1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,000 Welcome to Cultural Connections Lab. I'm your host Dr. Kelly Forbes. We are here to talk with educational professionals around the world to impact and influence the education system as we focus on cultural connections and the education of multilingual, diverse students. 2 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:31,000 We're excited to have you join us today. We sincerely hope that you enjoy the show. 3 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:43,000 Are you ready to take your school district to new heights? Introducing EDGE Skills, the leading software as a service platform for Title III and multilingual support and education. 4 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:52,000 At EDGE Skills, we understand the importance of equitable education and empowering multilingual learners to thrive in today's classrooms. 5 00:00:52,000 --> 00:01:04,000 Our cutting-edge technology provides school districts across the nation with the tools they need to enhance language acquisition, foster inclusivity, and improve academic outcomes. 6 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:18,000 With seamless implementation and comprehensive support, EDGE Skills ensures a smooth transition for your district, empowering educators to provide targeted instruction and personalized support. 7 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:36,000 So why wait? Unlock the potential of your school district today with EDGE Skills. Visit our website at edgesskillsllc.com or call us now at 405-879-9898 to schedule a demo. 8 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:49,000 EDGE Skills, transforming education, one student at a time. 9 00:01:49,000 --> 00:02:07,000 Welcome back to another podcast episode with Cultural Connections Lab, and I am your host, Dr. Kelly Forbes. I'm excited to be with a dear friend of mine. It's been a long time since we've seen each other, so this is a great excuse to get back and to regain some insight about what's been going on in our lives. 10 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:14,000 And so I'm just so excited to introduce to all of our listeners right now, like I said, a dear friend. Her name is Daniela Pereyeda. 11 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:30,000 Daniela Pereyeda is passionate about bilingualism and education reform. She's the author of Become a Bilingual Family, the best method for raising bilingual children, even if you only speak one language, and is the past president of the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education. 12 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:42,000 So a big shout out to Oabe here in Oklahoma. Yeah, she also holds a family life education child development degree from the University of Central Oklahoma here in Edmond, Oklahoma. 13 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:56,000 Daniela helps parents create meaningful relationships with their children while learning Spanish. She believes teachers and families play an important role in the development of the whole child. For this reason, her goal is to create a community of bilingual families. 14 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:08,000 Bilingual family began as Daniela's dream. With the love, support, and encouragement of John, her husband, it became a reality in 2013. As they started their own family, the meaning of bilingual family evolved. 15 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:22,000 They are committed not only to raising bilingual children, but are also committed to creating a program that they would feel fortunate to send their children to. A program where children are respected as individuals and their unique gifts and skills are fostered. 16 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:28,000 A program that will become a model for education reform, and a program where families feel supported and connected. 17 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:39,000 Bilingual family, you can find them at bilingualfamily.us, is dedicated to fostering bilingualism and a love for learning in an environment that values the family as the primary teacher. 18 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:53,000 With a commitment to full Spanish immersion and a mixed age model, Bilingual Family School promotes a collaborative, growth-focused atmosphere that reflects the core belief that the family is instrumental in shaping a child's educational experience. 19 00:03:53,000 --> 00:04:09,000 All of Daniela's past, present, and future endeavors are rooted in the belief that second language acquisition is all about relationships. And with that, I would like to give a big warm welcome to our friend, mentor, and great educator, Daniela Perida. Welcome! 20 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:21,000 Thank you. Thank you so much. I mean, it is such a big honor to be with you guys. I actually was thinking about this yesterday that the reason I wanted to join Oave was because of you. 21 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:36,000 Because, yes, because when we when Krashen came a long time ago before, before the time when I was president, he I went to his conference. I didn't know anything about about Oave, but I knew about Krashen. 22 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:49,000 And you were president-elect, I think. So, you know, everyone was talking and then you came on the microphone and your energy and everything. I was like, okay, I think I can join this. 23 00:04:49,000 --> 00:05:00,000 Yeah, so that is so nice that you shared that. I honestly didn't know that at all. Yes. Well, wow. I think you dragged me into Oave. I think at that same conference. Your energy is like magnetic. Yeah. Yeah. 24 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:15,000 You are an humble guy. I think it was at the same conference though that you were like, I'm going to keep up to everything. And this news just so you know, of course, I have dragged him into this episode as well. 25 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:24,000 We do have our special co-host today, Dr. Jeffrey Taylor Tribble. He's the president, the CEO of our sponsor, Edgeskill. So thank you for being here. And to both of you, thank you for those kind compliments. 26 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:37,000 And I'm glad. I think that's what this is about, right? It's about trying to be excited, not trying to be, but like to show your passion, show your excitement about what we do in the field of education and most specifically, bilingual, multilingual education. 27 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:49,000 And obviously it is a big passion of mine and I am excited about it all the time. And I know that coming from a monolingual background from Tulsa, Oklahoma, I just feel like my life has been enriched in so many ways because I've been able to have this exposure. 28 00:05:49,000 --> 00:06:01,000 And so I think for I'm so thankful for people like both of you, but especially to you, Daniela, because of the same way. That's so funny that you say that because I just feel this mutual respect for you and you've excited me. 29 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:08,000 And even whenever I got to tour, bilingual family before and everything. So that's really cool. 30 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:21,000 I feel the same way, Daniela. I think it was 10 years ago. We met for the first time at Multicultural Institute at UCO and was really impressed with the work that you had done, the book that you had published. 31 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:28,000 And I think you offer something very unique here in the state of Oklahoma. I don't know anybody else that does what you do. 32 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:29,000 Thank you. 33 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:40,000 I look forward to letting you explain that. But I mean, I don't know even nationally. There might be a few people that do something similar, but not many. You're one of a kind. 34 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:48,000 And I've enjoyed working with you on the board at OWABE also and excited to have you with us here today. 35 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:55,000 Well, we're definitely in great company today and all of us right here around the table, but then our listeners also. So thanks again for being here. 36 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:56,000 Absolutely. I'm excited. 37 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:03,000 Could you kind of maybe just start from the beginning a little bit about just your from childhood until kind of where you are today. 38 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:08,000 And then I do have some questions I want to ask. I'm curious about because you just have so much to offer. 39 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:11,000 And I'm really excited to be here and learn from you and with you today. 40 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:19,000 Of course. Well, we were joking before we started recording about how my bilingualism journey really started before I was born. 41 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:27,000 Yeah, my mom was really into heavy metal and she was in Columbia. 42 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:34,000 And if you met my mom, you would have no idea. But anyway, she's still to this day just like rocks out in her car. 43 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:43,000 She's an Iron Man. Oh, she's into everything. I mean, she she has a cat sticker. Is a cat still as a radio station here for you? 44 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:50,000 Yes. OK, so she has a cat sticker in her car and everything. But anyway, she's funny. It's a radio station. 45 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:58,000 Yeah, I don't know. Maybe I know both of us together. We know all genres. Yes, I believe it. 46 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:05,000 So anyway, she wanted which she was in Columbia and she wanted to learn these lyrics. Right. 47 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:13,000 But she didn't know English. And so she took this or correspondence lessons for English at the time. 48 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:19,000 Like they would send her books and tapes and then she would go every quarter and take a test. 49 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:25,000 I think she was like 13 or 14. And then when she went to college, she did study English there. 50 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:32,000 So that's where her passion started. And so then when I was about five years old, she picked Saturdays as our English day. 51 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:36,000 And you guys were you were in Columbia. We're still in Columbia. You were born in Columbia. 52 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:45,000 Yes, I was born and raised until I was 10 years old in Columbia. And so my mom just decided to pick Saturdays as our English day. 53 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:56,000 And what's interesting to me is that a lot of sort of what we know is good practice in second language acquisition is innate in humans. 54 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:05,000 If we actually allow ourselves to like connect like we were talking about this podcast, if we allow ourselves to connect and connect to like a deeper level, 55 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:12,000 we know innately like how to talk to others, how to teach a language, because we teach our babies the first language. 