right? It's called Always On, and it's always listening to music in the background. And it catches all the songs that I miss. Yeah. It's critical.
00:02:43
Speaker
I need it. I even think of shows that I like to watch or things. I'm like, man, that's a good song. I'm going to shazam it. But I am a Texas girl through and through. And so for sure, I have to say George Strait is always somewhere in my playlist. I can totally get down with some Shakira in my life. And literally anything that makes your brain and heart pop. So love a good house music. I'm one of those people. OK, got to get the heart rate up. There we go.
00:03:09
Speaker
All right. The one sports team that has yard. And if you're not a sports person, one movie you can recite line for line. Okay. Total sports person, um, soccer. So I am in love with, um, all Spanish soccer. Um, I grew, you know, when I met my husband, I kind of got introduced to the La Liga in the Spanish, um, kind of play. And I just thought it was beautiful. I felt like it was orchestra in a sport on the, on the pitch. And so.
00:03:34
Speaker
I love me the bars of Messi, Ronaldinho, Chavez, Nantes, Chavez. I mean, it just, you know, that Spanish. All of them. Yeah, that Spanish national team of 2014, that World Cup, that's my team. No, it's crazy. So I was just over in Spain last year. And I got to see Real Madrid and Athletic Madrid play. Oh, my gosh. Dreamy. I mean, it's beautiful, right? I mean, the way the touch is on the ball. I mean, just no one does that in any other sport.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, like it took me a while to to love soccer, but I've definitely definitely got the bug. Oh, that's awesome.
Journey to Teaching and Career Transition
00:04:11
Speaker
All right, so we're going to get into your your teaching career. Can you share why you became a teacher and why you remain connected and in the education field? OK, so I have a funny story with this. My dad was a teacher for 30 something years. Bilingual Education Elementary in West Texas. Yeah, West Texas. Shout out Midland ISD.
00:04:31
Speaker
And my mom was a school secretary, also in Midland ISD for, I don't know, 25 something years. My dad currently still subs. My mother still subs as well.
00:04:43
Speaker
Um, and so I was like, no, I'm not going to be a teacher. I am not going to do this. I'm going to go be a lawyer. So went to school, um, UTSA Roadrunners birds up. And I was like, so Adam, I was going to be a lawyer, could not write the essay to tell me to law school to say why I needed to go to law school. I mean, I just couldn't, I mean, I moved.
00:05:07
Speaker
It was like a whole process and I couldn't get it out of me. And then finally I kind of, after a few days, just kind of stopped and said, what's going on? Could you not had a dream, had a dream that I was in front of a classroom and there was kids in front of me. So my mom, um, I call my mom and I say, Hey, um, you know, here's what's going on. And my mom just laughs and she's like, well, yeah, you're supposed to be a teacher. I don't know why you keep fighting it. And I'm like, are you serious? What are you talking about? She says,
00:05:34
Speaker
Um, you just need to go look at your region service center and find out how you can get certified. There's alternative programs. I'm like this lady. What is she talking about? Um, I think that was like in spring of 20 of 2000 and oh my goodness. I'm gonna date myself 2007 and I was sort of kind of in grad school too. I just kind of know what I was doing in my life.
00:05:57
Speaker
And then I went to the service center online and sure enough, they had the TOPP program in region 20. And that's what I did. I went through the program, came out of it a year later and got my first job teaching and have never felt like I've needed to be anywhere else but in the classroom.
00:06:17
Speaker
Shout out to your mom. Listen, no, this is what you're supposed to do. Hey, moms, no, like when to push, when to pull back, when to just to be there. And so that was a pretty awesome experience. Yeah. So you're not in the classroom anymore, but why do you remain connected to education? Yeah, pretty great question and kind of transition. So I left the classroom after 15 years, really just feeling like I was at a crossroads. I have three children.
00:06:45
Speaker
and their ages at this time, four, eight, and almost 10. And the energy that is required to be the best mother after having given your best to 100 middle schoolers a day just got a little bit for me to just kind of rethink my pause in my life. And in this kind of transition of me noticing that, I also realized, man,
00:07:13
Speaker
ton of teachers who come to me and ask for ideas or support or want to collaborate. And so I kind of felt myself leaning more towards how can I support teachers? How can I grow teachers based on my experience and what I know? And so last year I was an instructional coach at the secondary level and really just solidified the fact that I really can keep staying in education. It can look different than being in my own four walls of my classroom.
