Elizabeth
Herman Badillo
Bilingual Academy |
Elizabeth
Herman Badillo
Bilingual Academy |
Born in Salamanca, NY (name given to the city by a Spanish railroad tycoon), the only city in the United States located on Native American territory, I grew up in a bilingual community with Seneca Indians. My mother came to the U.S. from Germany at the age of 21. She shared some of her German language, traditions, and food and, since I am Jewish as well, I also experienced Yiddish and Jewish food and traditions. My hometown is a small community but I was lucky…my parents worked hard to expose us to other cultures.
We were not a bilingual family; however. It was not fashionable at that time to be bilingual and I realized later on what loss that was. As a parent myself, I have also exposed my children to a world beyond their immediate borders. My eldest son studied Spanish in High School and then Japanese in College. My youngest son studied German and my daughter French. I am glad that they also enjoy languages, traveling and learning about other cultures. As an undergraduate, I studied early education with a bilingual extension, Spanish, and art at Brockport State College. I was lucky to study abroad in both Mexico and Spain and to complete my student teaching in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, which was an incredible experience. I returned to Spain for a few years to teach, then returned home to pursue my master’s degree (and almost PhD) in bilingual education at the University of Buffalo. I traveled to over 25 countries prior to starting my master's. I loved everything about other cultures and wanted to continue learning about other people. Shortly after starting my master's program I joined ROTC and became an officer in the United States Army. I enjoyed a wonderful career for 28 years, which included traveling to other countries for training and deployments. I have been teaching for over 26 years total with the last 19 years in a bilingual classroom in the Buffalo School District. I first taught 6th grade and then 2nd and have been teaching in Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy for 14 years. During my travels I have seen different types of schools and strategies for teaching. One of my favorites is Germany’s Waldkindergarten, outdoor schools where students spend the entire year in the woods, in all types of weather, with only a small little lean-to as shelter. When we were presented with the chance to visit Columbia I immediately wanted to join and was grateful to have been accepted. I am interested in seeing the classrooms and activities in the schools are different from (and similar to) our school and hope to gain information that will help me improve my teaching in my classes. I am looking forward to sharing information and ideas with the Colombian teachers and (as an avid outdoor lover) to seeing the sights of Medellin and Cartagena.
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