56 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:19,000 And so when I look back at how my mom taught me English and I'm doing air quotes, she we didn't do lessons. 57 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:24,000 We didn't sit down and this week we're going to talk about the numbers and next week we're going to do the colors. 58 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:30,000 She just did our day in English. In English. So good morning. 59 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,000 You know, she would ask me like, do you want orange juice or apple juice? 60 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:38,000 Well, we didn't really drink apple juice in Columbia. Like do you want orange juice or milk? 61 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:44,000 And she would show me the orange juice and the milk, which is comprehensible input is what we know. 62 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:51,000 It was low stress because it was my mom. So there's no the effective filter was, you know, removed. 63 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:55,000 And so I think it was low stress with your mom. That's not always the case with your mother, right? 64 00:09:55,000 --> 00:10:03,000 That's true. That changes, changes time. No, but yeah, so I was also an only child. 65 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:13,000 So she was my only playmate and like my sister. So that I think worked to her advantage, you know, in terms of for me to acquire the languages, 66 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:22,000 because I wanted that relationship with her. And so fast forward, you know, many years and I was in college 67 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:31,000 and was just doing odd jobs here and there. And so one parent wanted me to do tutoring in Spanish with their child. 68 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:39,000 And so I didn't even think about how my experience was learning the language. I just started doing very structured lessons. 69 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:43,000 Like this week, we're going to talk about fruits and next week we're going to talk about this. 70 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:49,000 And before long, he like hated me being there. Like I would come, I would walk in. He's like, no, I want to. 71 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:54,000 Yeah, he didn't want me there. And which was strange because children usually like me. 72 00:10:54,000 --> 00:11:04,000 And so I was like, what's going on? And so then luckily his dad was going through the master's program at UCO for bilingual education. 73 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:09,000 And so he said, you know, just play with him. Just hang out with him in Spanish. Don't no pressure. 74 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:16,000 You don't need to do any specific lesson. Just hang out with him. And when we did that, it shifted completely. 75 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:23,000 And he really he will enjoy being around me again and enjoyed listening to Spanish and acquired so much. 76 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:30,000 And so I was still in college during this time. And so I had this assignment for my play class. 77 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:34,000 And yeah, there is a play class. That's how important play is for children. 78 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:43,000 It's so important. Yes. And so the play class was just kind of like an open assignment, open ended assignment to kind of solidify the importance of play. 79 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:51,000 Right. And so I interviewed him, asking him like the different ways in which we had done our Spanish lessons. 80 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:56,000 And I just asked him, well, when I did this, when I did the themes, what did you think? 81 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:02,000 And so on, you know, just kept asking him about the different ways in which we did Spanish lessons. 82 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:08,000 And when I got to the end, I was my my whole idea was to ask him, so what is the best way to learn a second language? 83 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:13,000 And he was going to say through play. It was all planned out. 84 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:20,000 I thought for sure he was going to say that. And he said with my dad. Oh, yeah. 85 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:31,000 And so in that moment, because we were recording sort of like a podcast, I just kept asking him questions until he got to play. 86 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:36,000 Right. Not intentionally. Just I dismissed that. 87 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:42,000 But then when I looked back at the video was editing, I realized, well, yes, it's with his dad. 88 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:49,000 And the key thing here is that his dad was not a native Spanish speaker. His dad was learning Spanish. 89 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:52,000 I'm sorry. Not a native Spanish speaker. Did I say that? Yeah. 90 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:59,000 OK. He was not a native Spanish speaker. He was, you know, monolingual English speaker wanting to learn Spanish. 91 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:04,000 And so they were learning together. And who has the best connection? His dad. 92 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:08,000 You know, and so then it made me think of my mom. 93 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,000 And then I just realized, like, second language acquisition is all about relationships. 94 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,000 And that's kind of been the core of bilingual family. Yeah. 95 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:21,000 Well, you you you fast forwarded very quickly from the age of 10 ish to mid 20s. 96 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:26,000 I know why you did it, but I'm just curious. 97 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:31,000 What what was your experience like? Like, how did you end up? 98 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:35,000 Why Oklahoma and, you know, from Columbia to here? 99 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:40,000 Tell us your experience and then enrolling in school. And what was that like? 100 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:48,000 OK, so that's mainly it's kind of like the Bible. They pass forward from, you know, like 13 to 33. 101 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,000 What happened in between? 102 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:54,000 So I came here when I was 10 years old. 103 00:13:54,000 --> 00:14:00,000 Really, my parents, I mean, my parents just were looking for better opportunities. 104 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:09,000 You know, and so they came here. I think they sold me the idea of coming to the United States by like, hey, we're going to Disney World, you know. 105 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:13,000 So we went to Disney World and then we came to Oklahoma. 106 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:16,000 I mean, we could have an entire. 107 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:19,000 I mean, I knew that we were going to we're going to live here. 108 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:24,000 But like the excitement of, OK, we're going to leave everything behind. 109 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,000 And what remind me, why did they want to leave everything? 110 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:36,000 I mean, just opportunities. I mean, my my dad was a graphic designer in Colombia and they both worked together like my mom worked with him. 111 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:43,000 And just everything started getting harder and harder and harder in terms of like in the economy and the economy and everything. 112 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:47,000 And so do you remember like those struggles? 113 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:53,000 Oh, yeah, I remember. So my dad had a partnership and it fell through. 114 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:57,000 And so he had like an office like you do with lots of different employees and everything. 115 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:09,000 And so when that fell through, he moved to a smaller office. And then when that was a struggle, he actually like we had another graphic designer, my dad, upstairs in our house. 116 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,000 They work from home basically is like the OG. 117 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:19,000 Yeah, usually you start out the basement. 118 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:27,000 Exactly. And so, you know, my mom started like doing odd jobs and things and they just they just realized that it was not feasible. 119 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:32,000 And so they had a family friend here and, you know, of course, he painted it like, oh, it's amazing. 120 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,000 It's so easy. Blah, blah, blah, blah. 121 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:41,000 And I still am very grateful for him, for this friend that encouraged them to come. 122 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:45,000 But he was not prepared at all to like actually help us. 123 00:15:45,000 --> 00:16:00,000 Yeah. OK. So just out of curiosity, was the challenges that your father was having with the business in any way related to the political environment or like what we hear in the U.S. 124 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:04,000 about all the different drug lords and gangs, that kind of thing? 125 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:13,000 No, I think that I mean, that's very much an outside of the main city, like in the outskirts of Bogota. 126 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:20,000 And yeah, of course, there's there's all that. But it is just really hard to get a job in Colombia. 127 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:29,000 Like, even for example, if I was in Colombia right now, the fact that I have children, it would already be like, no, I mean, they're not going to say that's why. 128 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:36,000 But you have they want you to graduate and have five years of experience, but be under 25 and have no children. 129 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:43,000 You know, it's just that level of competitiveness and just it's a struggle. Yeah. 130 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:46,000 Well, yeah. So so the they were struggling. 131 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:51,000 The friend was like, hey, it's going to be great. Yeah, easy. And then you got to go to Disney World. 132 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,000 I mean, did you know English at the time? I did. 133 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000 I knew so I went to a bilingual school in Colombia. 