Profile: Why Ms. Sanchez became a teacher

By Heyli G.  

Ms. Xiomara Sanchez Mara, a science teacher and department chair for science, became a teacher “because I truly believe my purpose in life is to help change lives.” She feels like teaching is the best way to influence someone or help to guide them through their life. 

Ms. Sanchez said that she has been a teacher for 3 years, but she has been at this for 5 almost 6 years. She shared she was a teacher assistant (or TA) for 2 years, a semester as a substitute teacher, and another semester working with parents. “That’s why I’m so good at working with parents.” Ms. Sanchez further explains she is “not shy to call the parent and have a meeting with the parent.”

When asked about if being a TA helped her become a teacher, she said, “As a TA, I was able to see the student’s perspective.” She explained she would see the sneaky ways students would hide their phones or the games they played on the computer. Also, she would see how students would get distracted and what they were doing. Ms. Sanchez stated, “So it gave me a lot of ideas on how to manage the behavior in my classroom and how to approach students.” She felt it was very eye-opening.

Ms. Sanchez remembered she has always liked science. Originally, she wanted to become a doctor and even interned at UCLA Medical Center. She felt like becoming a doctor wasn’t the way to go. She explained, “And I saw a lot of people dying and I just, emotionally, it was too much for me, so I couldn’t. I decided that’s not the way that I wanted to go.” One of Ms. Sanchez’s friends told her about a job at this as a teaching assistant. She shared, “And originally I was just taking it because I needed a job and then eventually it just kind of — it was a calling.” 

Of course, like any teacher, there are days that are harder than others. There are times when she regrets becoming a teacher, such when there is too much work to be done or “when there are students who give a lot of behavior problems or are just not respectful, you know I consider my life choices.” 

But those things are small in comparison with the significance of having someone like her be a science teacher.

She remembered from her own experience as a student that there weren’t a lot of science teachers in LAUSD that were Hispanics or Latinos. They couldn’t connect with the students culturally and weren’t able to talk with them in Spanish, even thought majority of students in LAUSD are Latinx. Ms. Sanchez noticed “there was a discrepancy in a lot of students [who] didn’t have a good science experience, and I decided I wanted to be a science teacher because I wanted to give to my community.”

“There was a discrepancy in a lot of students [who] didn’t have a good science experience, and I decided I wanted to be a science teacher because I wanted to give to my community.”

Ms. Sanchez

Ms. Sanchez’s first year of being a teacher was different and unusual then most teacher’s first year. Her first year of teaching was hard because it was through Zoom. She stated that “So it was challenging because there were a lot of students who just joined and then fell asleep.” Ms. Sanchez had to get creative in the way she would teach. According to Ms. Sanchez, “But, you know in Zoom you couldn’t really socialize and I feel like a lot of people became very like, they isolated themselves.” She further explained, “So, they got used to being alone and when we came back that was a barrier because people didn’t want to talk to each other.” Ms. Sanchez felt she had two first-year experiences. One being through Zoom and the other in the classroom for the first time.

When asked about if she has felt like she has improved from her first year, she said “Yes, definitely I feel like I am more, a lot more confident in how I teach.” She says that “I know that I have high expectations for my students and for myself and I think that’s, that itself is an improvement right.”

She explained that when she first became a teacher she was more worried about not wanting to mess up or make a mistake. But, now she’s more comfortable in teaching her subject/students, letting the students get to know her, and getting to know her students.