00:07:43
Speaker
the impact can actually be greater in that respect because I'm passing it down, right, to teachers. And those who want to learn will grow with that. So the other part, too, is I feel like, man, I've seen so much leadership. I've been in different school districts and schools. And if anything, I'm like, I need to go back to school. Yeah, I got to get my master's. And so I kind of told my husband, he's like, listen, lady, you're
00:08:13
Speaker
doing so much for so many people all the time, something's got to give. So I decided to take the year to work on my master's this year. And you know what's crazy is when you lean into your pause, right, as you look back on your career and you kind of look at your children and you look towards your future and things, that pause kind of opens up and it really gives you space to breathe into a new bold, brave future, right?
00:08:43
Speaker
And so what's happening in the pause right now is that I'm actually doing a lot of work. I'm actually helping a lot of teachers through the coalition and through edifying teachers, another organization I'm a part of. So really, it's not that I've left education, I'm just transitioning it and it looks a little bit different at this time. But there's always the call to come back to the classroom for me, always.
00:09:10
Speaker
That's a good, that's a good perspective on is you didn't, you're not, you didn't leave the field. You're just in a different role. Yeah. Just, I mean, and I think, you know, who do I want to model for up and coming teachers, novice teachers, new teachers, or who do I want to maybe even, you know, reenergize some of the veteran teachers that we have. Right. And, and I have that opportunity. So I'm excited to take it and really run with it and see where it leads me. I like it. I like it. So what did you enjoy most about being a classroom teacher?
Teaching Philosophy and National Board Certification
00:09:39
Speaker
Oh my gosh. So I taught, um, middle school history. Hey, and people always, yeah, people always laugh. They're like, Oh my God, how could you do that? Listen, I'm just as crazy as they are. And I mean, it's a hoot. We have a great time, right? You got to match. They're crazy. That's right. Um, but you know what it is for history, middle school kids get it. They, they 100% get conflict. They 100% get power.
00:10:07
Speaker
and they understand if you put in that perspective, then you know history, right? There's always power. There's always conflict. There's always, you know, who's gonna win out on top this time, right? On this war and opposing sides. And so that's what I enjoy about being a teacher is being able to take some of what, you know, I felt when I was younger maybe wasn't the most exciting content and really make it fun and connect to kids because it's really fun to share that journey with them
00:10:37
Speaker
So do you have any classes or years that stood out to you while you were there? Oh my gosh, everyone, everyone. I know I'm that person. Everyone is dear to me. I feel like my first years in Harlandale ISD in South San Antonio. That's where they took the risk on me, right? I was a young teacher, brand new, hired
00:10:57
Speaker
pretty late in July, started in August, and I just learned that that dream that I had mentioned before was true, that I really was supposed to be in a classroom. And so the natural and intentional feeling of being in front of kiddos and helping guide their learning was awesome.
00:11:16
Speaker
I spent time in Austin ISD and I can honestly say they have the best social studies curriculum team. Yeah, they were the best. They were actually one of the ones where I got a little award for and things like that. But that was my first taste in really kind of pushing myself because that was also where I started my national board journey and I worked in a school where the US Census had it listed as at the time,
00:11:46
Speaker
as the highest immigrant population under 17 years old. And so a lot of our students were newcomers. A lot of our students were just, you know, coming to school with different issues and different things. And I really had to push myself to be the best. And that's why I fought to be a national board certified teacher, because I knew these kids deserve the best teaching.
00:12:10
Speaker
I loved my time at Niles Charter School in Austin. We absolutely celebrated diversity, equity, and uniqueness literally from an annual goat parade to the first time taking my kids to DC to compete in a competition for civics. And I was five months pregnant. Hey, you did well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was fun. But that was such a fun school. We were small. We really loved on each other, took care of each other in our students too.
00:12:41
Speaker
Um, and I also finished my journey there. So when I, my national board journey was finished at Niles and I was able to actually advocate for any future teachers who attended there to get a stipend before that was the thing in Texas. So I love that place. Um, then I went to Alma Heights, which is another small community. I worked in lots of small schools. Um, Alma Heights is a community in San Antonio and I have actually oddly enough taught science for a few years there. Um, but I learned how to navigate professional learning.