134 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:06,000 And that's something that I another reason why I admire my parents so much like, yes, they were struggling so much and yet they were paying for a private school. 135 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:17,000 You know, my grandparents, my grandpa in specifically would like criticize them like, hey, you're not able to like make ends meet. 136 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:23,000 And you're still wanting to send your child to like a private school. You know, maybe you need to let go of that. 137 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:31,000 But it was really important to them. And and I do think it helped me a lot when I came here because I knew. 138 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:39,000 A baseline. I'm curious when you went to Disney World, you know, now I recently went with my family and like you hear so many languages when you're there. 139 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:48,000 It's pretty cool. Did you did you at the time was it as multilingual or did you feel like you had to speak English when you were there? 140 00:17:48,000 --> 00:18:02,000 I think we did speak. We had to speak English. I didn't. I don't remember, honestly, like I think there was so many emotions going on that I didn't actually pay attention to like what language was being spoken and just being there. 141 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:11,000 But I do remember the really scary ride where like an alien broke out from the middle and all that. 142 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:22,000 And for everything that they were saying was in English. And so we were literally freaking out like the glass broke and then you could. 143 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:30,000 Really mind you. So my mom was definitely the one that was most fluent out of the three of us. 144 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:34,000 My dad, to this day, does not speak English very well. 145 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:45,000 But I think it's because he was much older when he came. And so it's just he just has stuck with his group. And you know, but but anyway, going back to like coming here. 146 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:52,000 So I'll make this really short because I, you know, you don't have to make it short. 147 00:18:52,000 --> 00:19:01,000 So we get we were supposed to stay in Orlando for a week. Disney World. Just go to Orlando. Hang out with one of my mom's friends. 148 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:05,000 It's just so funny. I'm sorry for like that's the first thing your impression of the US. 149 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:10,000 It's like the happiest place on earth. 150 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:19,000 You're high. I can't wait to go to Oklahoma. 151 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:22,000 Well, just wait, just wait. 152 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:32,000 So so this friend told my parents that he was getting a house ready for us. You know, it's a small house, but he was getting a house ready for us. 153 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:36,000 And they were putting in the hardwood floor. So it was taking a long time. They're not ready yet. 154 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:43,000 And so my mom asked her friend in Orlando, she could stay one more week. They stayed one more week. 155 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:49,000 And then the friend was like, no, it's not ready yet. You know, and so I said, it doesn't matter if it's ready. 156 00:19:49,000 --> 00:20:00,000 We will just sleep wherever we cannot just stay here. You know, so we came here and he like drove us around, took us to Lake Heffner and a bunch of places that morning. 157 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,000 There was a friend here. That's why you came to Oklahoma. 158 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:13,000 Yeah, it's like a really close family friend. So well, he's actually family, I guess. My cousin's dad. But they split up a long time ago. 159 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:20,000 Anyway, we get here. He's like driving. He wanted to take me to the celebration station that day. 160 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:27,000 Like, just after Disney World. Just distractions. Yeah, just distractions. Like, OK, let's go Lake Heffner. Let's do this. 161 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:31,000 And so we're finally like, OK, we're ready to go home. We're tired. 162 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:42,000 Turns out he did not have a home. Oh, he lived with his mom in his mom's garage. Oh, my goodness. 163 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:46,000 Yes. Yes. Disney is over. 164 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:58,000 Yeah. So then his mom was obviously like, what did you do? 165 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:04,000 You know, she she like sent him off to go find somewhere to be. 166 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:13,000 And then we moved into the garage. So his mom kicked him out. 167 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:20,000 Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. And so, I mean, she she I call her like my Oklahoma grandma. 168 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:24,000 Because she really I mean, she took us in. Yeah, she didn't need to. 169 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:30,000 You know, and she really did. She I was afraid of dogs in Colombia. 170 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:38,000 Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of stray dogs. And I was terrified. Like my mom at eight years old would have to like pick me up on the street if there was a dog nearby. 171 00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:44,000 Because I was so scared. It's not that uncommon, though, is it from people coming from other countries to the US? 172 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:48,000 So familiar with. Yeah, they're not they're not like family pets. 173 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:53,000 It has changed a lot. Like my cousins have dogs right now that are their little babies. 174 00:21:53,000 --> 00:22:00,000 But back then, which, you know, it wasn't that long ago, right? Just a few years ago. 175 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:04,000 It was very different. And so when I came here, I was terrified of animals. 176 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:09,000 But I don't know. There was something about this lady. Her name is Ruth that was so welcoming. 177 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:13,000 And she had three dogs at the time and two cats. 178 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:19,000 And I I don't know if it was the newness of it all, but I just I didn't even notice them. 179 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:24,000 Like I had zero fear. Just walked into her house and she she was just very welcoming. 180 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:30,000 And then from there, you know, we worked really hard. The whole family, she has a family of ten children. 181 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:36,000 And so the daughter came in, took me to my mom to enroll me into Cleveland Military. 182 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:41,000 And then the other brother took my dad to go work. And like they just. 183 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:47,000 What was your dad doing for work? He went from being a graphic designer to installing hardwood floors. 184 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:52,000 Yeah. And that's what he did for until he retired. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty common, too, isn't it? 185 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:57,000 So I mean, they have a career and very professional and then they're just doing whatever. 186 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:02,000 Whatever they make it. What happened here? Yeah. Wow. So then. 187 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:06,000 So you were living with 10 other. No, no, no, no, no. 188 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:10,000 She she was much older at this time. OK. Ruth was I don't know. 189 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:15,000 Right now, she's like 80, 87. No, she's like 90 something. OK. 190 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:20,000 So at the time, she didn't have any of her grown children living with her except for the one. 191 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:23,000 I was thinking that you were like the only child. 192 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:28,000 This family was in the garage. Did you have siblings? No, just me. 193 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:33,000 Yeah. So the three of you. Yes. 194 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:38,000 The three of you in the garage. And how long did you live in the garage before you got out? 195 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,000 I think it was probably like three months. OK. Yeah. 196 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:45,000 We even had a dog for like a day, a stray dog. 197 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,000 And we're like, oh, I can bring him in. And he destroyed the garage. 198 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:55,000 So then we went to the pound. Yeah. But but yeah, I mean, it was it's interesting because to me, 199 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:59,000 I know like your face is right now like, oh, my gosh, that's a crazy story. 200 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:04,000 And to me, I guess because it was happening so fast. 201 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:09,000 I don't know. Yeah. And I was young. I didn't like it didn't seem to affect me. 202 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:19,000 It seemed to is the key because actually a couple of months ago, one of our students homes burned down. 203 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:24,000 So I know it's OK. I'm so sorry. And so and she, you know, she has a beautiful home. 204 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:34,000 She has a great family and everything and, you know, very established, like in comparison to where I was. 205 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:51,000 You're good. But for me to like put myself like it brought up so many emotions, emotions that I think were not. 206 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:55,000 Had to surface. Yeah. Yeah. I had no idea they were there. Yeah. 207 00:24:55,000 --> 00:25:00,000 But just to think of this girl, I know she was younger than me. She's four. 208 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:08,000 But to think of her being homeless and living like all our toys and all our stuff is like, wow, that was me. 209 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:14,000 You know, and so anyway, I did not expect that to like this whole. 