Educator of the week: Teacher motivated by her students

Editor’s note: This is one in a series profiling local educators each week.

STAFF REPORT

With 14 years under her belt as a teacher in Portales Municipal Schools, Becky Duran stays motivated with help from her students.

A fourth grade dual-language teacher — she teaches half the day in English, and the other half in Spanish — Duran feels most rewarded in her career when “I see a student that is not a Spanish native speaker speaking Spanish; speaking, writing, reading, everything.”

She noted that seeing the opposite is just as inspiring.

Duran

“The other side is to see the native Spanish speaker speaking in English and being able to do everything else exactly like the rest of their class does,” she said.

To help solidify concepts in her students’ minds, she utilizes hands-on resources.

“I really like pulling out different resources and doing a lot of hands-on where they can see, we can do it together; we can do it as a table group or whatever. We figure out what that skill really means, for example, by fact and opinion,” said Duran. “We have to go over it. We talk about it. They give me examples, and we go from there. I like lots of outside resources that help me do lots of hands-on activities.”

The willingness of fourth grade students makes the learning process much easier for Duran.

“I really, really like it, because they’re not too young, where you’re barely starting them off in third grade. Now, I just take off and go with them, and I really like it. They’re all willing to learn. They don’t have the attitude that the higher grades have. This age group is wonderful,” she said.

According to Duran, the students have taught her as much as she has taught them.

“I feel that, in third and fourth grade, I’ve learned to be more accepting, be more caring. It’s not like I didn’t care before, but to me, I feel these little kids — they’re my babies. I just have a special bond with them,” she said.

When she is not teaching — which is not often — Duran enjoys spending time with her husband and two children.

“I love, as a family, getting together and having cookouts, having meals, making supper, working together and just sitting around and talking and being as a family together,” she said.