Teacher becomes a student again

Preschool teacher from Mexico finds a lot to learn in northwest Arkansas

Carolina Morales, (back, left), stands with a class of the Lauro Aguirre Kinder in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico, where she taught kindergarten.
Carolina Morales, (back, left), stands with a class of the Lauro Aguirre Kinder in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico, where she taught kindergarten.

— A snapshot shows a class of the Lauro Aguirre Kinder in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico. Twenty kindergarten students are smiling and fidgeting. They are gathered in front of a blue sign reading Ninos Unidos por la Paz, “Children United for Peace.”

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Morales

Standing proudly behind the students is their teacher, Ms. Carolina Morales, 29.

“I loved my work because it was interestingand joyful,” Morales says. “The children are very … I don’t know the word in English. Amorosos? Loving.”

She wanted to help her students live up to the sign’s slogan of unity and peace.

After graduating from the prestigious Normal Justo Sierra teachers’ college, Morales taught preschoolers at the state-supported preschool.

“I think that this age is very important,” she said of her students. “At this age children are very intelligent. We teach them the basics - letters and numbers - but also values, how to say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you.’”

For four years, Morales taught at the kindergarten. She used her afternoons to plan the next day’s lessons and spend time with her mother, sister and friends.

“Then one day my supervisor told me about the teacher intercambio.”

Morales’ supervisor encouraged her to apply for the Binational Teacher Exchange, an educational partnership allowing American teachers and their Mexican counterparts to trade places for several months. Through the exchange, teachers can learn teaching methods and improve culturalunderstanding between students.

Morales was immediately interested. She understood the experience would help her introduce her students to a place different than Celaya. She also saw an opportunityto share the richness of her country.

“But my ‘little English’ wasn’t enough to pass the entrance test,” the young teacher explained.

Rather than being discouraged, Morales was all the more determined to improve her English skills for the sake of her students.

“I know if I stay in the same place, I won’t learn.” She applied for the proper visas and found a replacement teacher. In September she left her beloved kindergarteners and boarded a bus. Thirty hours later she arrived in Decatur, where her aunt and uncle work and have owned a home for over 10 years.

“I was surprised,” Morales said of her arrival in western Benton County. “Arkansas is very beautiful. I see birds, yellow trees. Inthe winter there is snow.”

“The first time I went to Walmart, I just gave the money and said, ‘Thank you.’ I didn’t know anything else,” she laughed self-consciously. “Now, I can go in, ask where something is, say, ‘Thank youvery much, have a nice weekend.’”

She also found opportunities to learn everywhere.

Morales attends English classes six days a week - two English classes at Northwest Arkansas Community College and two classes at the Community Literacy Program in Gravette. In her free time she studies new words, rewrites her homework and listens to English whenever she can.

“Some of my friends here also help me. They say, ‘Today no Spanish for Carolina! Only English!’”

While Morales misses her friends, family and home-cooked food, she is grateful for the hospitality she has found and the opportunity to learn.

When she returns toher school in Celaya in August, she hopes to have gained enough English to pass the test and apply for the teacher exchange program.

“It is important that we learn from things that are different,” Morales said. “There are other places, other languages, other people. To be familiar with them and to understand them, this is important.”

News, Pages 2 on 11/17/2010