210 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:19,000 These are real stories, though, like, I know these are the stories that are, you know, our listeners, 211 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,000 you need to hear. Right. Exactly. This is their lived experience. 212 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:28,000 I think of me in fifth grade, like teachers would not know that all this was inside. 213 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,000 I didn't even know it was inside. My parents didn't know. 214 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:36,000 And I think probably because I was an only child, maybe you can relate. 215 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:40,000 We think we have to be like the strong one. Right. All the time. Right. 216 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:47,000 And so like I even remember later when we were here, we we went to New York City and we drove there as a family. 217 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,000 And I stayed up the entire time. Like my mom took a turn driving. 218 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:56,000 Then my dad took a turn driving and I didn't want to fall asleep because I wanted them to be safe. 219 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:02,000 You know, and so I think it was part of me like pretending to be OK with everything 220 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:05,000 because I didn't want them to worry about me. 221 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,000 It's like you never had time. Right. To even think about it. 222 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:16,000 Yeah. But then when this happened and it happened like a month ago, I just I obviously it's a sad situation, 223 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:21,000 but I knew they were going to be OK. You know, like there's insurance, there's they have all these resources. 224 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,000 They have the means to like. 225 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:26,000 But you know, that four year old was going to fill years later, potentially. 226 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:31,000 She doesn't have all her toys, you know, like that's important to her world. 227 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:36,000 Her favorite clothes, her like kitchen where she eats breakfast, like all these things. 228 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:43,000 And so it was it made me realize how difficult that time was for me, 229 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,000 even though at the time it didn't seem that way. 230 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:52,000 So, yeah, I think for sure, like sharing the story, think about like as a teacher, 231 00:26:52,000 --> 00:27:00,000 think about what your children are coming with outside of, you know, learning math or learning to read. 232 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:09,000 That's really honestly not important when you don't have that connection or when you have other struggles going on at home. 233 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:17,000 And so and that's not even half of the struggles that some of the children that come into our schools are going through. 234 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,000 So what was going to school like for you when you started out at Cleveland? 235 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:22,000 It was great. It was great. 236 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:26,000 Like, I think everyone just thought it was cool to have a student from a different country. 237 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,000 They were asking me lots of questions. 238 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:40,000 And I had enough of a background or enough of a foundation in English to be able to answer all these questions and just get my message across. 239 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:43,000 And they understood me and I understood them, which is great. 240 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:47,000 Until I was asked to read in front of the class. 241 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:53,000 And then it was like, oh, you clearly need some help with reading. 242 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,000 And Cleveland didn't offer that. Like they didn't have an ESL program. 243 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:59,000 It was called ESL at the time. They didn't have any ESL program. 244 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,000 So then I had to move to Buchanan Elementary. 245 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:07,000 And Mrs. Peters was my fifth grade teacher. She was amazing. 246 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:14,000 And so I felt I always felt welcome in all the schools that I went to. 247 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:20,000 I think maybe in high school, it was just kind of like a huge class of 600. You just kind of get lost. 248 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:29,000 But by that point, I had a strong group of friends that, you know, kind of kept me feeling connected. 249 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:37,000 And I think that's the biggest thing. If a child comes in, has gone through all this, maybe worse. 250 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:43,000 It seems like it was hard, but there's children who go through much more difficulty to get here. 251 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,000 And so they have gone through all that. 252 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:53,000 And then the first experience that they have with the teachers, with the students, that's why it's so important. 253 00:28:53,000 --> 00:29:04,000 Because that first experience tells them either I belong and I am part of this and people are excited to have me in their lives. 254 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,000 Or, you know, I am a challenge to them. 255 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:16,000 And so I think that's why, you know, we are actually right now working with UCO on Bilingual Cafe, 256 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:23,000 which is a program where we teach teachers English or Spanish so that they can connect with the families, connect with their students. 257 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:31,000 And that's why I'm so passionate about that Bilingual Cafe program that we're doing, because that's everything. 258 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:38,000 Connections and relationships are everything. And so if the teachers are not and the teachers and the staff is not just teachers, 259 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:45,000 like the entire school staff is not able to connect with the child, even if just one person, 260 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:51,000 then they might connect in other areas where we don't really want them to, you know. 261 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,000 So anyway, yeah. 262 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:57,000 No, that's first of all, thank you for sharing that. 263 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:02,000 Thank you for being vulnerable. Because this is why we do what we do right here. 264 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:10,000 So we can share these exact stories because someone out there right now is in the car listening to this as they're heading over to their district, 265 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:14,000 possibly, and thinking like, I'm going to make a different change today that I didn't make yesterday. 266 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:19,000 And I know more today. So thank you for sharing that. 267 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:21,000 With that, there's so much to unpack from that. 268 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:29,000 And I think one thing I kept thinking about is we have a lot of newcomer students and we also have a lot of language learners, 269 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:36,000 multilingual students that are born here that their families had to have experienced something of the similarity of what you're describing. 270 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:45,000 So whether it be the child that you have in your classroom that is a newcomer or a child that comes from from families that were newcomers before, 271 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:55,000 there is, I believe, this sense of this is another reason to be trauma informed because that can hold these feelings, these experiences. 272 00:30:55,000 --> 00:31:01,000 And we had done a podcast before in our first season with Luis El Yefori. 273 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:04,000 And she discusses this with newcomers as well. 274 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:14,000 And I just think it's just a really good reminder to us that there is a definite role apart from the academic side 275 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,000 that we as educators must assume. 276 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:24,000 So that way we can be prepared in the best way possible to not just go through our class with integrity, 277 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:26,000 but to go through our class with character. 278 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:32,000 So we can have these relationships with our students and understand that the fractions may not be the most important thing right now to them. 279 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:39,000 It might be the fact that they're dealing with something that they may not even understand that they're dealing with until years to come. 280 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:45,000 And so when all these emotions are going on, it's just important again to be in that good relationship. 281 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:55,000 And so again, we have highlighted the importance of whenever you go to a school, the entire school community creating that sense of belonging for you to be there so you can still thrive. 282 00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:57,000 Absolutely. 283 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,000 And we will be right back. 284 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:05,000 Are you ready to take your K through 12 multilingual programs to new heights? 285 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:09,000 Look no further than the experts at Kelly B's Consulting. 286 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:16,000 We're not just consultants, we're partners in education with a passion for empowering students and enriching your classrooms. 287 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:24,000 At Kelly B's Consulting, we understand the unique cultural and linguistic needs of your diverse student population. 288 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:31,000 Our team of experienced educators will work alongside you, tailoring strategies that transform your multilingual programs. 289 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,000 Don't miss out on this opportunity. 