This school year, we are thrilled to have added 12 teachers to our growing community. One such new addition, Ms. Garza, stands out amongst her peers for her enthusiasm and impressive professional background. She joins us as a Humanities Subject Expert Teacher for grades 2 and 3 and works with our Learning Expert Teachers to help students develop their literacy skills to their highest potential.

Ms. Garza attended the University of Texas at Brownsville where she received a partial scholarship to play golf! She now has over ten years of experience in education and has taught Kindergarten all the way through grade 5. She recently moved from Texas to Washington state in July 2024 and joined our team this summer. Since then, she has demonstrated exceptional competency in the classroom and is a supportive presence for our primary students. We sat down with Ms. Garza for an interview to highlight her experience and get her perspective on being a BASIS Independent Bellevue educator. 

Professional Background and Experience

• Tell us a bit about your journey in education? What inspired you to become a teacher?  

“I began my career as a teacher’s assistant for grades 3 – 5. I did this for two years before being hired as a full-time 2^nd grade teacher. I remained in that role for another two years before I moved on to teaching Kindergarten. I was a Kindergarten teacher for three years. During my role as a Kindergarten teacher, I was asked to observe and help manage a cohort of my peers to provide them with meaningful feedback about their instruction. It was through this that I was later asked to apply to be the Assistant Principal for the school!  

I was fortunate enough to be offered the position and then worked as the Assistant Principal for the subsequent three years. I loved my time in the administrative role because it allowed me to get a behind the scenes look at how a school runs, but ultimately, I missed being in the classroom and seeing students grow day by day. I love to see that “Aha!” look from students and I missed out on that as the Assistant Principal. That feeling led me to begin looking for teaching positions again, which brought me to BASIS Independent Bellevue. I feel like I have really come full circle because it was my second-grade teacher that helped me fall in love with learning and now, I’m back in the classroom as a second-grade teacher myself!” 

• What’s been the most rewarding thing from your journey so far? 

“In 2018 – 2029 I was named Teacher of the Year at my school, which was a huge honor for me. I was a member of the founding cohort of educators as the school opened and worked to help improve and grow the school community. It was great to see those efforts recognized” 

• How do you continue to grow as an educator?

“I really love feedback, and I thrive off being observed by my mentors. Of course, I still get a little jittery when admin comes in my room for an observation, but I truly do feel like it has been the most valuable tool in helping me grow as an educator. It is one of the things I love about BASIS Independent Bellevue. There are so many built in observations from mentors that all want to push you to be better.”

Impact

• What do you hope your students take away from their time in your class?

“First and foremost, I want to be a role model for my students. I want to demonstrate a love of reading in my own life and hope that translates to their lives. But of course, I also want to impart valuable skills like reading comprehension and writing. I hope they learn applicable skills for the real world while having fun doing it!” 

• How do you build strong relationships with your students and their families?

“I think it is very important to get to know your students on a personal level. I make sure to take time during our Morning Meetings to ask about their hobbies and interests outside of school. I want them to know I care about them beyond the classroom.  

To extend those relationships with my students’ families, I make sure I have regular communication with them. I love to send home positive notes regularly, so the parents don’t just hear from me when their child needs improvement. This is why our Communication Journal is a helpful tool because it allows me to send home regular feedback that I know parents will see. Most importantly, I try to keep the lines of communication open with families so they know we are working in partnership to support the best outcomes for their child.” 

• If you could give one piece of advice to students joining our school, what would it be?

“I believe if I had a program like our phonics program, Logic of English, when I was younger, I would have fallen in love with reading much sooner. It is important to know that this program may be difficult at first and will take effort to get used to it. We really do challenge our students and expect a lot from them academically, but it’s so rewarding to see them thrive when they master these concepts. I want students to not get discouraged if things don’t immediately make sense to them because we are all here to help them on their journey.” 

Teaching Philosophy

• What is your teaching philosophy and how do you implement it in the classroom?

“I make sure I have regular collaboration time with my Learning Expert Teachers because it’s important that we are on the same page when we conduct our coteaching lessons. We always focus on making our lessons engaging and fun so it doesn’t feel like we are just reading from a script. We want our students to be up and using the classroom space, so we often utilize things like stations and centers. I love to see students genuinely excited to learn.” 

• How do you create an inclusive and engaging learning environment for all students?

“Because of our coteaching model, we can utilize small groups in our classrooms very frequently. We often have two or three groups of students working at a time and this allows those students to have closer connections with the teachers and gives them the confidence to be able to share more within the safety of a small group. It allows us the flexibility to differentiate and meet the needs of students more carefully. 

I also observe the different personalities and learning styles of my students in the classroom and try to meet those needs. For example, sometimes we have students that are very bright and sometimes take the opportunity to shout out answers and or be a little bit chatty during class time. For those students, I might assign them a teacher helper task so that they can be empowered to use their outgoing personality for leadership in the classroom.” 

• Can you share how your experience with BASIS Independent Bellevue has been so far?

“My experience with BASIS Independent Bellevue has been nothing but positive. Our students are so driven and bright and they’re always a joy to work with. But what I really appreciate the most has been the culture of support and positivity that is created by the Administration. Our Head of School and Student Affairs Department are always pushing us to be better educators, and they provide so many resources to help us get there. They truly want to see us grow, and this positive support is unlike any other school I have worked at.” 

Personal Life

• What do you enjoy doing in your free time when you’re not teaching?

“I love to watch my friends do karaoke – but not do it myself, ha! I also really like activities that get me out and moving. Paddleboarding is a hobby of mine that has grown since I moved to Washington because there are so many beautiful spots for it! I also enjoy traveling when I can. My favorite place I have traveled recently was Costa Rica, because I love to be by the beach” 

• What’s one personal goal you hope to achieve in the next year?

“I picked up running as a hobby and usually participate in a 5k or 10k every month. My goal for this next year is to successfully complete my first half marathon!”

 

• What’s something that people might be surprised to learn about you?

“I love playing golf! It was something I got into during my junior year of high school because it brought me close to my dad. I used to drive the golf cart around for him while he played until he finally convinced me to give it a try. I ended up being pretty good and was able to use it to get a partial scholarship to college!” 

A Warm Welcome!

Ms. Garza has shown her dedication to building literacy and reading skills with our primary students. She goes above and beyond to make her classes engaging and fun, inspiring our students to think critically about the world around them and to become participants, not just spectators. Her energy and enthusiasm for her lessons nurtures a love of learning in each of them and it is clear that students feel supported and cared for in her classroom. We are thrilled to welcome Ms. Garza to our faculty this year and we look forward to her continued contributions to our Mountaineer community!