00:13:11
Speaker
I started to lean really into my leadership skills and I really started to develop a skill set that I felt kind of separated me from the normal teacher, right? And really kind of leaning into that space. So many great friends came out of there as well. And then I just finished up at Bernie ISD in my last ride and I was at Captain Mark Tyler Voss Middle School. Shout out to that team.
00:13:36
Speaker
And they absolutely just were a really great community who opened their hearts to me. And that was kind of that one, you know, after COVID and we're all kind of coming out of this, you know, new whatever this is. And I really felt like it was a blessing for me to kind of end my teaching there as of right now. Right. Because they just really, I mean, it was the most wholesome group of teachers that I worked for who really just have that faith humility
00:14:05
Speaker
in teaching. So absolutely every single one of these districts and schools that I've been at, I know some people are like, wow, that's a lot. But I'm a person who learns and grows from people. And I also know when to step away and kind of grow some more. And so each one of these places has a hold in my heart. And I think some of those classrooms, I might have even left a little note in the desk somewhere saying, hey, this is a special room. So yeah, they're all amazing places I've been.
00:14:35
Speaker
Wow. In the varied career. I love to hear it. I love to hear it.
00:14:40
Speaker
as a history teacher and semi-science teacher over some of your favorite lessons to teach. Oh my gosh. Sign me up for anything related to a war. I know that sounds crazy, but that's when you get kids. Kids are like, we're going to talk about war, right? So American Revolution, civil war. And not just the battlefields, which honestly, as a female Hispanic woman growing up,
00:15:08
Speaker
I don't know that I was ever taught how to read a battlefield map or understand terminology. And so I really had to learn and study and do a lot of professional learning when it came to some of these big moving pieces because I didn't want to just teach it as good and bad, fight a war, then there's a winner. There's so many more nuances to wars. There's so many more perspectives to what were the true intentions of that time period.
00:15:37
Speaker
I also love interjecting always the unspoken people, right? The women, the people of color of those times, not just the ones that are listed randomly in a standard, but really digging into who these people were in this time. And my husband would also get annoyed by me saying this, but I love teaching the Constitution.
00:16:00
Speaker
I do. I do. I love teaching the Constitution. Most people don't realize it's not that long to read, friends. Read it.
00:16:10
Speaker
Yeah, read it. And I mean, check out, you know, Article 2, right? I mean, really, it's just, and I always laugh with students too, because I'm like, look, you think you get tired writing essays? Look at Article 3. I mean, the Supreme Court just like, one paragraph. So yeah, I think it's fun to just look back and make those connections, because we use a lot of these terminologies nowadays to loosey goosey, whether it's
00:16:38
Speaker
Confederates or whether it's the South or the Patriots. And I really like to teach digging into those terminologies and what they mean for that time period. Yeah, history is full of nuance. It's not very black and white. No. We like to treat it like that. It's not. Always. Yeah. First on it a little bit earlier, you pursued national board certification while you were in Austin.
00:17:03
Speaker
What pushed you to pursue and what was your journey like? Did you achieve on your first try? Oh my goodness. I love this question. It just, it brings back such great memories. I literally remember just kind of living in Austin.
00:17:19
Speaker
doing some teaching and going, man, there's gotta be something else. Everyone keeps telling me, you're so good, Magdalena, you're so good. You're a natural, but I'd wanted more than that. And I didn't want to go back to school. I didn't want to go into administration. I'd only been teaching at that point for three years. So I just kept researching and Googling and I kind of found this and applied to the Austin ISD National Report cohort and got accepted.
00:17:47
Speaker
I can honestly say I don't know that I understood everything the first time around. It was more like I was so convoluted and I was still so young and I was still so trying to do all the things for my kids, my students. So I did submit all four components in one year and I did not get the scores that I wanted. So I had the choice and at that time I was already switching over to the charter school
00:18:17
Speaker
And I had a choice. I had to either make a decision of, well, hey, that was cool. I tried it in a big deal or to finish it and pay for it on my own. And I looked at my husband. He was then my fiance. Yeah, he was my fiance at that point. And I said, hey, I really want to finish this. Can you help me pay for it? And he was like, absolutely, whatever you need to get done. And so I did. I redid component three, the video.
