Thoughts From a Bilingual Educator!

               Ever wonder why students don’t feel comfortable enough to share their feelings or thoughts on different issues in class? Or why, in remote learning, do they keep their cameras off and hide behind those black Zoom squares? Sometimes, I find it frustrating when students do not feel important or smart enough to share their opinions freely and confidently; however, I am not frustrated with my students, I am more concerned with my inability to facilitate opportunities for students to participate in classroom discussions. So, the question I toil with the most is how can I make my classroom environment a safer and fairer place where students could express themselves without fear of rejection or being wrong. Personally, I don’t have a secret sauce. In fact, many times I failed miserably at making my classroom a safer and fairer place, but I feel like if your classroom oozes tolerance, inspiration and love, more often than not, your stu...

     This is for all the single mothers raising children. I am thankful that I was raised by a single mother; of course I needed a father, but that was the hand I was dealt. This emptiness was needless, but I have to recognize that my older brother and my mom tried to fill that void and they tried their best. In fact, most of the world, including the church, would say that I came from a dysfunctional family, but it was God's plan all along; it was what actually brought me to my knees and accepted Christ. I am thankful for Him, them and all the people that invested in me; especially my mom. This blog post is for all the mothers, mainly those single mothers raising men.      After the not so pleasant memories in my early years, my “first” memories were of my mom working two jobs, one at Publix and another at a restaurant (don’t remember the name). However, I do remember that she would leave early and not come back until late at night dressed in her cashier un...

Source: José Miguel Alban       For the past 7 days there has been social unrest over the most recent political crisis in Peru. Since the start of the protests the national police has used violence to calm the tension which have obviously exacerbated the situation. For example, the national police has used gas bombs, police batons, rubber bullets and pellets againt the protesters. There has even been an undercover police unit, known as the ternas, infiltrating the marches and instigating violence and repression against the protesters. However, things started getting suspicious when doctors started reporting extractions of marbles from protesters which meant the national police started using lethal force. And there are videos where you heard police officers scream “shoot , aim for their heads”.Of course, now the former de facto president and Minister of Defense denied using violence to suppress the people. Additionally, the now former Prime Minister visited the police...

  In the past week Peru has been in a political crisis, not to mention our health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. So, what happened? Well, a small group of career politicians have hijacked our democracy, legislative and executive branches by ousting our democratically elected President (Former Vice President) on Monday, November 9th, 2020 with 105 votes in congress. Our now former president dissolved the congress last year and new representatives were elected in January. However, this group has set their ambitious desires on the judicial branch and our highest constitutional court; the Constitutional Tribunal, which is the only institution that resolves disputes over the constitutionality of government activities and decisions. Its sole purpose is to guarantee the compliance of the constitution by government institutions. It is very difficult to explain the complexity of the issues, but to try to understand our politics, we have to go back to the starting point...

Written by Emilio Salaverry      Today I watched the documentary on Hugo Blanco. I have heard a lot about Hugo Blanco, but never read or watch anything in-depth. Honestly, I was fascinated by his life and struggle. Blanco was a community leader that organized peasant farmers to fight for their right and take back land from the wealthy. Just to be clear, I do not pretend to be an expert on his life, but I wanted to share some thoughts about his philosophy and ideology. There are four aspects I am going to focus on; his commitment to organization of the people, him being blacklisted by the Peruvian government and Sendero Luminoso, the new language he preached after Mexico and the differences between him and Sendero Luminoso.       Blanco believed the path to real change was organizing the farming communities into one powerful unit. In fact, he did not believe in having one person to represent the people or community; he said t...

By: Emilio Salaverry      So, for the past couple of weeks I could not help, but think about all the 2020 graduating classes, especially our seniors. I never had a graduation ceremony, as a result of poor choices; however, for 2020 seniors it is different, they did not do anything wrong, they did not choose to not participate, they did not choose to leave school earlier and got straight to community college. There is no one to blame for the consequences COVID-19 has brought upon the world and 2020 seniors. Yes, all your plans for this year have been turned upside down; no senior pranks, no skipping school, no prom, no parties, no graduation ceremony and (in Peru) no despedidas. However, there are many reasons to be grateful and look forward to what wait for us in 2020 and beyond.      I want to start by expressing how grateful I am to have the opportunity to engage with, talk to and work with youth that inspire me every day. During quarantine 2...

By: Emilio Salaverry I am starting my seventh week of online teaching and it has been a roller-coaster ride to say the least. What I mean is that I have had so many emotions during the past six weeks. This teaching thing is hard, even harder trying to do it through a screen and on lockdown. However, something weird and awesome happened to me last week; I told my students “I love you”. It came out so freely and sincere that I didn’t really process what just happened or had much of an instant impact. So, I am going to share my thoughts on this experience. After telling my students “I love you”, I had two initial thoughts. Immediately, I thought; "I hope their parents were not listening". Knowing that some parents are next to their children helping and guiding them through class made me think that they probably heard me say it. I wonder what they thought of it and if I crossed the line or not. The good thing is that I haven’t received any emails from angry parents or eve...