290 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:42,000 Visit www.kellybisconsultingllc.com today to learn more and schedule your consultation. 291 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:49,000 Kelly B's Consulting, shaping the future of K through 12 multilingual education across the nation. 292 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,000 Your success is our commitment. 293 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:58,000 Contact us now and let's start building a brighter tomorrow together. 294 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,000 And now back to the show. 295 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:07,000 With that in mind, do you have specific examples of teachers that really did a great job that you can say, 296 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:14,000 here's a great example of what teachers should do or maybe the opposite, what teachers shouldn't do that created real challenges? 297 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:17,000 Yeah, because I was going to ask about Mrs. Peters. 298 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:18,000 Mrs. Peters. 299 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:19,000 Mrs. Peters. 300 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,000 Why was she so great? 301 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,000 Yeah, she was in fifth grade, so that's when I moved to Buchanan. 302 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,000 Mrs. Peters, if you're listening. 303 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:27,000 Yes. 304 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:28,000 Gracias. 305 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:29,000 Thank you. 306 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:30,000 Thank you to all of our teachers. 307 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:31,000 Yes, yes. 308 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:35,000 What's unfortunate is that, well, first of all, you asked if there was any negatives. 309 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:39,000 Honestly, I don't feel like I ever had a negative experience with any teachers. 310 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:40,000 That's wonderful. 311 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:49,000 Maybe in high school, but it was not related to me being, speaking a different language or being of a different culture. 312 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:50,000 It was just like. 313 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:51,000 You're a teen. 314 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:52,000 Yeah, a teen. 315 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:53,000 Listen to Jared having a battle. 316 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:54,000 Exactly. 317 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:55,000 You and your mama. 318 00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:56,000 Exactly. 319 00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:00,000 And so it was just, it was something else, related to something else. 320 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:10,000 But when I first came, because I came in the middle of the year, well, it was actually April, they put me in fourth grade in Cleveland, 321 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:14,000 so that I would be with that same group of kids when we moved to fifth grade in August. 322 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:18,000 And so I honestly don't remember the teacher's name. 323 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:23,000 But what I do remember is that she spent quality time. 324 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:28,000 I don't know if it was 10 minutes or five minutes or two minutes trying to say my name correctly. 325 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,000 Oh, that's right. 326 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:36,000 She was like, is it Daniela? Daniela? Daniela? And until she got it right. 327 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:37,000 How special. 328 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:44,000 Yeah. And it's funny because for like maybe the first five minutes, I thought she was asking, because my mom calls me Dani. 329 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,000 Sure. 330 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:47,000 Like when I pull up her nicknames. 331 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:54,000 And so she was saying that when she would start saying Daniela, or until I would say, you can call me Dani, Dani. 332 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,000 And so she, but she kept asking, you know. 333 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:04,000 And so that was huge that she took the time to say my name correctly. 334 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:07,000 You know, Jorge is not George. 335 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:09,000 Jorge is Jorge. 336 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,000 Exactly. 337 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:13,000 Right. Your name is your name. 338 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:14,000 Exactly. 339 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:15,000 Yes. 340 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,000 And so, and everybody's name is important to them. 341 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:24,000 And so we actually have run into that at Vallejo family because we are doing the opposite. 342 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:32,000 Right. So English speaking children and some have Spanish speaking parents to want to learn Spanish or continue with their Spanish. 343 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,000 And so we have, for example, a Samuel. 344 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:39,000 Right. And we started calling him Samuel because he's in Spanish class. 345 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:41,000 But I was like, you know what? 346 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,000 No. 347 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,000 Oh, right. 348 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:49,000 Because I am so firm on the importance of saying the right name. 349 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:52,000 And yes, it's cool that we're in Spanish class. 350 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,000 And so we should call him Samuel, but that's not his name. 351 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,000 Right. Right. That's not his name. 352 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,000 And so we asked him, actually, do you want to be called Samuel or someone? 353 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,000 You know, and so he'll tell us he goes by Samuel. 354 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:07,000 Yes. And so there's also Isaiah, Isaias. 355 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:17,000 And when we're we always play this game when they get picked up or like, estoy pensando, so I'm thinking of someone whose name starts with and we do the initial sound. 356 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:23,000 And so for Isaias, we'll say, ee, and he was like, not me. 357 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:25,000 They're not talking about me. 358 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:33,000 Isaiah. And so, you know, those little things that don't seem that important are they really are. 359 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:34,000 Exactly. 360 00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:37,000 Something else that we do at school is we have classroom jobs. 361 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:44,000 I mean, a lot of schools have classroom jobs, but this really creates a sense of community within the children at bilingual cafe. 362 00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:48,000 For example, we spend time instead of learning Spanish. 363 00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:51,000 We're learning about each other in Spanish. 364 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:56,000 I love it. And so, like, if at the beginning of the year, you would spend time quizzing. 365 00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,000 OK, so what's Kelly's dad's name? 366 00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:01,000 You know, or what's Kelly's dog's name? 367 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:08,000 And so that's the content that you're trying to teach is who is Kelly in the classroom. 368 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,000 Right. Such a fun way to practice and play. 369 00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:15,000 And you're connecting to your friends and your teachers and everybody. 370 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:19,000 And you're learning some English or Spanish in this case. 371 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:24,000 And so we really work on like knowing everybody's dog's name and all the connections between us. 372 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:33,000 Like we have two Mateos, my Mateo and another Mateo. Mateo Lucero, the other Mateo has a dog named Elias. 373 00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:39,000 And my youngest is Elias. So we just make all these jokes like there's a dog named Elias. Baby Elias. 374 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:40,000 So, yeah. 375 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:50,000 I'm curious, with your family during your time in middle school, high school, were they intentional about you guys using Spanish? 376 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:56,000 And like that was that important to them or is it just natural just because they spoke Spanish, you spoke Spanish? 377 00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:08,000 Yeah. So I think it's interesting because my parents, I think they stayed together for a long time because of me, they're divorced now. 378 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:12,000 And so there was a lot of dynamics going on during that time. 379 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:19,000 So my mom and I would often speak in English because it would kind of. 380 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:20,000 He wouldn't understand. 381 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:26,000 He wouldn't understand, which is awful. It's awful, but it was like our secret language. Right. 382 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,000 And so with my dad, of course, I had no other choice than to speak in Spanish. 383 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:35,000 And that's how we do it right now. Like when Alway comes over, everyone speaks Spanish and I love it. 384 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:41,000 I'm like, please do not try to practice English with the voice. Like just Spanish, selfishly. 385 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:45,000 Like I only want to speak Spanish. But yeah, we didn't. 386 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:53,000 I think when you come in, there's just not enough emotional bandwidth to even consider those things. 387 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:59,000 You know, and maybe in some cases there are like mom said I'm first generation. 