00:18:42
Speaker
and did that in the charter school and then also took up another portion of component one and then received my scores in 2014. So I would say my journey is like a probably like a lot of people in that time. Also, I was engaged. I got married and then I was pregnant. So through all of that time, you know, it was a long time. People don't realize when you start your journey, you know, it can take up to five years and that's not a joke. So, you know,
00:19:11
Speaker
How do you stay steady and resilient within that? And you have to, you have to, you have to know you're doing it for, not just for today, but for the future and for kiddos. So what did you tell yourself when you didn't get the scores you wanted to pick yourself back up and do it again? I think I told myself, oh yeah, that probably makes sense. You didn't know what you're doing.
00:19:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, component three was tough because, you know, you had to understand at that time for my certification, you had to showcase civic virtue and civic identity and
00:19:44
Speaker
I just wasn't there. I didn't quite get that lesson where I wanted it to. So it was fine. For C1, all my history people out there, y'all, we got to know about since the beginning of time till yesterday. So I was totally fine. And I was totally fine not having to worry about not getting the best score in C1. I'll retake that portion.
00:20:07
Speaker
So while you were on this journey, what was the most helpful coaching conversation or resource or any kind of advice that you got? I think my mentors really helped me. They reminded me that everyone's journey is different, right? Everyone's journey is different and they just kept
00:20:23
Speaker
telling me to keep going. They just kept telling me, push your lesson even further. Just think more. Dig deeper. And then, as you get really into the nitty-gritty, they're like, read the directions. Really, Dr. Sanders. I'm like, oh, okay, that's what I'm supposed to be doing. Because you get so caught in the lesson that you're like, what am I supposed to be doing?
00:20:44
Speaker
And since then, I've kind of used that language when I support candidates and I really try to tell them, this is to affirm your teaching as National Board. You're not fitting National Board into your teaching, you're affirming your teaching as National Board. And that takes time, and that takes growth. And I think the other part when I was going through it,
00:21:05
Speaker
is being vulnerable, right? Being vulnerable enough to let someone read your writing, watch your teaching. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so many of us, you know, we welcome our kids. I mean, close our door and we do our thing for 45, 90 minutes, whatever your schedule is. And to let someone into your classroom is really hard. And so
00:21:29
Speaker
I learned early on to be vulnerable, to be able to grow and really think about who doesn't understand education. They should read your papers too, right? Go share your paper with your husband, your significant other, or your best friend who's an engineer or whoever, right? And say, hey, can you read this? Does it make sense? Is it clear and concise? And those are really good just advice, I think, for any candidate going through the process.
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage and Educator Recruitment
00:21:54
Speaker
So this episode is going to release during Hispanic Heritage Month in September. In what ways can schools celebrate and honor the contribution of Hispanic educators and leaders during Hispanic Heritage Month? Yeah, Hispanic educators. So being in Texas, right, we're surrounded by so many incredible teachers. Actually, the school that I worked at in Austin was named after one of the first Hispanic female teachers in Austin, Consuelo Mendez. I think that we really
00:22:23
Speaker
moving forward need to kind of find ourselves coming out of the gimmick of Hispanic Heritage Month with the, oh, let's only talk about Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and let's only talk about Selena. Like those are all wonderful, amazing, beautiful humans, but there's also unspoken heroes too, right? And there's unspoken people in your community, right? In your community. And I think that
00:22:53
Speaker
Let's talk with the parents. Let's create a conversation, a cafe moment. And let's say, hey, parents, if you're Hispanic and you would like to come share something about your family, we're going to have a little activity. Let's bring people in. Let's open the doors and really talk about why certain businesses exist. There's so many.
00:23:18
Speaker
Hispanic, not just educators, but leaders in the community, business leaders. And why not talk to them? Why not bring up their story? Every single one of us has a story of how we got to where we did and the people that shaped us, right? So let's honor that. And I think it looks different for every district in place, but I think
00:23:39
Speaker
There has to be a call out. There has to be that invitation for those conversations to take place and a really honor where each of these students are coming from too. So even doing the same thing for students and staff at school. I think there's a lot of things we can do other than just serving
00:23:59
Speaker
nachos and, you know, playing some mariachi music one day. I mean, let's get up. Let's move on. I think it's a chance to highlight the diversity of Hispanic people. Absolutely. Because I'm Puerto Rican. I'm a lot different than some of my Mexican friends. Absolutely. My Central American friends. Like I'm more similar to my Dominican friends. Yeah. Yeah. And so celebrate the diversity of what comes with being Hispanic and being Latino. I think it's
00:24:29
Speaker
really a time to highlight all of it instead of just like certain areas and certain people, especially like, I think it was like 70% of.
