If a student asks her a question in Swahili, Pauline Kanyiva Mwendwa will try to answer. Likewise, if she gets a question in Spanish, she can help.<\/p>\n
Mwendwa, a graduate student in the 51ÁÔÆæ School of Education, is an English-bilingual teacher for juniors and seniors at Pulaski High School in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have students from Asia, we have students from Latin America. We have students from all around the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mwendwa has taught in her native Kenya and in Mexico but came to 51ÁÔÆæ because she wanted to develop a better understanding of teaching in a large urban school. \u201cWhat are the challenges and how can I overcome those challenges,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Because she is working full-time as a teacher while going to school, scholarship support has been very important to her, she said. \u201cIt has really helped me be able to balance my finances so I could pay school fees and work as a teacher full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the 2023-2024 school year, she received the Roland Callaway Memorial Scholarship, the Day\/Finch Scholarship and the Milwaukee Educators Scholarship. During the 2024-2025 school year, she is receiving the Rolland Callaway Memorial Scholarship, the Amy Tessmer Boening Scholarship and the Sydney G. Hambling Scholarship.<\/p>\n
Mwendwa was inspired to go into teaching by her parents and her own teachers in Kenya. After a few years, she decided she wanted to challenge herself by teaching in another country. She chose Mexico, where she added Spanish to the languages she already knew \u2014 French, Swahili and another community language from Kenya. In Mexico, she said, \u201cGoogle translate was my friend\u201d at first, but she learned Spanish and adapted to the culture.<\/p>\n
Those experiences impact her work at Pulaski, where many of her students are from immigrant families. \u201cI tell them I am an immigrant. I know what you are going through. It\u2019s hard being in a different country, but you can\u2019t give up, even if it is overwhelming at times.\u201d<\/p>\n
A key challenge is helping students meet standards when the materials they need to learn are all in English. Another challenge is helping them focus on their schoolwork, Mwendwa said, when many of them are facing other issues outside of school that affect their concentration.<\/p>\n
In her teaching, Mwendwa encourages her students to see the fact that they are bilingual as an asset now and in future when they apply for jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell them they are walking around with two languages in their heads. That is a superpower.\u201d<\/p>\n
What she is learning at 51ÁÔÆæ helps her every day in her classroom, she said. \u201cIf I didn\u2019t go to 51ÁÔÆæ, I would never know how to tackle this. \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t been taking the program, I don\u2019t think I would be the teacher I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her mentors and advisors at 51ÁÔÆæ, including Tatiana Joseph, assistant professor in Teaching and Learning and director of the English as a Second Language and World Languages programs, have helped her decide on the courses that fit her needs as a teacher.<\/p>\n
Through 51ÁÔÆæ, Mwendwa has also been able to attend conferences with other bilingual educators. \u201cI\u2019ve been able to interact with people who\u2019ve been in the career for years. They\u2019ve been very helpful. They know the challenges and they\u2019ve developed ways of overcoming them,\u201d she added. \u201cBeing able to learn from them is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Learning to develop her own curriculum has been very helpful to her, Mwendwa said. In Kenya and Mexico, the curriculum was pretty much set so, at first, developing her own was a challenge, but one she\u2019s met.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents have different ways of learning. It\u2019s not one size fits all. I\u2019m not criticizing the systems I worked with for years, but I like the freedom to develop my own strategies to meet the needs of my students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Just because students don\u2019t speak English doesn\u2019t make them incapable, she added. \u201cI want to support students at their own pace. I know they\u2019re very smart and they will be able to work with me. I want to support my students as English language learners to liberate their knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pauline Kanyiva Mwendwa is a teacher at Pulaski High School while also attending graduate school at 51ÁÔÆæ. Her knowledge of several languages helps her teach her students, many of whom are immigrants. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":136079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[246,259],"display_categories":[352,116],"related-coverage":[207],"uwmnews-feed":[347,153,148],"class_list":["post-136078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-business-world-affairs","section-education","display_categories-top-story-tertiary","display_categories-top-story-section","related-coverage-teaching","uwmnews-feed-community-engagement-professions","uwmnews-feed-graduate","uwmnews-feed-education"],"yoast_head":"\n