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SPOTLIGHT

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SPOTLIGHT: Angelica Gonzalez

January 2, 2023
136

My name is Angelica Gonzalez

I am mexican, i came to the united states in 1996 married, i have 4 children and i faced some challenges with my kids for not finding a daycare i could trust and that’s how i became interested in knowing more about early education but unfortunately i didn’t know where i could study or if it was possible to take classes in spanish and until they told me about MATC, a technical college, and from there they referred me to 4c and i started to study. I was working at night and would go to school during the day, so in this way I was able to take the basic classes that are required to obtain a license for child care in the home.

In 2015 I obtained my child care license which motivated me to continue studying. I have been able to finish some credentials such as preschool, infants and toddler. My goal is to be able to finish my degree in early childhood and later to be able to open a center where we can provide services to the families of our community.

“Education is very important in all aspects to be able to achieve our dreams. “

Angelica Gonzalez

I currently work in my daycare in which we have had very good acceptance with the families and they like our way of working with their children. They accept that their children can learn another language that is not their first language, as well as that children live in a harmonious environment with their peers. In our daycare, we import the basics so that the children are prepared for preschool and with little knowledge of vowels, the alphabet, colors, geometric figures, tracing the names of letters and reading. We always use music and games, keeping in mind that everyone learns at different rates. Our priority is simply to leave a positive mark on each child, since each child deserves respect regardless of their nationality or culture. We try to help everyone equally as well as to their families.

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SPOTLIGHT: Have you postponed a goal, a project, a dream because you think it’s impossible?

September 19, 2022
183

This can help you…

Each one of us was born with a potential to create and accomplish whatever we want. From a very young age we take risks, we learn how to crawl, we try to stand up one and a million times more until we can walk; we did these actions without thinking about it and we wouldn’t stress out thinking that we weren’t going to be able to make it. But as we continue to grow, we keep listening; you’re going to fall, don’t do it, it’s not possible, it’s difficult or just the word no!

Each one of us was born with a potential to create and accomplish whatever we want. From a very young age we take risks, we learn how to crawl, we try to stand up one and a million times more until we can walk; we did these actions without thinking about it and we wouldn’t stress out thinking that we weren’t going to be able to make it. But as we continue to grow, we keep listening; you’re going to fall, don’t do it, it’s not possible, it’s difficult or just the word no!

Those irrational beliefs were staying in our subconscious and together with other experiences they created those fears that became blockages that today, it wont let us achieve that goal, make that dream come true or reach that achievement, as a consequence, it prevents us from being full and happier.

Whatever the situation is, we have the ability to achieve it but many times we need that help that allows us to become aware that we really can and one of those powerful tools is coaching.

Through coaching we can identify what is that we really want and turn that desire into a goal that we perceive as attainable. To visualize it and manifest it, identify which are those resources that we have in our lives and which ones we lack, make an action plan, make a follow-up system to our plan and stay self-motivated and focused.

Coaching is not therapy. It’s not about focusing so much on the past or on our problems, coaching is focused on action, on achieving goals and on being our own motivators. Coaching assumes that we already have all the answers inside, only that we need to unlock them and get to know ourselves a little better to realize what we are capable of.

My name is Adriana Laitano and as a life coach I help you turn whatever you want into a reality. I am your guide and I will encourage you to think for yourself, to decide for your life, to take responsibility for your situation and above all to take action to achieve whatever it is that you set out to do.

If you’re interested, write to me for a session!

FACEBOOK: Adriana Mejia Laitano

EMAIL: [email protected]

in SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT: Dr. Luis “Tony” Báez

September 16, 2022
292

Defender of the civil and human rights of Latinos in Wisconsin, he has promoted bilingual and multicultural education.

We highlight in this issue Dr. Luis “Tony” Báez. For over fifty years, Dr. Báez has promoted and defended the civil and human rights of Latinos and other s, especially of children and youth affected by educational systems.

In Wisconsin, he has promoted bilingual and multicultural education, and has helped established school-and college-based programs, and opportunities for the professional growth of Latinos.

Further, he has promoted the idea that bilingualism and multiculturalism is good for all of us.

Dr. Báez is constantly learning about the great educators of the past and present, especially in Latin America. These humanist thinkers fought for schools based on a learner-centered pedagogy, as opposed to the austere and alienating focus on a pedagogy that suppresses the intelligence and creative capacity of the child, destroys the disposition to learn, and wrongly measures intelligence through standardized tests.

This is an approach that has not worked. Dr. Báez has called for its end, supplanting it with arts, music,

languages. Growth in reading, writing, math, science skills, and other skills will follow, he says.

Similarly, he proposes a humanizing re-education of parents and adults to stop destructive and trauma causing child rearing. He promotes a decolonizing pedagogy that rejects injustice and racial-social inequality, and which embraces learning that is fun, promotes peace, not hate, a love for life, and a safe and promising democratic world.

Dr. Báez has a Ph.D. in Urban Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is a scholar who has taught in schools and higher education. He is a former Vice-President of the Milwaukee Public Schools Board; former member of the Executive Committee of the Wisconsin Association of School Board Members; and former Chair of the National Latino Educational Research and Policy (NLERAP). He is also the former Executive Director of Centro Hispano Milwaukee; former Provost and Chief Academic Officer of the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), where he held various positions and created college level bilingual programs. He was Provost at the bilingual Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College in Bronx (City University of New York); and Coordinator of the National Origin Desegregation Assistance Center at the University Milwaukee-Wisconsin.

Dr. Baez has traveled to other countries to speak on educational issues; plays the guitar, sings of social justice and performs Latino poetry. He appears regularly in podcasts, radio and TV programs, and was founder in Milwaukee of a Spanish TV program: Adelante! winner of an Emmy Award in 2013.

He is also the recipient of many awards including the Martin Luther King Heritage Award for Social Justice. In his name, the Wisconsin Association for Bilingual Education annually offers the “Tony Báez Leadership and Advocacy Award.” In 2020, he was the recipient of the prestigious international OHTLI award by Mexico for his advocacy for the rights of Latinos and bilingualism in the U.S.

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