00:24:40
Speaker
Hispanics in the United States are Mexican. And like, that's awesome. Yeah. But Mexico's a giant country. Yes. Right? Like there's Northern Mexico, there's Southern Mexico, right? There's the Yucatan. I mean, you can't just blanket it and say, oh, Mexicans, right, are this way. So yeah, we've got to, you're onto something there. It has to be diverse. There has to be a space to acknowledge that.
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah, so that that leads into my next question. What steps can school districts take to recruit and retain more Hispanic teachers and administrators to reflect the diversity of population in our public schools? Yeah, I think it is a valid and purposeful question. So I want to make sure I'm intentional with my response as well.
00:25:28
Speaker
I really think that we have to connect to organizations that are already out there. There are so many organizations who this is their mission and as districts and as school leaders, you've got to do your research. You've got to do the research on what's already happening. There's the organization edifying teachers that I'm a part of where we mentor teachers of color
00:25:54
Speaker
There's Latinx, I think the Latinx Collective. There's so many organizations that are out there. And all of these various organizations have similar
00:26:06
Speaker
missions and similar purposes and visions to really diversify and recruit and retain. It's not just recruit anymore. It's retain teachers of color and specifically Hispanic teachers. And I think there's people already in these organizations doing the research. They have the hard research. They have the tools. They have the systems in place.
00:26:29
Speaker
let's come together and make those happen in school districts, right? Let's look to businesses that retain and recruit Hispanic workers, employees, and let's have those conversations too at that district level. Because I think it's beyond just saying, hey, how do we keep Magdalena here? She's Hispanic, she checks a box. She also has to feel like she belongs, right? And I can honestly say,
00:26:57
Speaker
as that different teacher, as this passionate Hispanic indigenous woman that I am, I haven't always 100% felt like I belonged in certain spaces and places. And the kind of the higher up you go into districts, that's kind of evident. So it's not just recruiting, it's retaining. And I think
00:27:20
Speaker
In addition, we need to call on our elders, call on the people before us, call on those retired teachers, call on those professors at the university level that are Hispanic, and really showcase to novice or young or new Hispanic educators, look, these are, they're out there. I think a huge portion of what maybe stops us
00:27:49
Speaker
I say us and I mean Hispanic teachers from retention sometimes is we don't see enough of people that look like us, right? It's not just the dual language teacher who speaks Spanish and it's not just the Spanish teacher, right? I mean, where are all the teachers that look like me and we have to find them and that might have to look like districts? Being a little more innovative in their approach, finding a way to connect
00:28:18
Speaker
what learning spaces look like and having that mentorship model connect to these teachers. Because again, if you don't see them, you don't know that they're there, right? So are we able to keep Hispanic families and parents engaged and feel like they belong coming to the school to be part of their child's education?
00:28:43
Speaker
It's so hard, I think about this as a mom. Oh my gosh, I had like a moment yesterday. All the apps I have to sign up with. Oh my goodness, all the apps. It's like I got all the passwords, all the usernames, but I really did have a moment and I thought to myself, I'm an educated person, I'm a mother, I'm a teacher who has the time to do this right now. That's a struggle, right? And my first language is English. And I thought to myself,
00:29:13
Speaker
How can we get better? Because we're assuming that a phone and internet is available to everyone, so these apps are all going to work. And the process and the steps to do it are clear.
00:29:25
Speaker
And it was a struggle for me, for some of them. So I think we need to go back to opening our classrooms, opening up our schools and having cafecitos, right? Literally having those conversations, inviting them in, encouraging teachers to have communications with these family members.
00:29:46
Speaker
You know, I think about the welcoming environment as a parent, you know, walking up to school. You want to see people smile at you. You want them to say hello. You want them to greet you. And so really just
00:29:59
Speaker
Acknowledging and seeing parents right even the the parents who show up and you know, they've been working a tireless low low wage low pay job But they're there to pick up their kid like say hello to them right acknowledge them and Really bring them in and I think you have to recruit a little bit You have to kind of put yourself out there as a school district. You got to go to the
00:30:22
Speaker
You got to go to the market where majority of the kids' parents shop, and you have to have those moments. Throw out a table. I mean, let's do it, right? Let's be in the community and saying to them, hey, you're a part of this. We're happy to have you. And again, assuming also to, I'm sorry, to not assume that these parents are unseen. They're there. They're just waiting to be welcomed.
