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Mayela is a Spanish name, but it is alternate to the name May which is English and Scottish. My parents decided to name me Mayela because the name was significant to my maternal grandma. I was named after my mom because of how much it meant to my family. My grandma and her best friend were both pregnant at the time. Her best friend was going to name her daughter Mayela, but she suddenly passed away. My grandma decided to name my mom Mayela in memory of her best friend. Some of my common nicknames are Maye, Maye, and Mayelita. In high school, my close friends would call me Mayo. Before my parents named me Mayela, I was almost named Renata - it was my mom's first choice, My dad did not like the name, so they both agreed to name me after my mom. A trouble I had with my name is that Mayela is not very common. People can never spell it or pronounce it correctly most of the time. I also can never find my name in keychains or other accessories when I travel.

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My Favorite Characteristics: Kindness and Humor 

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My Favorite Characteristics: Kindness and Humor 

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What I like most about myself is my sense of humor and kindness I give. I tend to be shy at first, but once I genuinely feel comfortable around people, I like to have a good time and laugh. I am constantly joking around with my friends and family. My friends and family always say that what they love about me are the facial expressions I make when I am telling a story or a joke. Kindness is also one of my favorite characteristics because I believe kindness is revolved around me, so I adopted that characteristic. I truly believe my parents and my grandparents are the most genuine and kind people I have ever met in my life. My grandpa always taught me to treat others the way I would like to be treated. I believe kindness is a characteristic people often see in me because my friends and family always tell me that I am "too nice" at times which can result in me being a push-over. I believe my kindness and humor will allow me to provide a safe and positive learning environment for my students.

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Important Object: Necklace & Photographs 

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Important Object: Necklace & Photographs 

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Photographs and the necklace shown below are very important objects to me. The necklace is very important to me because it was the last gift given to me by my maternal grandma before she passed away this summer. I had a very close bond with my grandma, so the necklace means so much to me. My grandma was like my second mother, so anything that she gave me holds a very special place in my heart. Photographs are also important objects to me because I identify photographs as memories. I like to reminisce and look back at photographs that remind me of the people who made a positive impact in my life. I have several SD cards and picture books that hold many photographs of my family, friends, trips, and my journey in the education program.

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My Privilege: Mexican-American living in America 

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My Privilege: Mexican-American living in America 

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With the controversy of immigration in America, I have the privilege of being a Mexican-American living in America. My parents always remind me and my brothers about how fortunate we are to live in the United States. My dad originally moved to California when he was sixteen, and he became a U.S. citizen in 1980. My dad got married to my mom in 1994 and my brothers and I were born in Georgia. The image represents my privilege of traveling to Mexico to visit my family. The picture is taken at a restaurant in Guadalajara, Mexico. I feel so fortunate because there are many undocumented people living in America who are unable to travel to their country to visit their family. My heart breaks just thinking about it because I can not imagine the feeling of being restricted to visit your family because family is very important to me.

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I have a cultural bias of low-income communities. Growing up, the media has portrayed low-income communities as dangerous and sometimes as a non-safe environment. Although I know in my heart that the bias is not true at all, I can not help but feel scared at times when in that setting. The picture below was taken by me when I visited New York. The picture was taken in Brooklyn. I remember walking late at night and feeling worrisome when walking to Ride Aid. Although I had nothing to worry about, I caught myself feeling a little scared because I was walking fast to get to my destination. I sometimes wonder why I have that bias, but I then come to realization that there could be danger anywhere, but most importantly that low-income communities are not dangerous.

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I respect every person's political views, but one thing that does make me feel uncomfortable is when I see "Make America Great Again." I believe every person has the right to voice their opinion, but ever since the president insulted Mexicans, I became sensitive to the topic because I am Mexican and the insults are not entirely true. I do feel uncomfortable at times, but I try my best not to let it affect me because like how I mentioned before, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

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My Cultural Values & Beliefs: Respecting traditions

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My Cultural Values & Beliefs: Respecting traditions

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I come from a family that practices Catholicism. My grandparents and my parents have strong faith and beliefs. I have followed and practiced the beliefs, and I respect my family's religious traditions. When I was eight months old, I was baptized in Mexico, and my godparents were my maternal grandparents. When I was nine years old, I did my first communion in Mexico as well. When I was younger, I would attend church school on Sunday's. I decided to choose my religion as my cultural values and beliefs because religious practices have revolved around my life since I was born. I always say a prayer before I leave my house, before I go to bed, when I wake up in the morning, and also when I am traveling. I adapted the prayers from my mom and my grandma because they would always say small prayers, so that became the norm in my life. I adopted the cultural practices and beliefs from my family, and I plan to respect the tradition by practicing my beliefs if I have children of my own.

