As an immigrant educator, I've had to learn more than just a new language. I’ve had to learn how things are said, when to speak, when to wait, and what silence means in a completely different culture. One experience from my first year teaching in Denver still echoes in my heart. It happened during team planning sessions for a summer program. My goal at the time was to learn more about Denver and its people, and I was excited to contribute. But right away, I noticed the way planning worked here was very different from what I knew. In my culture and personal experience, meetings usually have one main speaker. It’s a sign of respect to listen carefully and not interrupt while they are speaking or directly challenge ideas in front of everyone else,  especially in public. If you have something really important to say, you usually meet with the leader in private. It’s hard to explain, it’s just something everyone understands. I think it's because we value relationshiops and human...

As I reviewed five powerful articles on culturally responsive instruction (CRI), one message stood out clearly: meaningful CRI doesn’t happen by chance, it’s intentional, strategic, and deeply connected to students’ identities. Across the literature, I saw a consistent pattern: effective CRI goes beyond group activities or general student-centered practices. It requires teachers to thoughtfully include students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds in lesson design. The concept of “mirrors and windows” from Levine and Tamburrino (2024) particularly inspired me. This approach encourages us to create language arts lessons where students not only see themselves represented (“mirrors”) but also learn about others’ lived experiences (“windows”). It reminded me that representation isn’t a trend; it’s a responsibility. Another eye-opening moment came from Shubbar’s (2024) work on teacher self-efficacy. As a mentor, I realized that the confidence and preparedness of our teachers directly ...

       When I first started teaching at Montbello Middle School in Denver three years ago, I quickly learned that equitable instruction is not just about giving everyone the same tools; it is about truly understanding each student's unique needs and strengths. Many of my students come from countries like Mexico, Venezuela, Haiti, and Afghanistan. They have faced disrupted education and language barriers, which makes a traditional approach useless. Creating equity means to reshape our teaching practices to honor the diverse experiences of every learner.      As educators, we have an essential role to redefine success in ways that respect our students' identities. This is not easy because it challenges our ideas about intelligence and language. But when we prioritize equity, our students begin to succeed, interestingly, because of their differences. Here, I will share five strategies to increase equitable instructional practices. Ea...

A Cross-Cultural Journey through Language, Identity, and Education I was born and raised in Costa Rica, in a rural area where nature, community, and language were tightly woven into daily life. My cultural identity was shaped among banana and pineapple plantations, daily family gatherings for coffee, and everyday conversations in Spanish. From a young age, I learned that language is more than communication, it's belonging. Years later, when I immigrated to the United States as a teacher, I began a new chapter in my identity: navigating life as an English learner and teacher, and becoming a guide for students crossing their own cultural and linguistic borders. This experience taught me empathy and resilience. Like many of my students today, I arrived with hopes and dreams but felt invisible in a system that didn’t fully see me. There were no mentors or cultural maps. I learned by making mistakes and learning from them. That’s why my classroom today isn’t just a place for learning ...