388 00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:03,000 What would I be? First generation? No, because I came here. 389 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:07,000 So I guess, yeah. Yeah. Your sons then. Yeah. 390 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:11,000 So with them, I was just curious because I know you're very into school about it. 391 00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:18,000 I didn't know it was your family. Because I don't have any. I'm not trying to figure out where I'm going to live. 392 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:22,000 Maslow's here. Your basic needs are met. You're able to think on everything. 393 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:28,000 And so I'm able to do that. And so I think for them, it just happened with my dad. 394 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:33,000 I spoke in Spanish with my mom. I would go back and forth. But now we only speak in Spanish. 395 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:38,000 My mom and I only speak in Spanish. Did you take Spanish classes in high school? No, I took French. 396 00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:43,000 OK. Yeah. So did you learn the language? No, no. 397 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:54,000 So that's a great segue into language acquisition. I took French for four years and then in college for two years. 398 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:58,000 And I still don't speak French. Now, why? So why is that? 399 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,000 Because I always kind of like speak to things like this and trainings and stuff. 400 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:07,000 But I really want to hear from you. Well, and I know that you've I've listened to your podcast sometimes. 401 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:14,000 Like in some of the podcasts, you've mentioned that you got it from your high school teacher like that when ignited. 402 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:21,000 So maybe it was a teacher. You know, you have to have a connection to the teacher, to the instructor. 403 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:29,000 Well, my class was pretty boring and it was very much based on conjugating verbs and reading passages. 404 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:35,000 And I would count, you know, count where it was going to be my turn to read aloud. 405 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:38,000 So I wasn't really paying attention to the whole story. You know how that is. 406 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:41,000 And no play was happening. No, no, it was just. 407 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:51,000 And so maybe in college, it got a little bit better. But by that point, I didn't have a strong enough foundation, I feel like, to enjoy it as much. 408 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:59,000 And so I always bring this up because we all have been in those language classes and especially as adults. 409 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:10,000 Like the expectation of what you're supposed to learn in a language class as an adult is like, OK, grammar, reading, all these heavy study concepts. 410 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:14,000 And that's the mindset of like, I'm going to study it. I'm going to get this down. 411 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:19,000 You make a little quiz list. Yes. You did your flashcards. Exactly. 412 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:28,000 And if we as adults allowed ourselves to learn the second language like children do, it would be no problem. 413 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:33,000 And that's what we're experiencing at bilingual cafe is that the teachers are like, I look forward to this. I'm excited. 414 00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:39,000 Like it doesn't even feel like I'm learning Spanish. I'm just hanging out with my friends and we're just learning about each other. 415 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:47,000 And, you know, we do lots of TPRS and that's what that's what I do. Total physical response. Storytelling. 416 00:41:47,000 --> 00:42:00,000 And so I tell stories through or I teach Spanish through stories. And so they're starting to learn about who I am and all the crazy things that happen at preschool that day. 417 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:07,000 Or, you know, last the last time we met, we had a dos accidentes en el baño story. 418 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:17,000 Oh, OK. Yeah, that was intense. Everybody was at the edge of their seats like they were like, and then what happened? Oh, wow. 419 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:26,000 Go ahead. Yeah, they were just like they were more interested in knowing how did you get it all cleaned up in time? 420 00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:35,000 Then to know like what verb did she use? What part is that? They just were immersed and they were in the flow of like understanding the story. 421 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:39,000 And so that's how children learn their first language, any language. 422 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:56,000 And so if we allow ourselves again to kind of be there and not worry about understanding every single conjugation, every single word, but connecting because the role of language is to connect with other people. 423 00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:01,000 And if that connection is not there, then our brain doesn't think it's necessary. 424 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:14,000 100%. Well, and I also think, you know, before we had talked about Dr. Stephen Krashen, and so to this, what you're talking about right now, that's just a great example of, you know, not just providing comprehensible input to help with acquisition, but it must be compelling. 425 00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:21,000 Exactly. So you are making this a compelling moment where they want to know what's happening and then they're learning this. 426 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:31,000 So to add on to that, what have those students in the bilingual cafe, what have they learned through this process about culture, perhaps, and the role that it plays? 427 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:41,000 Well, I feel like they understand that the classroom is an opportunity to create your own culture within the classroom. 428 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:56,000 Because I, and this is just my personal view on culture is that we think it's something outside like, oh, culture is like going to this Thai restaurant and learning this and wearing this and understanding the culture and going to visit and all this stuff. 429 00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:58,000 But culture is within. 430 00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:00,000 It's everywhere. It's our journey. 431 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:02,000 We have our own little culture right here. 432 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:22,000 With bilingual family, like our community of families has its own culture. And so I think what teachers are getting from bilingual cafe is that they have to create that classroom culture where the children feel like they're part of a family in order to teach them anything. 433 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:30,000 Isn't it awesome how language can really connect us in so many ways and teach us so much about not only other people, but most importantly, I think, you know, ourselves. 434 00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:37,000 You're one of many examples of class, you know, language classes at high school or college. 435 00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:39,000 Not really helping out. 436 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:46,000 I just so much luck with her and any what, you know, I'll just share it. 437 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:49,000 I had the opposite experience. You know, you know mine. 438 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,000 Yeah, you had a real opposite one. 439 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:52,000 Flunking Spanish. 440 00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:54,000 And then going back to teach right there. 441 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:58,000 So if you haven't listened to the very first season one episode one, you can hear about. 442 00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:00,000 Yeah, flunking Spanish. 443 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:01,000 I'm going to go back and teach them. 444 00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:04,000 Yes. 445 00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:12,000 I want to bring this back. So like everything that you've been doing and then like to where to where you are today and what's happening. 446 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:20,000 And so, first of all, what what ages does the school Montessori, I believe, correct? 447 00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:21,000 Montessori inspired. 448 00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:22,000 Montessori inspired. 449 00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:24,000 You can't really be a hundred percent Montessori. 450 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:33,000 Yeah, so not right. But it is not labeled as that, but I think it comes from, like you said, inspired from that with a big focus on play as well. 451 00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:37,000 So 2013 bilingual family happened. 452 00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:43,000 You start with just, I believe, one student and one teacher. 453 00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:51,000 And if you again listeners bilingualfamily.us is the website and you can find a TED talk that Daniella had done. 454 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:54,000 And she discusses some of this. So you start in the beginning. 455 00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:57,000 It grows to where it is today. 456 00:45:57,000 --> 00:46:00,000 But before we get into that, what what are the current levels now? 457 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:04,000 So you went from one student and now how many students and what ages? 458 00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:15,000 Yeah, so I like to say that and this is part of the TED talk that our focus is to grow in the impact that we make rather than the number of students. 459 00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:16,000 Yeah. 460 00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:19,000 And so while we haven't, I mean, we don't have hundreds of students. 461 00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:21,000 We have 30 right now. 462 00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,000 That can be the intention, right? Like I'm not trying to have a thousand or anything. 