00:30:48
Speaker
I like it. I like it.
The Impact of Teaching and Inspirational Figures
00:30:50
Speaker
So you're clearly very passionate about education and educational issues. If you had to sell the teaching profession to someone looking to get into it in one to two minutes, what would you use as an elevator pick? What? What? One to two minutes? Okay. Give me, give me three to five. Yeah. I think, okay. You know what? Here's, here's my pitch.
00:31:16
Speaker
And it kind of comes from all the years of people saying, what? Oh my gosh, you teach middle school? Bless your heart. And what I say to them is I say, this is the one job where I can be creative every single second, where I am emotionally aware of everything that's happening to all the humans in front of me. And it is the most public servant and civic duty job there is. There's nothing more important than
00:31:46
Speaker
teaching and caring and loving and listening to the future and that features in your classroom and Sometimes they drive you nuts and sometimes you drive them nuts, but you have this, you know, you get them for nine years You get them for nine years. I mean nine months. I'm sorry you get them for nine months. I was recently unfortunately invited to a funeral of a student who had an illness and
00:32:13
Speaker
When I arrived, I hadn't seen a lot of these people and students in many, many years. And when they asked me to say something, I lost my breath a bit because I was like, oh my gosh, I only knew this kid for nine months. And look how this kid has been embedded into my human being existence. And this kid has moved on with other things in their life. And people have come in and out. But all of us that were there, we were all his teacher.
00:32:43
Speaker
No other job does that. There's no other job where you spend a little bit of time with someone, you laugh with them, you cry with them, you giggle with them, you dance with them, and they stay with you forever. No, being an educator, you get the chance to have an outsized impact on people's lives. Absolutely. Like you said, you knew this kid for nine months.
00:33:04
Speaker
Yeah. He probably, like, he invited you to his funeral. Like, that doesn't just happen for many people. No, a lot of us were there. And I mean, they all, I mean, all the kids came up to me. It was great. I mean, I say kids. Again, they're stuck in my mind.
00:33:19
Speaker
They're sucking my mind as eighth graders and they're like, I'm 20 now, like I know you're not. But yeah, I mean, they're, yeah, it's the best job and it's also the most tiring and exhausting and exhilarating job as well, so yeah. All right, so who was your favorite fictional teacher? Okay, I don't have one. I thought long and hard, I don't have one. I don't have one.
00:33:47
Speaker
I think, okay, maybe a whole hot minute, there was a moment where I was like, oh, here's my dolls and I'm the teacher and I'm telling them what to do. Maybe I was my own fictional teacher. Is that weird? No, I don't have.
00:34:03
Speaker
I'm serious, I don't have a fictional teacher. I was like, who could that be? They're all real teachers. I love all my teachers, so I don't have a fictional, sorry. Okay, so who's your favorite real teacher? We'll go with your favorite real teacher. Ooh. Oh my gosh, too many. I think my favorite teacher who was, who I didn't have to explain myself to, okay, Jeffrey Walker, Midland ISD, Midland High School, English teacher,
00:34:32
Speaker
honors English, um, which was like the dual credit kind of college class. And, um, I mean, we just had so much fun in there. We, he was just chill, but he would, one day he slipped me a book and he said, I need you to read this. And I, and I, and I just want, you know, I see you acknowledge you and I really think you're going to enjoy this. And I was like, Oh my gosh, you know, we scum Jeff Walker. Cause we, you know, we were high school. It's like, Oh my God, Jeff walk, Jeff Walker. So I did, I took it. Um, and it was roomy.
00:35:00
Speaker
and it was Rumi and it was just poems I had never read before in my life and the thinking behind Rumi and the both melancholy of Rumi and also the joyous what are we doing with our lives of Rumi. I read it, gave it back to him a couple weeks later and said,
00:35:21
Speaker
Okay, why did you make me read this? He goes, because I see you. He goes, you're always wearing black. You're always like, you know, I'm the only Hispanic in the classroom and I'm the only female, like I'm going to rule the world. He's like, I see you. He's like, and so you need some some literature to guide you and know that you're not alone in that. And I just laughed so hard, you know.
