December 2024

When husband and wife, Pere Valls and Laura Moreno, traveled from Spain to teach in Dallas, they brought global expertise to Chapel Hill Preparatory Academy and embarked on a journey of sharing new cultural experiences with their young children.

“The idea is to go to a new country, learn, and bring that knowledge back home. It’s an exchange—I’m learning new techniques and teaching strategies while sharing what I know,” Moreno said. 

Moreno currently teaches ESL classes and has 18 years of experience in elementary education. Valls brings 25 years of teaching experience to his role as a fifth-grade math teacher at Chapel Hill. They see the exchange program as an opportunity for their children to learn more about the world while sharpening their language skills.

This is the third time the family has traveled to the United States as part of the Visiting International Teachers Program teacher exchange initiative.

“You learn language fast, but you forget faster,” said Vallas. The family returned to ensure their children could grow up bilingual in English and Spanish. 

When their son was 4 years old, his grandmother helped him practice writing skills. By the time he began attending Chapel Hill, his teachers were impressed with his handwriting and overall academic growth. His sister also continues rapidly improving and picking up English comprehension. When the Valls family is not at school, they enjoy traveling and making new friends.

“I think we’re the kind of family that fits with everybody. We’ve got friends in the United States, Mexico, Japan, and Spain. As long as people are nice, it doesn’t matter where they come from,” Moreno said.

In Reno, Nev., they were two of three Spanish-speaking teachers in their school, Valls said. Now, they are two out of hundreds of bilingual teachers in Dallas where they have met people from other Spanish-speaking countries like Mexico, El Salvador, and Colombia.

“I love learning about other cultures by connecting with other educators. It enriches your knowledge,” he said.

Though the Valls family plans to return to Spain in three years, they cherish the opportunity to share this global experience with their children while they’re young.

“We’re living in a society where you need to know a bit of everything,” Valls said. “It’s important for kids to experience different cultures—they’ll be better prepared for the future. Our children have dual citizenship, and maybe one day, they’ll return for college here.”

Moreno appreciates how their jobs allow them to offer their children a cultural immersion many dream of. 

“Our kids are so lucky to be with us in the same school,” she said. “Even though it was tough for them at the beginning, I was always right here, and their dad was at the end of the hallway. So many people pay to send their kids abroad, and we get to do it simply through our work as teachers.”

The end of the year celebrations can be fun, but they can also be stressful for families, including students. Dallas ISD Mental Health Services has resources that team members can use to identify stress among young people and help them deal with it.

Stress is the way the body naturally responds when faced with challenges, or when nervous, anxious, or under pressure, said Deborah Purge, a licensed mental health clinician with the district. Examples of these stressful times might be needing to complete a science project or taking a math exam and feeling unprepared. Stress can help motivate an individual to work harder and faster, but too much stress can negatively affect mood, health, and how that person interacts with others around them.

Signs of stress:

Some signs of stress might include symptoms such as head and stomach aches, unexplained pain without being ill, inability to sleep or sleeping too much, recent nightmares, and changes in appetite. A student suffering from stress might appear irritable, nervous, anxious, fretful, tearful, and clingy with little interest in activities previously enjoyed. If changes in behavior among young people are observed it might suggest that the student is experiencing a challenging time and needs help to better deal with the situation, Purge said.

Stress management techniques:

• Relaxation Techniques / Physical Activities:
  • Deep Breathing Exercises: Belly Breathing and Butterfly Breathing Exercise
  • Muscle Relaxation: Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique
  • Mindfulness Meditation: The Beach – Guided Imagery for Relaxation; Video 2
  • Meditation and Yoga: Yoga Video
  • Grounding Exercises: Video
  • Exercise: Walking, running, jogging, dancing, stretching, playing sports, etc.
  • Creative Activities: Drawing, coloring, painting, journaling, listening to or making music.
  • Connect with nature:  Be sure to spend time outdoors to soak up some sun and explore nature.
•  Develop Healthy Habits:
  • Good Sleep Routine: Go to bed on time and get at least 8-10 hours. of sleep.
  • Nutrition: Make sure to eat healthy meals with plenty of fruit and vegetables.
  • Allow enough time to complete tasks and assignments.
  • Practicing good self-care will bring awareness to physical and emotional needs.
  • Positive Affirmations: Positive thoughts or statements that help when feeling stressed.

