Elisa Early Childhood

Elisa is an educator with a school district in North East Texas, a wife, and a mother of two young children. She was born in McAllen, Texas and shortly after her birth her family moved to Reynosa, Tamaulipas Mexico, where she was raised by her mother and father. She is the eldest child, with two younger siblings. Elisa has lived in North East Texas for about ten years now and is the only child that does not currently live in Reynosa, Tamaulipas Mexico. Although she communicates regularly with her parents and siblings, she does not get to visit with them throughout the year due to her profession, so she travels with her husband and children during the summer months to see her parents and siblings. Growing up in her home, Elisa and her family …show more content…
The program recruited students to work for Walt Disney World and receive college credit hours for attending classes and seminars while she worked at Walt Disney World. Elisa found this experience to be incredibly positive, due to the fact that she was forced to listen and speak only in English to a wide range of people on a daily basis. This experience made her step out of her comfort zone of speaking Spanish to most of the people she came in contact with. She quickly overcame her fear of “not being a well spoken English speaker”. Out of all of the years and semesters she spent in the classroom, the Disney College Program excelled her knowledge of English and gave her real life scenarios that she had to react in. She realized that living in McAllen, Texas was a safe zone for her and she was extremely thankful and grateful for this program in college to enable her to gain confidence and knowledge of the English language. Currently, Elisa speaks both English and Spanish fluently in her everyday life in her work environment as well as in her home environment. Elisa feels extremely comfortably speaking, reading, and understanding the English language in all aspects. Many of her student’s families speak primarily speak Spanish in their homes, so when communicating with them about their child or general conversation, she will speak in Spanish, as well as send emails with both English and Spanish text. Her goal with the dual language text is to meet the needs of all of her student’s family members to the best of her ability. Elisa’s classroom is a mixture of English speaking students as well as ELL students. With her colleagues, she prefers to speak in English and is no longer nervous about speaking improperly or saying the wrong thing. At home with her husband and children, Elisa speaks both English and Spanish. Her hope is to teach her children to be fluent in both