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, he was also the same teacher who would take us for a walk and pull honeysuckles and teach us how to drink the nectar. I know, what was he doing? Okay, but again, those are those things that you get to do as a teacher. It's not just the content, right? I know we would do that. We pulled a prank on him one time after a pep rally, we all came in, we turned our desk completely the opposite. So when he walked in, we wouldn't be staring at him, we all put our head down.
00:36:05
Speaker
And he was like, all right, I can get behind this. And we laughed and we had so much fun. But he was also the teacher that, to bring you down a little bit, sorry, but he was also the teacher that 9-11 happened during that time period. And the space that he opened up for us to
00:36:25
Speaker
to navigate that really probably up until now, I didn't probably realize it was him that did it, but really it was him that when I'm in a middle school classroom,
00:36:37
Speaker
and we have real stuff going on with kids. And real stuff for middle schools is I'm about to ask a girl out to be my girlfriend at lunch. That's a real thing to, you know, my dad passed away from COVID last week, right? Things like that that occur in a classroom, I hold space for that, right? I'm not saying I don't teach, of course I teach, but there's times when you have to hold space to allow kids and teenagers to navigate
00:37:03
Speaker
what's going on. So that again, just like handing that book to me, they're not alone, right? And they know that human existence includes emotions and that we see each other in them. So yeah, pretty cool to think about it. But I have a ton of teachers. I'm not going to get into all that. Every single teacher that I've ever taught and the new teachers also inspire me that I'm working with as well. So it's incredible.
00:37:28
Speaker
Okay. Okay. We love good stories. So you're down in San Antonio,
Local Recommendations and Encouragement for Teachers
00:37:31
Speaker
correct? Yes. What are three restaurants folks should try down here? Oh my goodness. Um, so I really, I mean, like if you want a good taco, like a just good, greasy, like let's just get it done. I mean, you gotta go to Taco Bellenque. I mean, their quesadillas are bomb tacos are bomb, but you're going to have to get, you know, wait in line.
00:37:51
Speaker
I would also say I love our sushi date spot. Me and my husband, it's called Yummy, or Yumi, I'm not sure how to pronounce Y-U-M-M-I. It's up north by the H-E-B, so good, underrated. And then of course, go to Revolucion, which is the Acai Bowl place that I am just living at every day. Those are super fun places to go to. Okay, okay. I like it. I'm gonna have to try them when I'm down here. Yeah.
00:38:25
Speaker
All right. So we, as you know, we have a feature on the podcast called the shoulder tap. When you give a tap on the shoulder to a teacher and let them know they're ready to become national board certified on here, you'll give them a quick shout out. I want to encourage them to go through the process on social media. So Mike Delena, who are you shoulder tapping?
00:38:43
Speaker
I am shoulder tapping every single teacher in Texas. I cannot just do one shoulder capture. I am. We in the Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching every year for the past three years have supported candidates. And our first year, I believe we had like 56 candidates we supported. Last year we had 85. This year we're going to about 300. Oh, wow.
00:39:06
Speaker
Yeah, so there is a real movement happening, an accomplished teacher movement happening in Texas, and we need teachers to finish the process. We need teachers to believe in themselves. We need teachers to take this candidacy and really just enjoy it and go through this process and know that you have MBCTs out here to support you.
00:39:26
Speaker
And that is the Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching. So shoulder tapping all of you Texans out there. Let's get it done. Let's raise our numbers. Let's not be lost in the nation anymore. Yeah, so join us and really, all the candidates out there in Texas, we see you. And if you have not yet heard about us, please go reach out and find out more about us, Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching. We're here to support you.
00:39:54
Speaker
All right, every teacher in Texas, y'all love y'all gotta sign up websites in the website will be in the description. Thank you for joining me. What's fun? Oh, absolutely. So much fun chatting and thank you for letting me go a little bit down a memory lane in my educational career.
00:40:15
Speaker
Mike Delenda is an amazing storyteller and is incredible to see the growth of the National Board Program in Texas over the last three years. I want to thank Mike Delenda again for taking the time to join me on the podcast. Thank you for listening to National Board Conversations. Be sure to follow the National Board on social media for all National Board related updates and I'll see you next time.