CONSOLACION ORTEGA-ABSHER

As a female in a Mexican and old fashion cultural background, I was groomed to become a wife and homemaker. My grandparents raised me until the age of twelve years of age then moved to the United States. I am a mother of two sons, my oldest son Thomas will be graduating from The University of Washington and my youngest son Liam is attending 7th grade. I love being a parent to my sons. They are my motivation and biggest inspiration in life. I attended High School in Arizona. I graduated with several citizenships, leadership awards, and a scholarship and with a letter of recommendation to enroll in the armed forces and E-5. I married my best friend and enrolled the US Airforce right after high school. I served my country for four years. My service in the military brought me to the State of Washington where I decided to exit and continue my education via taking some online classes while working for the Boeing Company as a Procurement Agent. After fifteen years of working in corporate business, I transitioned to the education field. I feel so much joy that I can support my boys to a college education and that they too would have the opportunity of having a better life and would be able to be a positive and active contributor to their families and society.
I would describe myself as an independent, self- motivated and tactful individual. I feel that such personal qualities I possess provide value to my work which enables me to be an effective practitioner, along with empathy and honesty when working with a partnership with parents and peers in a multidisciplinary team working. I feel I am a positive influence individual, which believes and highly values education and sees the opportunity for a better life and future for our next generations to come. I believe that all children are capable and are mathematicians since birth and I want to inspire children to learn and like math. I believe my dedication and my outlook and pedagogy approach are vital assets when working with middle school children as they are going thru a transitional period in their lives and they need to feel supported, cared for, heard and feel they have the capability to become a successful person in life. I want to contribute to that success by becoming a middle school math teacher. Because I can communicate fluently in Spanish and English I am not only able to cater to English speaking children but also Spanish-speaking children at the same time.
Through my working experience in the education field and my continuing education at Central Washington University, I will acquire the opportunity to extend my theoretical knowledge with the practical and effective application, thus enabling a more holistic of child development and reverent curriculums. With this experience, I have been able to identify my strengths and my weaknesses and self-reflect on the type of teacher I would like to be to be more effective and bring more success to students learning.