463 00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:25,000 But yeah, we have 30 students right now. 464 00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:29,000 It has grown a lot. And so we have a Nido class, which kind of changed the names a little bit. 465 00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:39,000 But Nido is for, which is Nest in Spanish, is for one to two year olds with their caregivers so they can learn Spanish together. 466 00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:45,000 And they learn all the routines of like real, meaningful, compelling input to use at home. 467 00:46:45,000 --> 00:46:54,000 And so in the same way that the parents taught them English, maybe they didn't see it as teaching them English, but in the same way that the children acquired English, 468 00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:59,000 they can use those daily routines of OK, vamos a lavarnos las manos, es hora de comer. 469 00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:03,000 And you're talking about what you're doing in the moment, which is comprehensible input. 470 00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:14,000 And so we really infused Nido in that, like the routine so that the caregivers, the parents, whoever is coming with the child can learn those routines and use them at home. 471 00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:20,000 And so when the children move up to our casa de niños, which is like preschool for three to six year olds, 472 00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:30,000 then we get to work in the classroom a lot more longer hours with the children, but they can continue working at home with the foundation that they had. 473 00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:37,000 And then recently, I have to take a breath. We are adding studio. 474 00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:51,000 OK, yeah, which is a hybrid homeschool program. It'll start in the fall of twenty twenty four for, you know, six to nine year olds will be together. 475 00:47:51,000 --> 00:48:01,000 And this is following Montessori's planes of development. So the three to nine year olds really they can really work together and they have the same. 476 00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:09,000 They're on the same plane of development. So the idea is more of collaboration and group work and project based approach. 477 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:16,000 All doing all that while learning Spanish. That is just so it's so exciting. 478 00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:23,000 Yes, I got a question. No, you ask. I mean, I have a question that relates, but it's a little bit outside. 479 00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:29,000 So if you're just more direct to what I just think that I don't want to get it too far off from where we might might connect. 480 00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:43,000 So, you know, it's really fun to hear this story for me and just to think and from my point of view and just hearing it right now, it's like your mom really gave you this gift of the school called bilingual family just the practice that she had. 481 00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:47,000 I mean, how, how awesome that it's really come to full circle in such a way. 482 00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:54,000 But I love the way that you explained it. And I had just a few notes to try to bring this up. 483 00:48:54,000 --> 00:49:11,000 It's really important that whenever we consider your story, right, this is this is a real story. You're a real student and Cleveland Elementary School, for example, you came from Columbia coming here like in the feelings, the emotions, what we had discussed with, you know, the student who unfortunately had lost her home. 484 00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:31,000 All these things that are happening. You had a dream to make this happen that made you that means you shake and made you cry. And you had to go for it. And I love when you said like, when like, it kind of got me like a little fire under my rear end also just thinking about things like whenever you do have it because you can fall into excuses you can fall into being too busy you can fall into the mundane right. 485 00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:46,000 But whenever your dreams make you shake and make you cry. And then you then you consider like you dream it. You, I believe you said you dream it, you review it and then you do it. No, you do it before you review. You do it before you do it. 486 00:49:46,000 --> 00:50:04,000 You just do it. Dream do. Yeah, I did have it here. You dream it, you do it and then you review it. Right. What does that connection mean right now and considering the whole story, your mom's starting this what we just discussed where you are in this dream that makes you shake and cry that that's how it became the reality. 487 00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:24,000 Yeah, I'll give you an example based on studio. Thank you. That's basically like the next the next step right so dream doing review. I, it has happened through ever since the TED talk and I was able to like put words into it into what that process was like. 488 00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:45,000 Now I know like if I'm asked to do this project or I'm, you know, asked to be a board member of this. I can feel it in my body, like, hmm, is this my ego like because it would be cool to do this thing cool to have this title, whatever, or is this like to my core what, like, the universe guide like you can feel that difference. 489 00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:48,000 Yeah, yeah, chill just. 490 00:50:48,000 --> 00:51:02,000 This is so cool. And so, um, this happened with studio so when we came back from coven, you know, everything's like, post code. 491 00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:17,000 BCA. 492 00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:31,000 So yeah, when we came back from coven, because it was still very active and everything it still is right now but we decided to cancel the after school program which we had before. 493 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:49,000 And it was because children would be coming from all different like we had children coming from Norman we had children coming from, you know, admit all over to the after school program from different school districts so to minimize the spread of anything we just decided to not do the after 494 00:51:49,000 --> 00:52:00,000 school program. But then as I reviewed, and I was thinking, what, like, what is the point of the after school program, would I send my children to the after school program, which takes a lot of time. 495 00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:14,000 I would send them to the after school program, which takes four hours in the evenings away from family. Right. And now I was like no I wouldn't, because if you're so smart. 496 00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:37,000 And you're wanting to do soccer or something else and there'd be like three nights or four nights or something happening every single night. And I do at the core believe that family is the number one teacher and, and we are so distracted with things like, you know, wanting them to do this class and that class and they're just, they're all over and they're not connected, you know, and so I just knew that wasn't going to. 497 00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:46,000 From from a family perspective and a personal perspective, I was like, that's not going to work out even if I had teachers who, and I wasn't involved in the after school program. 498 00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:59,000 The point is that the idea of bilingual families that it is true to myself and my values and so even though we lost a big chunk of income from leaving the after school program. 499 00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:17,000 I just didn't feel right. And then also from a language acquisition perspective, children were coming to preschool, you know, at the time it was only three days a week, but now we have five days a week for five hours or 25 hours of Spanish immersion to four hours in the after school program. 500 00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:32,000 And so they would, they would start to lose their Spanish, you know, so is it, was it worth it for them to come four hours a week and spend time away from their family when they weren't getting enough input to keep up with their bilingualism. 501 00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:38,000 So we've doubled down on like the resources that we were going to provide families to use at home. 502 00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:57,000 Yeah, I was like, the idea is that they get the core, get the foundation during Nido and Casaninio, so like, you know, the baby class and the preschool class, so that when they leave, if they, if they choose not to do studio and they leave, then they can continue using Spanish at home. 503 00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:09,000 It's an awesome chance though for parents and children to build relationships with each other in a fun way and just grow closer. I love that. I love that. Your question was a good segue into my question. 504 00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:14,000 So it worked well because I was like, this is going to seem too little. 505 00:54:14,000 --> 00:54:38,000 So it does lead well to my question. So now practically speaking and thinking about other people that might have similar experiences, how does one, you know, tell us a little bit about your personal experience being immigrant, coming to the US, like, and learning, you're an entrepreneur, you know, you've created something, but that takes work. 506 00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:48,000 You know, it's a lot of work being an entrepreneur, but then thinking from a business standpoint, like, what, how did you learn how to navigate this process to become an entrepreneur in a business woman? 507 00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:49,000 I'm still learning. 508 00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:53,000 Yeah, but it's so impressive that you've done it. 509 00:54:53,000 --> 00:55:12,000 How does someone like yourself, maybe somebody that's listening go about creating something the way that you've created? I think it really does go back to dream doing review that Kelly was asking about because if your dream doesn't make you shake and cry, you're going to give up. 510 00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:16,000 It's way too hard. Like entrepreneurship, I don't recommend it. 511 00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:26,000 I have the same. It is too hard like to go from eight to five, you know, five days a week. 512 00:55:26,000 --> 00:55:40,000 You go to 24 seven every day, you know, and so I'm like, every time anywhere I'm thinking about bilingual family, which luckily for me it, it helps my children, you know, luckily it's not, it's in a related field. 513 00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:51,000 And so some of the things that I'm researching or learning or thinking about, I can actually apply and be part of my family. So in that way, it kind of brings some balance to like entrepreneurship. 514 00:55:51,000 --> 00:56:04,000 Yeah, some people don't want to listen to advice. Don't do it. They think I'm just going to do it anyway. Like, how do you do it? And are there resources out there for people from other countries that are trying to start businesses here? Like, what advice? 