Much of what we hear in the national media focuses on the challenges and faults of public education in our country, but three New Mexico State University College of Education alumni tell a different story of the state of education in our society. A passion is alive among teachers, regardless of their years of service or their specialty areas, to make a difference in the lives of their students.

David Morales ’05, a teacher at Mayfield High School in Las Cruces, says that making a connection with students is the key to helping them succeed.

“I want to create an environment that is conducive to learning,” he says. “I try to make my classroom a place where students feel free to express themselves.”

Morales, who primarily teaches New Mexico history to high school freshman, also leads an ENLACE class at Mayfield. ENLACE is an NMSU program that focuses on teaching culturally diverse students a pathway to success by supporting and providing them skills that will lead to college admission.

“I agreed to teach the ENLACE class because of the community the class serves. These kids, for the most part, are the students who do not receive any special services,” Morales says. “This class is unique in the sense that we go out of our way to create a feeling of community. Our first and only rule is ‘we are a family.’”

Morales says students live in a world where they are constantly being judged and evaluated and that peer pressure is paramount.

“They know peer pressure better than anyone. They are experts at using it,” he says. “What we try to do is use it to create a positive situation.”

Morales says making students feel responsible for each other “as a family” causes them to pressure each other to make good decisions.

“Students today are bombarded with information at a rate that would have been impossible to imagine when I was in high school,” Morales says. “With the pace at which they are presented information outside of school, I think it is important to change the methods we use as teachers.”

That is a message that rings all too true for Rachael Rivera-Franco ’02 ’07. As an itinerant teacher for the Gadsden Independent School District, she has to be prepared as she travels from school to school serving the entire district as a teacher of the visually impaired.

Rivera-Franco says staying on top of changes in the field is a challenge, but NMSU faculty and other colleagues are a good resource for her.

“I learn something new everyday and that is good because there are constant changes in the resources and services that are available for visually impaired students,” she says.

Working more closely with parents also is unique to the type of teaching she does because her students have to have help from home to succeed.

“I put more time into home visits than any other type of teacher would, but family support is critical to teaching my students advocacy skills that instill confidence,” she says. “My time with each student depends on their condition, but I really enjoy teaching students to be more independent and to ask for what they need. It’s my greatest reward.”

Theresa Saenz-Telles ’98 ’03, a third-grade bilingual teacher at Desert Hills Elementary School in Las Cruces, says her reward comes from watching her students grow each year and progress to the next grade level.

“I believe young children are resilient and when given the opportunity to achieve success in a positive environment, they will meet or exceed expectations,” she says.

With 11 years of teaching behind her, Saenz-Telles has experienced more changes in the teaching field than Morales or Rivera-Franco, but she says despite the challenges that have come with more accountability requirements, it has been a positive change for students.

“Compared to students from my generation, I have observed that children today are greater advocates for their personal needs; they have greater opportunities to gain access to modern technology thus providing them with a variety of perspectives and expectations for the world around them,” she says. “This brings to the forefront the expectation to meet students’ needs through various learning styles.”

Saenz-Telles tackles that issue everyday as a bilingual teacher who often has to prepare lessons in both English and Spanish, but she says despite the obstacles it brings to the daily agenda, it is advantageous to both English language learners as well as those who are proficient in English because both can benefit from diverse methods of instruction delivery.

“Participating in a bilingual setting is an opportunity to participate in an environment that is enriched with a second language,” she says. “Each day that I walk into my classroom, I want my students to have an opportunity to learn in a safe environment where creativity, individualism, shared knowledge, inquiry and excellence are encouraged.”