Difficult year, worthy celebration

Every year, we celebrate National Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month by honoring the histories, cultures and participation of all American citizens whose forebears came from Central and South America, Mexico, Spain and the Caribbean. This is a vital observance both because of the history of our country and the land upon which we live, and because of the many Latinx students, we have the privilege of serving.

This year, we worried it would be different. With COVID-19 changing so much of this school year, we at Achievement First Bridgeport Academy Elementary School were committed to ensuring that it was different, but still very special. The pride that we have in our own heritage drove us both to work with kids. One of our main goals as educators is to celebrate our students and where they come from, making this month particularly important to both of us.

Over our combined nearly 30 years of educating, we have found that being Spanish speakers has uniquely positioned us to connect with our students and families, especially those that are Latinx, on a deeper level. When we speak in Spanish, our students’ eyes light up — you can literally see the sigh of relief on their faces when they realize that their teacher is just like them.

This year, we have done so much to celebrate virtually. We have sung Spanish songs during morning meetings and wiggle breaks, counted in Spanish, kept track of our calendars in Spanish, and even learned salsa on Zoom. Students also learned about a different Spanish-speaking country every day as we visited them virtually and discussed their contributions to society. Our students so enjoyed learning about Hispanic culture and even made a point of sharing their own heritage throughout the month.

Bringing their own offerings to these virtual celebrations, our students showed us and their peers the cultural foods they were eating at home and waved their ancestral flags in front of their computer cameras. A silver lining of this pandemic has been that, typically, zoom allows us to get more time to stop, talk and get to know our kids even more, which is of the utmost importance, particularly during these strange times.

Knowing that we have one of the largest opportunity gaps in the country, it means everything to us to work in the community and make an impact for our students. This month, we celebrate being able to serve our community as not just teachers but as teachers that understand and embody our students’ culture. The challenges of COVID-19 could have served as an excuse to let this vital celebration of culture slip from priority this year. Instead, we treated it as more important than ever — and we can see the results in our students every day.