For Hilda Rodriguez, Ph.D., life is best spent helping others as a 5th grade dual-language teacher at Gilbert Elementary.
“I love helping parents,” she said. “I think that’s my main goal, to help the community and to help bilingual parents and bilingual students.”
Rodriguez, who earned her doctorate in culture, literacy, and language from UTSA in 2019, is being recognized for her work by the San Antonio Area Association for Bilingual Education as bilingual teacher of the year. Her work is especially meaningful given her own personal connection to the school district.
“I’m at the district where I was born and raised,” Rodriguez said. “I went to Harlandale all throughout elementary, middle school, and high school.”
When she returned from Austin with her bachelor’s degree, she immediately applied for a job with Harlandale. The principal at Gilbert Elementary who hired her was her former kindergarten teacher. Throughout her career, Rodriguez has striven to support both her students and their parents, citing her own childhood and the difficulty her Spanish-speaking parents had in assisting her in her English-only coursework. Now, two degrees and one decade later, Rodriguez is overwhelmed by the Association’s award and the support of her colleagues.
“I really didn’t think it was going to happen because I think there’s so many more qualified and amazing bilingual educators out there, but it was still awesome to get the award.”
“It was a really, really great experience,” she said. “I really didn’t think it was going to happen because I think there’s so many more qualified and amazing bilingual educators out there, but it was still awesome to get the award.”
But Rodriguez’s modesty belies her involvement at Gilbert. Besides teaching and helping the families of both current and former students with a variety of questions academic and professional, Rodriquez has also been in charge of the cheerleading team, the yearbook, and the robotics club. She says her involvement in such a wide array of extra-curricular activities helps attract students who might otherwise avoid clubs where the predominant language spoken is English.
“I put myself in those positions in order to help, in order to create those opportunities for bilingual students like me,” she said.
In addition to working with various student groups, Rodriguez assists in various school administrivia including translating and curriculum writing.
“I don’t know how to say no,” she said. “I’m learning – slowly.”
If such a schedule weren’t enough, Rodriguez also recently completed her Ph.D. while teaching full-time. Despite the workload this presented, it also provided certain benefits.
“I was at an advantage that I was able to research my own students…I didn’t have to take time out of my day because it was already there, and I could fit it into the curriculum, I could fit it into the standards of the state,” she said.
And if her students helped her complete her research, she believes her research is also helping her students. She has already incorporated some of the materials from her research into her current classes, and by presenting her findings to other professionals, she hopes to benefit as many students as possible. But, just as importantly, she says her research helped her to better understand her students.
“[It] really helped me see all the stuff my kids were dealing with,” she said. “Sometimes adults may not think that children have anything important to say, but they do, and I wanted the students to feel validated in the conversations they were having with their classmates.”
Of course, for the last year the greatest challenge for teachers around the world has been the COVID-19 pandemic. But while she acknowledges the pandemic has made teaching more difficult, her greatest concern is for the children.
“School provides that home for them, that support system, that safety net,” she said. “So, when they don’t have that it’s very difficult.”
Nevertheless, she says that Harlandale has done its share to assist students, providing Chromebooks, iPads and other technological assistance to students in need. There are also social workers who can make house calls and ensure that children are coping as well as possible.
“Any need that they had, we were able to provide for them, so that way they could still get the education,” Rodriguez said.
But despite the best efforts of the district and its staff, Rodriguez says there is still some cause for concern.
“There’s some students that we still have not heard from since the beginning of the year,” she said. “So, you wonder what’s happening with them, are they okay…it kind of breaks your heart a little bit because there’s only so much you can do.”
But Rodriguez says the pandemic has also highlighted the strengths of teachers.
It’s a profession where they always throw us in there and we always show them that one way or another, we’re going to get the kids what they need.”
“You can see the adaptability, the flexibility of teachers because they were able to react super quickly to everything and they were able to provide for the needs of the students…It’s a profession where they always throw us in there and we always show them that one way or another, we’re going to get the kids what they need.”
For this reason, Rodriguez says the credit of teacher of the year should, in many ways, be shared amongst all her colleagues.
“I think everybody this year, they’re all teachers of the year dealing with everything that we’re dealing with,” she said.
And while the near future is still very much uncertain, Rodriguez says she is “cautiously optimistic” about the coming year.
“As long as I get to be in the classroom, I’ll be good,” she said.
In the meantime, Rodriguez says she is focused on teaching her students the value of kindness and hard work, just as her parents taught her as a child. And, however the future unfolds, she is just happy to be able to help her community.
“I’m a big helper,” she said. “If anyone ever needs anything, I’m more than happy to help in whatever way I can.”
- Christopher Reichert