Share where to get help:

•   Parents / caregiver / trusted family member
•   Trusted adults at school (teachers, nurses, principals, etc.)
•   School counselor on the campuses
•   Mental Health Services (MHS):  Ask parents to reach out to MHS for additional support

References:

Relaxation Techniques for Kids

https://online.regiscollege.edu/online-masters-degrees/master-science-applied-behavior-analysis/relaxation-techniques-for-kids/#:~:text=Deep%20Breathing%20Exercises%20Among%20the%20simplest%2C%20most%2Deffective,helps%20to%20calm%20them%20physically%20and%20mentally.

Stress in Childhood

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002059.htm

A high five, a handshake, a fist bump, or even a simple wave can make all the difference for a student entering the classroom whether they are in prekindergarten or in high school. Two Dallas ISD teachers have harnessed the power of the greeting to establish strong relationships with their students and help them succeed.

Wilmer-Hutchins Elementary School teacher Dipcianet Galan greets her 3-year-old students at the door of her classroom every morning. She asks them to pick from four different greetings and reviews the letter of the day with them, in Spanish or English, depending on her students’ language.

“The way we greet each other has a huge impact on their day,” she said. “It sets the tone for every day.”

Galan has been a teacher for 15 years, the first few in Puerto Rico. She attended a Dallas ISD job fair on the island after her husband came to Dallas for work. She was hired as a teacher for one of the district’s pre-k partnerships and two years ago became a teacher at Wilmer-Hutchins Elementary School.

She can tell what mood her students are in by the type of greeting they choose, and it also gives her the opportunity to praise them for a new hairstyle or compliment their shoes. Because of her experience, she knows the greeting not only sets a positive tone for the day and allows her to read her students’ moods, but it’s also a learning opportunity for the students.

“Choosing for a 3-year-old is a big accomplishment,” she said. “These are great skills to learn because they can apply them in the real world. They acquire essential verbal and socialization skills. No matter their age, it’s important for them to have a sense of who they are, to know that someone cares about them, to gain confidence, and to express themselves.”

Despite a considerable age gap between Galan’s students and her high school students, health science teacher Liyah Joseph has seen a lot of the same connections using a greeting at the beginning of each of her three classes at Career Institute East. She knows that, just like in prekindergarten, having someone to greet them at the door improves attendance and ensures students arrive on time. It establishes a commitment between the teacher and the students regardless of age.

“At first, they would come in and just sit,” said Joseph, who has been teaching at CIE for two years. From early on, she knew she wanted to establish a better connection with the students.

Joseph graduated high school with a medical assistant certificate and has an associate degree from Dallas College. She worked as a patient care technician before becoming a teacher through Dallas ISD’s local innovation plan while she obtains her bachelor’s degree in public health—the first in her family to do so. But once she graduates, she wants to become a certified teacher and continue in a career she has come to love.

At the beginning, she had trouble establishing relationships with her students, but then she tried the greeting process and found it was a great way not only to start the class but also to develop trust between them.

“It changed the mood, established rapport and let us connect individually,” she said. “They are not used to people talking to them at the beginning, and their whole demeanor changes. Eventually, they break out. It might seem like something small, but it is really big.”

Like Galan, Joseph uses the greeting as a temperature check, and if she sees that a student is not having a great day, she addresses it before class and before it affects everyone else. You can watch a short video of her greeting here.

“They love it in prekindergarten, but they also love it at this age,” Joseph said. “And I wish more high school teachers would do it. One day, I forgot, and they just stood there at the door until I came out to do the greeting. I also look forward to being at the door. It puts me in a good mood.”