1. I currently facilitate Language Acquisition PLC for middle schools in the district; I am in the Building
Leadership Team, IB Leadership Team and SRG Building Implementation Team. All these opportunities
enabled me to help and lead my colleagues in the journey of academic excellence through the improvement
strategies that have been implemented in our schools.
Throughout my fourteen year career as a teacher, I have consistently taken part in training
opportunities aimed at strengthening and improving my teaching abilities for the betterment of my school and
the district. For me, student achievement and institutional effectiveness reflect how well-trained and supportive
teachers are. The district mentoring instructional coach training equips me with the tools I need to support
student learning throughout their educational journey. To strengthen the teaching profession in Des Moines , I
am an IB (international bachelorette) trained teacher and currently serve as an AOI Leader (Areas of
Interaction) and in the IB Leadership team over the last four years. As a leader, I help the staff in my building
with their IB inquiry based lesson plans, create cross-curriculum lesson plans, and develop innovative
strategies to teach and alignment with the Iowa Core. I also led my Language Acquisition colleagues in
completely redesigning Merrill’s Spanish department by changing the process of students’ course placement to
fit the student’s proficiency levels of language instead of their grade levels.
Through leadership opportunities I was able to collaborate in the creation, revision and
implementation of the Language Acquisition Curriculum and Assessments for DMPS. Also, I facilitate the
Language Acquisition PLC and joined the Building Leadership team, which allowed me to have a greater
impact on the teaching profession because my own professional practice is the example of goal setting and
constant improvement. I really enjoyed working with teacher communities during professional development on
research-based strategies, Multi Tier Support System, RTI and SRG because I was able to inspire a positive
attitude and keep my group focused in the district objective: to increase student achievement and encompass
the components of the Iowa Professional Development Model.