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Literacy Practices of my Everyday Life: Books, movies, & music

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Literacy Practices of my Everyday Life: Books, movies, & music

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There are several literacy strategies that I engage in everyday. Whenever I have time to myself, I like to watch series and movies on Netflix and Google Play. I sometimes watch foreign movies or series, so I use subtitles. I am constantly reading the subtitles and learning new foreign words. I also engage in listening to music and social media. I enjoy to read books or articles online on my free time as well. I believe the literacy practices I engage in everyday build up my vocabulary and literacy skills.

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Attending concerts is my favorite literacy experience I like to engage in. If an artist comes out with an album that I truly love and I can relate to, then I enjoy listening to the lyrics and rhythm of the songs live in concert. I decided to choose concerts as my favorite literacy experience because I believe that music has made a huge impact in my life. There are songs that I can go back and listen to that remind me of a certain time and place. I listen to different genres of music, and I typically tend to listen to music based on my current mood. For example, if I am feeling down I like to listen to Taylor Swift. Or whenever I want to relax and listen to calming music, I like to listen to James Bay or Niall Horan. Also, when I am feeling motivated, I like to listen to up-beat songs. I believe music is a literacy experience that many people engage in. Music can be inspirational, motivating, and self-reflecting. The picture below is an image of some of the concerts I have attended in the past. I truly enjoy the literacy experience of listening to my favorite artists sing the lyrics to their songs.

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The Important Book: Where the Red Fern Grows 

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The Important Book: Where the Red Fern Grows 

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Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls is a very important book to me because it was the first chapter book I read by myself and comprehended what the book was about. Growing up in elementary school, I was an English language learner up to fourth grade. In fourth grade, I would attend title one reading classes because I struggled with comprehension. I was able to fluently read a book, but at times I had a difficult time understanding the plot of the story. Where the Red Fern Grows played a huge impact in my literacy practices because it was the first book I was able to finish and understand the plot of the story. I remember being extremely proud of myself because I did not always do well on reading tests when given during language arts. I remember receiving a 100% on the reading test that was based on the book. My title one teacher was proud of us, so she allowed us to watch the movie in class. I also chose Where the Red Fern Grows because I believe it is such a beautiful story about a little boy who works hard to accomplish his dream of buying two hunting dogs. I believe Where the Red Fern grows is a great book to have in a classroom library for the students.

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My strength on teaching culturally diverse students 

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My strength on teaching culturally diverse students 

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My strength on teaching culturally diverse students is creating connections with the students. I grew up in a diverse community where majority of the population were Hispanics and African Americans/Blacks. The picture below was taken at Minor Elementary where I student taught my second semester in the education program. Luckily, Minor Elementary is the elementary school I attended in my Kindergarten through fifth grade school years. I was lucky to have been placed at Minor Elementary where I was able to look back at the memories I made. I was able to see my third grade teacher and reminisce the school environment. I was student teaching in a fifth grade classroom, and I made connections with my students. I was approachable and they felt comfortable enough to express their feelings and concerns with me. I tried my best to be understanding and help my students with problems that arose in the classroom. I believe I have a strength of connecting with culturally diverse students because I grew up in a culturally diverse community.

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My Weakness on teaching culturally diverse students 

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My Weakness on teaching culturally diverse students 

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My weakness on teaching culturally diverse students is handling disrespect from students. A goal of mine has been to improve my classroom management skills. The students need to be aware that disrespect will not be tolerated in my classroom. My weakness would be handling inappropriate behavior. For example, during my middle school years, I witnessed several of my classmates disrespecting the teachers. I remember a student spitting in our math teacher's drink while she stepped outside of the classroom. Also, some of the students decided to throw colored pencils at my language arts teacher when I was in sixth grade. My weakness would be handling situations like the ones I witnessed when I was in school. I chose the picture below because a teacher starts to see a change in behavior when students move to upper grades. The students in the picture were former fifth graders. One thing I learned is that teachers will handle inappropriate behaviors in all grades, but I believe that students tend to disrespect the teacher and talk back as the students get older. Despite my weakness, my former fifth grade students were very sweet and smart students. I decided to provide a picture of older students to explain my weakness on teaching.

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I see myself as a person who is always smiling and fulfilled with love and support. I see see myself as a person who is encouraging, supportive, helpful, and down to earth. I also see myself as a student, sister, friend, and teacher. I want to help my students be the best version of themselves by motivating them to succeed just like how I have family, teachers, and professors who motivate me to be the best teacher I can be.

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I am Mayela Vazquez
I am thankful and blessed
I am humble
I am passionate
I am a hard-worker
I am motivating
I am dependable
I am kind
I am not perfect
I am human
I am Mayela Vazquez