Monica Zamudio

I would like to recognize my son Connor’s fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Monica Zamudio for her unparalleled dedication to students this 2020-21 school year. We cherish all his teachers at Schroeder Elementary from K-3rd grade and especially after-school care, but obviously this school year has been particularly challenging for children and teachers because they had to start the semester virtually with the fear of a pandemic looming. Being off-campus for over a year, my son has never needed an exceptional teacher more. Mrs. Zamudio has managed to keep all the students so engaged even when she had to juggle the hybrid and virtual students at the same time with different Google Classrooms and different on-campus and Zoom schedules, which to me seems like double the work and twice the weight of balancing the two separate sets of students, but she was always up for the challenge. There has been a whole set of different variables to teaching the last year, but probably one of the oddest has been Zooms, which just ended for my son this week now that he’s back on campus. Because I taught from home too this last year and we live in a small house, I felt like Mrs. Zamudio and her class were part of our family. As I worked on my classes, in the background I would hear some of the interactions she and the students had and it was beautiful. She clearly cared for and respected all the children equally. When some students were briefly distracted in Zooms, I would sometimes hear her gently lead students back with guidance like “Hi. . . . I’m going to have to ask that you put down your cat now and turn to page. . . ” or “You all have lovely ceilings but can I see your faces?” I bet in her lifetime she would never have guessed she’d be uttering such funny directions. Mrs. Zamudio knows when even one child is distracted or struggling, or sad. She could read facial expressions through the screen. I would hear her comforting students and even heard her help when siblings pestered her students. By holding each child responsible for paying attention, her students kept up with their learning as if it were any regular school year. And rather than just tell them to not Zoom in bed with Disney Plus playing in the background, she would explain why it wasn’t the best learning environment. Her tone has always been so kind and it sometimes had me in stitches how she handled such comical distractions so gracefully. I think I’d lose my mind repeatedly refocusing so many fourth-graders sidetracked by their dogs, their hamsters, their parents (I know I’ve been a distraction for my son at times), their siblings, and other disruptions. How she pleasantly always guided the conversations back to the curriculum was gentle and genius. Whenever my son was out of the Zoom frame, he was usually hugging his dog. She would hold him and others accountable and call them back over with patient questions like, “Connor, where are you, bud?” My son once interrupted class with irrelevant questions like, “How long is this Zoom?” Mrs. Zamudio’s clever but light-hearted response was “Every time you ask, I’m adding five minutes.” She exercised such patience with other distractions like when technical problems arose such as children losing their internet connections and/or freezing. She handled complications so delightfully and the second she had lost a student, she would bring them in from the waiting room without delay. One Thursday, Connor logged on and was so confused that there were only four classmates online. Mrs. Zamudio anticipated lost students and just smiled at all four and asked, “Where are you supposed to be?” It was such a sweet way to remind them they’re supposed to be in music zoom. Teaching from home, I can’t go through a single Zoom without my son popping in, and yet, Mrs. Zamudio seamlessly taught with two young children at home with her. She even taught through deafening, unmuted feedback. Again and again, she kindheartedly reminded students, “You’re muted” or “Mute yourselves.” Thanks to her persistence, it seemed like the kids adjusted to the routine pretty well because she was so patient with them. Mrs. Zamudio also kept learning fun—not an easy task through a computer screen. My son loved the mix of serious and fun projects from a bean map of California to a Two-Truths-and-One-Lie game, which gave the kids much-needed enjoyment. She has a knack for creating a warm class environment. One of the highlights of the school year for my son was when she had the virtual children read character roles in a play. He felt special; I never thought he’d enjoy virtual school so much. And it was so fun how she helped the students create holiday elf nicknames and actually remembered the names! My Lucky Jingleham giggled whenever she called his name. She also soothed students right before the holidays with the crackling fireplace background when they had independent work. To inspire students to read, Mrs. Zamudio had each student share something they were ]reading; that cleverly motivated my son to surpass his AR goal mid school-year because he knew the books his classmates were reading. A little bit of healthy competition motivated him. Additionally the reading skills she has instilled in the children is preparing them for a successful academic future. For example, Mrs. Zamudio used the book required in 3rd grade to show them examples of theme and other literary devices. Then they were able to apply the examples to their current 4th grade class books. I appreciated how when reading the Island of the Blue Dolphins she had students research different Native American tribes to help them appreciate different indigenous cultures. My son’s grandpa was half Mexican and half Huichol Indian, so I really appreciated her inclusivity of other societies. I also liked how