Rosa Torres gives her cellphone number to parents of her 2nd-graders.
“You can text me, you can call me any time,” the American Lakes School teacher tells them. “I want them to know I’m not just a teacher, I’m a human being like they are.”
Torres remembers well the difference one person can make in a child’s life.
When Torres was about 6 years old, her family immigrated to America from Mexico and she struggled to keep up in school because she did not speak English. An aide at her Courtland school, Ms. Cruz, reached out with individual attention that kept her afloat in class.
Torres recalls that Ms. Cruz would pull her out of the classroom to provide one-on-one instruction. “She made a big difference in my life,” Torres recalls now. “I was like, ‘That’s great, I want to be just like her.”
Decades later, Torres has not forgotten her roots and plays a key role at American Lakes in helping immigrant families who struggle with English. She is the school’s English Learner coordinator and oversees its English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC).
Torres also helps to mentor two young teachers at American Lakes, piloted the District’s new mathematics textbooks, and she is in the process of piloting new textbooks for English/Language Arts.
Recently, Torres led workshops in Spanish and English to introduce parents at American Lakes to the new math curriculum.
Torres, who has two children of her own, ages 21 and 17, said kids have a special place in her heart. She particularly enjoys working with 2nd-graders, who are eager to learn and grow leaps and bounds academically in a single year. “It’s just amazing,” she said of their one-year progress.
She wants all kids to take seriously the message she gives her own two children: Education is a big deal, it’s a ticket to their future, good jobs require a good education.
“Ms. Torres teaches from the heart,” Principal Suzen Holtemann said. “She doesn’t give up when students struggle, and she believes and expects that all students can and will achieve.”
Once a Torres student, always a Torres student, apparently.
When Torres’ 2nd-graders move on to higher grades, she tells them that she’ll always be ready to help them, whenever needed.
“I’ve told my kids, ‘Regardless if you’re in my class anymore, I’m always watching you,’” she said, smiling.
“So don’t think that because you’re done with 2nd grade, you’re done with me.”
