Elicia Cárdenas
What three words would you use to describe Lewis & Clark?
What is your current position and what does it entail?
I currently serve as the Director of Professional Learning for The Comprehensible Classroom.
We partner with schools, districts, and organizations to support teachers in acquisition-driven, proficiency-oriented language teaching, believing all students can acquire language and that connection is key to human experience, through professional learning and curriculum. My role is to develop and deliver professional learning experiences that empower teachers and lead to positive student outcomes in World Language classes.
How did your graduate school education help you achieve this?
First, having a full year of student teaching meant that I was prepared for the realities of my own classroom. Being there from the first in-service day of the school year to turning in cumulative files at the end of the year helped me understand the importance of relationships with students and colleagues, and allowed me to build a professional network even before I graduated. Because I was there most days, I got to know a school community.
Even though I didn’t end up staying in Portland, I learned so much from the teachers and school staff who I spent time with. The expectations of a graduate from L&C include the ability to be a reflective teacher, and I think that habit has allowed me to continually reflect on my practice, my mindset, and how those show up in student learning. Although my students are now usually in-service teachers, the principles of teaching and learning apply 100%.
Why Lewis & Clark?
One of the reasons I chose L&C was because of the emphasis on diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice. I got a solid introduction to these ideas in my program, enough to allow me to continue my professional learning and even be invited to join a team at MITx Teaching and Learning Labs as an instructional assistant for a class on Becoming a More Equitable Educator.
The assessment class taught by Cindi Swingen might be the thing that launched my work as a teacher educator because I became fascinated with assessment practices that are simple, valid, and practical. This led to more and more professional development, and my first opportunities to present at state and regional conferences, which led to an instructional role at Westminster College, speaking opportunities all over the US, and even international workshop opportunities.
What is your favorite grad school memory?
Being in classes where my identity as a Chicana was acknowledged and even celebrated. Being able to talk about hard things - like racism, equity, justice- in a safe and productive way. The encouragement to use the readings and my reflections and experience to create my own teaching philosophy.
Who was your favorite professor while in graduate school?
Cindi Swingen was incredibly influential, as were my ELL teachers. Because of our short but extremely effective science module in the summer, I became part of an Outdoor Environmental Education team, hiking and camping and snowshoeing and rafting with students, and eventually earned my certification as a Master Naturalist for the State of Utah. The nature journal activities had a profound effect on me.
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