Angelica Moreno

Cohort 009
EPS 512

Multidimensional Identity

There have been various instances in my life in which I have examined and reflected
on my identity. The fascinating thing about my identity is that it is continuously shaped by
the new information I receive, the more I adapt, and the more I question the world and
systems around me. In my family I am seen as the cynical daughter that is never content with
a black or white answer. My argument would be that to see with a black or white lens you
miss out on all the variances of gray, which can make all the different. No human being or
experience has a single dimension to it.
My life, just like every once elses, is shaped by their predecessors. I am the daughter
of an immigrant father and an American born mother. My mother and father are both Latino,
more specifically Mexican. My mom would argue she was American- Mexican, and my
father would argue that he is Mexican, although he is a naturalized citizen of the United
States. My father is a college-educated man, that received a degree from a university in
Mexico, but it does not stand as valid in the United States. My mother never attended post
secondary schooling, and finally my parents met in Mexico, but returned to the states to start
their family.
By the time I came along we were living on the west side of Chicago. My parents
were both working parents, but we were still considered low income. In time we would move
out of the city of Chicago into a surrounding town of Chicago because we became more
economically stable and sufficient. Presently, my family of two parents and four children has
three out of the four children with a college degree, with one more to enter a post secondary
institution in August. My fathers only wish when deciding to make a life in the United States
was to see all of his children attend and graduate from college, and if we are fortunate
Angelica Moreno
Cohort 009
EPS 512

enough, in four years that will be realized. I am fully cognizant that this perception of being
able to achieve the goals you set forth for yourself and having them be realized through hard
work is not the narrative for all ethnic, lower income peoples in America.
I mention all of these elements because they have come to decipher the reasons I
became passionate about education. Having grown up in a Latino household I found that
there were many instances where the things I was learning outside of my house door were not
connecting to my life at home. That was difficult for me to cope with because I was
passionate about both of those essential elements. This resulted in making my transitions in
public schooling difficult. Also, educational success was pushed onto me from an early age
because my father was an educated man. Unfortunately, there were various instances where
the necessary support I needed from my family was not available because they were not
aware of my needs, nor did they know how to support them. It was in these moments that I
felt that being a student of color only made my success more difficult to attain. Furthermore,
I grew up in a home that was successful at finding economic stability after years of work.
Having two working parents, working different shifts during the day, allowed for us to
always have a parental figure caring for us when school was not in session. This is essential
to distinguish because I had the privilege of having a parent accessible to me if need be. This
is rarely the case for lower income, students of color.
All of these factors of my identity contribute to my passion to education. When I
think about being an educator, I think of the large responsibility I will have in making sure
that all of the students in my class receive an equitable education. Growing up I had various
academic and socio-emotional needs that some teachers ignored and failed to address in the
classroom, which resulted in my academic struggle. I was not sure if this was because they
were not prepared to address these needs or if it was a conscious decision not to do so.
Angelica Moreno
Cohort 009
EPS 512

Having had this experience, it helped shape my goals as a teacher. A personal goal I have for
myself as an educator is to take a lesson away from all of the students I serve. Every student
has a narrative that is different from the other members of their community, and with that I
will search for my own teachable moments through the relationships Ill have with them.
Since beginning to pursue education, I told myself that the main responsibility I had was to
make sure that I tapped into, celebrated, and learned about the various needs and
characteristics of all of the students that walk into my classroom. I also learned one thing
very quickly, and that is that you do not go into education thinking it will be an easy career. I
have seen teachers begin from six thirty in the morning until five thirty in the afternoon
planning and prepping for the lessons of the week. The is important to my identity as a
teacher because I am cognizant that I only have a limited amount of time with the students in
my classroom, especially in the middle school grades, and it is my responsibility to make
sure that I am fully prepared the minute they walk the classroom, and that my lessons are
engaging for all of the students. If my students are not active in the lesson nor does it seem
relevant to their learning, then I have not fully built the fundamental relationships with them
to know what is challenging them academically. I mention these factors as a part of my
identity as an individual and as a teacher because I remember having teachers that perceived
educating a student as assigning page numbers to read and lecturing on a discipline. In high
school I was hardly engaged, nor did I have a space to share my opinions or question the
learning. I would never want to place my students in a position where they did not feel safe
questioning the learning, contributing their input, and engaging in the material. This type of
college preparatory teaching was counter intuitive because the minute I walked onto my
university, I was still fairly behind my counterparts.
Angelica Moreno
Cohort 009
EPS 512

My pedagogy has been directly attributed to my cultural identity and my experiences
in the public education system. Growing up as a student of color presented challenges of
relevancy of the material. I also rarely saw the connections of schoolwork to my life at home.
Some of the challenges in the public education system were attributed to being from a lower
income household and having those correlate to the neighborhood school and its resources. I
also felt like the teachers I had were not prepared to serve my socio-emotional and academic
needs. This large scheme of events has taught me that what I seek to do in my middle school
classroom is to create a classroom where students can engage in the lesson, see themselves
within the lesson, and feel safe to question the lesson and its use. I will attain this level of
mastery through learning and building strong relationships with my students. I will also,
always hold them to high expectations because that is truly what it means to teach in an
equitable classroom, and finally I will continue to promote and discuss the social injustices
around them so that they can seek ways to empower themselves and their passions in life.
History perceives our educational system as being one dimensional, but over the years we
have learned that an identity and our students are multidimensional, so to meet their needs I
will need to foster a multidimensional classroom and teacher within myself.