Joleen Cope
Staff Reporter
We have a few new teachers this year, and it is always cool to meet new faces around campus. This week's teacher feature is our new Spanish teacher, Ms. Pena.
When you first walk into her classroom you will notice that it is a calm and collected environment. She also has it decorated with many flags from different Spanish speaking countries on the back wall. Her classroom is set up in a nice way and has a calm vibe to it.
Jeannine Pena has been teaching Spanish for three years and counting, but this is her first year here at Ironwood. Before this year, she was teaching Spanish at a charter high school in California. She recently moved from California this year and she said that her experience here has been great. Ms. Pena went as far as to say that this is the best school she has been to. She loves the staff along with the students and has had a positive experience thus far.
Before becoming a teacher, she worked as an interpreter and translator for many years. This included translating private meetings, public meetings and different types of documents from english to spanish. She loved being able to do that for the people who needed it and she explained that it used a lot of her energy. She said it was very difficult to be able to translate without thinking about it too much but she enjoyed doing it either way.
Interestingly, in her early twenties, she was already working in different schools before realizing she wanted to be a teacher. This led her to her decision of becoming a teacher along with the fact that her mother was also a teacher before she retired. Ms. Pena figured since she loved her language and also loved teaching people, becoming a Spanish teacher just made sense. While still interpreting she was finishing up her degrees in college and soon enough she started teaching. In an interview, Ms. Pena also pointed out that she loves teenagers and could never work with elementary school students, though she tipped her hat to those who do.
She thinks that respect is an important thing for both kids and adults. Her number one thing is to have a respectful classroom and learning environment. She enjoys teaching here and if you ever have her for Spanish make sure to make her time as an Eagle here even better.
Image Credit: Trinity Clark
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