she had students work in groups to study different tribes; they collaborated as though they were in the classroom. She even had students look at the paradox that Native Americans were faced with. Similarly, to help students celebrate multiple cultures, during Black History Month, Mrs. Zamudio read the book My Beautiful Hair to help students appreciate the beauty found in all of our differences and similarities. Students asked lots of questions and she encouraged such questions, which was beautiful. As an English teacher, myself, I especially respected how she would mix up the engaging recordings of books with analysis. I would often hear her telling students they have to be able to back up their answers with textual support—something I’m constantly telling students at the college level and here she is preparing them for scholarly work in 4th grade! And finally, once my son met his Accelerated Reader (AR) goal, I was worried he’d stop reading, but just then she encouraged further reading through a project sponsored by Anaheim Ducks hockey. He was back on-board. Similar to encouraging students to read, Mrs. Zamudio inspired them to write well with fun topics and flea maps and again reminded them that they must back up what they say with evidence. For one essay, she spent over a half hour with my son to help him improve his essay after school had let out. And she assessed student writing just like she would in an in-class setting so that the students weren’t missing out on much-needed recommendations. Once during the lunch hour, Mrs. Zamudio encouraged students to work in a group during lunch to figure out a math problem; she checked up on them and they were able to solve it together. She told them how proud she was because they could have just said “Peace out!” and stopped working on the math problem. She has done a phenomenal job teaching math, which is now my son’s favorite subject. She even knows how many minutes each child has worked on the required math and language computer programs. How she could keep track of that on top of everything else is astonishing. Mrs. Zamudio made additional academy work enjoyable for students too. Whereas it seems only natural that most virtual teachers would run out of patience by noon, she was so fun and light-hearted during the extra hour of academy work with the kids. At first my son would whine a bit about extra work, but when he heard her so jovial and silly, it was contagious. She encouraged so much creativity in this extra hour of work. For example, she had “friends” create their own bakery advertisements, create math problems for the group to solve, and so many other fun activities. One of the most remarkable lessons I overheard was when Mrs. Zamudio told one child to “Flip the script in your head” because the girl had sadly indicated she was not good at long division. The girl did just as Mrs. Zamudio told her to do and sounded so proud of herself that she successfully figured out the problem when she approached it with a more positive outlook. When the virtual group broke off from the rest of the hybrid students, I appreciated how she encouraged each student to share, even the shy boys and girls. What has worked well for my son has been the breakout rooms she creates because he feels more confident talking in a small group. Sometimes the breakout rooms were particularly fun like when she had a pet breakout room. Just like in the breakout rooms, Mrs. Zamudio was always adding texture to her Zooms like when the kids did the Wishy Washy song and dance. She knew just when the students needed a change. She even let my son share information about the Mars Rover, Perseverance and other space talk. Other kids would share their knowledge about fighter jets and gardening. She welcomed everyone’s voice. And on Mrs. Zamudio’s birthday the kids were so excited to meet her mother on Zoom. Her students felt like part of her family. One morning my son couldn’t stop talking about a spelling bee. He was so inspired and wanted to do well, but who knew there were two p’s in the word “pumpkin” though! She managed to get all the students so excited and supportive for one of their peers who won the spelling bee out of all the 4th and 5th graders in the district. Another example how Mrs. Zamudio encouraged students to support each other was when one student enrolled in the class mid-semester. All the children welcomed their new classmate and were genuinely happy he was there. Because it’s so easy for kids studying at home to just turn to more screen-time during breaks, I also treasured how she encouraged students to have balance in their lives with both physical and mental growth. She inspired them to be more active oftentimes by sharing what activity she did during a recess and asking what they did. Mrs. Zamudio was also doing a cumulative mileage run to raise awareness for an illness her step-mom suffered from. She modelled empathy and the children even had a chance to reach out to sick children at St. Jude with comforting wishes on Valentine’s Day. Even though she must have worked around the clock, Mrs. Zamudio always managed to maintain her sense of humor, which the kids just loved. I heard several of the kids tell her one day what a great teacher she was. She won them all over with a healthy mix of humor, kindness, discipline, and knowledge. Out of everything, what amazes me most is that my son has been getting an outstanding education in every way despite the fact that he’s usually a better learner in person. I have heard parents in other schools complain about the education their children are getting, but Mrs. Zamudio has mastered online, hybrid, and in-class teaching. Thank you for letting me share a little about an exceptional teacher whom my son and I will never forget and whom we can never repay.

Connor M. Shiroishi