Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá: How My Culture, Values, and Life Have Shaped My Vision for an Inclusive Education System

By Coral Zayas

Coral Zayas is the author of Teaching K-5 Science: Encouraging Exploration, Inquiry and Problem Solving and founder of Coqui Learning Lab LLC. In this piece, she traces how growing up between languages and cultures, being pulled into ESL classes as a child, watching classmates get boxed out of advanced coursework, shaped the educator she became.

“I believe this is where my fire was lit for both aspects of education that became central to my career.”

That’s the thread running through Teaching Teachers: educators doing their best work when they bring their full selves, and their full story, into the classroom instead of leaving pieces of it at the door. Coral’s piece is a reminder of what gets built when that happens.