515 00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:14,000 I will say I didn't. It wasn't until this year that I got my first business loan. Like I had, I started from sweat equity, basically. 516 00:56:14,000 --> 00:56:29,000 Like, I think from like a practical perspective. So the last semester of college, I was offered like 20 or 7500 or something of student, you know, how they do student loans, even though you already have enough to pay their like, do you want more? 517 00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:38,000 Oh, yeah. 518 00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:52,000 We had had like our heater broke down or something. And so we, it was going to be about $7000 to fix this. We're like, okay, let's take it. And then we got an awesome guy that was able to fix it for 700. So we had that money. 519 00:56:52,000 --> 00:57:09,000 And we were like, well, I want to start a school. Let's do it with that money. And I think by the time we actually started by the angle family, there was like 2500. But we started with 2500. And I remember like signing the contract for the church. 520 00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:29,000 And I was like, this will last me this summer for semester to pay for the rent. Like, that's it. That's, that's it. And so because I was a teacher and I was like, what did you do specifically? Like, I mean, you and I know, like, how do you start? How do you start a business? How do you just like, I think I'm going to start a business today, like, to make it official? 521 00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:51,000 Well, you have to get an LLC. This is, this is another thing. I think that when you have a dream that makes you shake and cry, the right people come to help you. That's what yeah, because at first I was doing business as Daniela, like I was, it was bilingual family, but I was doing business as because that was all I knew and had the capacity to like, deal with. 522 00:57:51,000 --> 00:58:03,000 And I think if you get stuck in like, okay, what is the checklist for starting a business? Get an LLC, get an attorney and get this, get that. Then you're never going to start. You know? 523 00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:17,000 I think that's so true. Like, like, like that's happened to me. I mean, I think that like even you're an example of that. Like the right people. But if, if all of this is based on a dream, right? 524 00:58:17,000 --> 00:58:31,000 Right. Then that's somewhere interpret this, but it's been, it's already been in the process. It's already been in the works. Yes. Yes. And so as long as you continue to follow your, your, your Northern star and making sure that you are on that path, like you're right. 525 00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:41,000 Like the right people come to you and the right things happen for it to happen. Yeah. Like to this day, I don't know how to start an LLC and I have an LLC. 526 00:58:41,000 --> 00:58:57,000 If not Google. Google. So my first semester, I only had like three after school students and one of them, their dad was an attorney. And so he was like, Hey, what are you? What's your business? Set up. 527 00:58:57,000 --> 00:59:12,000 And it was like, he was like, okay, let me help you. And so he just did a promo, no work and set up the LLC for me and did all this stuff and just asked me some questions of how much I had spent to start it and all this. 528 00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:30,000 And that's how we were incorporated. And so throughout the entire process, there's just been all these serendipitous things that happen that just fit. They're like, okay. But ultimately I do think that you have to, once you have that dream. 529 00:59:30,000 --> 00:59:42,000 And I do encourage listeners to watch that video because it explains what the dream is. Because you could be like, I dream to have a mansion. You know, but your dream has to be bigger. 530 00:59:42,000 --> 00:59:46,000 You crying. Yeah, exactly. 531 00:59:46,000 --> 01:00:00,000 It has to impact others. Like it has to be bigger than yourself and impact people outside of yourself. And so when that happens, everything just kind of aligns and you get people to come help you. 532 01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:19,000 We had, I remember clearly when we started, this is a silly example, but there's lots of those, like pretty much all of our materials have been happening magically like that. You know, so we, the after school program, they were like, we should have Legos. Legos are great. So I go to get some Legos and they're expensive. 533 01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:37,000 So I bought a tiny like bucket of $50 Legos. And you know, they were within seconds. They're like, well, we need more Legos. This isn't enough. And so I thought, okay, well, yeah, we really need more Legos. That's something that we need to think about. 534 01:00:37,000 --> 01:00:54,000 And the next day, Dr. Atkins, the co-author of the book called me and was like, Hey, my sister is donating all the, all her son's Legos. It was a giant bucket. Like we still haven't used them all up because there were so many and things like that just kept happening. 535 01:00:54,000 --> 01:01:13,000 And then it just happens by chance. Like, see, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah. And it's just been like that the entire time. Like we, when we started recording the books, I don't know if, if you guys have seen, but we, before QR codes were a thing, I knew about QR codes. 536 01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:30,000 So we, we recorded all the books in our little library and put QR codes on them. Yeah. And the children were checking them out and we needed more books. So one of our teachers was currently, was also working at, I think two lakes elementary or, you know, an elementary. 537 01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:46,000 And they were donating like a giant box of books. And so we have those. It just happens. So I know that's not the best advice in terms of business, like not, not the best game plan. 538 01:01:46,000 --> 01:02:03,000 But I do think that starting before you're ready, like, okay, you get the dream and you make the first step, whatever it is, just take the first step. Then you can start reviewing after like our, my very first step was I sketched a logo that was horrible. 539 01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:12,000 Even though I am an artist, it was awful. And, and just use that look. I actually started using that logo. 540 01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:16,000 I love it in the video. You all gotta watch this, this Ted talk. Yeah. 541 01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:35,000 It was funny because when I switched to the real logo to the professional logo, I still had like a yard sign with the old logo by the front and a parent for the mommy and me class came in and she was, she had seen the logo in like a kids magazine that I had purchased an ad for. 542 01:02:35,000 --> 01:02:52,000 And so she had seen the new logo and then you an updated logo, and she walked in and saw that and she was like, I think somebody graffiti on your sign. 543 01:02:52,000 --> 01:03:10,000 That's a good point though too because, you know, it can stop you from like thinking, oh, I've got to have a logo and logos really take so much work at the end of the day. It's more about, like you said that what's your purpose, the passion, what are you providing to the community, to people that's more meaningful than any piece of art. 544 01:03:10,000 --> 01:03:32,000 I mean that represents your company and that can stop you in your tracks because there is so much like out there of your research. Oh, you gotta have a business name and your logo and branding. And I think there's a lot of hype around all of the media and marketing because they marketers make a lot of money helping you create those things. 545 01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:47,000 I think though that like there's just a lot to be said to really listening to your inner self and following your heart and your passion. And that's what that's that first step to realizing that that dream you have found. 546 01:03:47,000 --> 01:04:03,000 You've found so many opportunities to provide access and exposure to language and to culture for families to help kind of maybe fill some of these gaps for people and people in your life have also filled some of the gaps that you've needed and we all do work together in this way. 547 01:04:03,000 --> 01:04:19,000 You're reflective. You're such a great mentor. You're such a great leader in the Oklahoma community, especially in the field of bilingual and multilingual education. And you just, I mean, if you don't know, you have to know her. Her heart is so pure and so genuine. It's such a great human. 548 01:04:19,000 --> 01:04:35,000 Just thank you so much for sharing all of this. Is there any last closing words or final thoughts? Actually, I shouldn't say that. Just like some closing words or anything that you would like listeners to reflect upon. Final thoughts are so final. 549 01:04:35,000 --> 01:04:42,000 First off, I want to ask what your therapy fee is because I feel like this is therapy. 550 01:04:42,000 --> 01:04:49,000 Harmony, relationships, love, respect. 551 01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:58,000 It was great. No, I think something that came up in the conversation, like I have so many thoughts like you were saying, like final thoughts. There's never an final thought. 552 01:04:58,000 --> 01:05:14,000 But something that came up was that intuition and that's from business perspective, from like a teaching perspective. We talked about it with my mom just innately knowing how to teach English to me. We're using comprehensible input without adding stress. 553 01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:34,000 It was in her when she was able to be present and connected to me. It came naturally to her. And so the same way in business, you know, when we're talking about business, too, when you are connected to that source of that, you know, mission, that dream, that feeling that you can't get rid of. 554 01:05:34,000 --> 01:05:54,000 Yeah. And you work towards it without like just with your innate abilities, what comes to you, then it works out. You know, and you're right. There's so much noise around, whoa, do this strategy, do that strategy, post this many Instagram reels per day or whatever. 555 01:05:54,000 --> 01:06:16,000 It's the same in language acquisition. Use this strategy, use this tool, use that. And the foundation of it is connection and really coming in from the heart. So I think my takeaway from that is that you are enough and you have all of the abilities necessary to accomplish and achieve your dreams already inside of you if you just act upon it. 556 01:06:16,000 --> 01:06:33,000 Yes, 100%. That is so awesome. Well, again, thank you so much. Thank you, listeners, for being with us. Daniela, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your stories, for helping us become better learning through you and with you. 557 01:06:33,000 --> 01:06:47,000 And again, listeners, thank you so much for being with us. A special shout out to our co-host Dr. Taylor Tribble and to our producer Mike Overholt. Thanks for engaging in another wonderful podcast of Cultural Connections Lab. I'm Daniela. 558 01:06:47,000 --> 01:07:14,000 Thank you all so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Adios. 559 01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:41,000 Thank you for joining us today. Don't forget to like, follow and subscribe. Adios.