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Lolo explains it all: How one dynamic teaching team welcomes each of their students (and all of their feelings!)


a puppet in a circle graphic alongside two smiling women

As soon as you walk through the main doors of PS-17 in Astoria, Queens you are in the world of pre-K. The older kids shuffle by to get to their classrooms, passing the pre-K teachers who stand in their doorways, lightly ribbing the students. “I’ve known you since you were this big,” says pre-K teaching assistant Lorena Alvarado, who has worked at the school for 16 years. “I know you know how to use walking feet,” she winks. Shuffling a little less quickly, but now backwards, the kids wave and giggle as they disappear around the corner.   


Back in the classroom, Ms. Alvarado’s teaching partner, Maria Bermeo, gets the children settled to start the school day. She helps them take off their jackets and hang up their backpacks, asks how their mornings have been, and so on. Then, a child with wet eyes slowly walks up to her. Ms. Bermeo sees the child is struggling to unzip their jacket. “Come here, my love,” she says as she crouches down. She rests her hands on her knees. “We got this,” she says, “I know you can do it.” 


Ms. Bermeo is technically the newbie on the pre-K teaching team at PS 17 – it’s her third year – but you’d never know it. She fits right in with the rest of the team: Patient, open, kind, no-nonsense and tons of fun. Together, Ms. Bermeo and Ms. Alvarado have created a classroom where kids feel free to talk about their feelings, ask for help, and be themselves. They want their students to see them not just as their teachers, but also as people with whom they are safe to express any emotion. 


“We have to understand that they sometimes will have a bad day,” Ms. Alvarado says. “That is one of the most powerful things to know – that when they have feelings, they can come to us.” 


Guided by their own school experiences – positive and negative – the pair have created the kind of classroom they always valued as children: imaginative, exploratory, nurturing, and fun.


“I felt like I wasn’t really wanted.”

Ms. Bermeo and Ms. Alvarado both immigrated as children from Ecuador. But, Ms. Bermeo clarifies, “She's from the mountains – the very cold part of Ecuador,” referring to Ms. Alvarado’s hometown, Cuenca. “And I'm from the very hot side of Ecuador. It's very different,” they laugh and grab at each other’s arms. “But that’s what makes it more fun.” 


Ms. Bermeo came to the US when she was 10 years old, while Ms. Alvarado arrived at 16. The language barrier was painful and isolating for both of them. Ms. Alvarado remembers feeling uncomfortable in the supermarket, trying her best to keep to herself. Ms. Bermeo remembers the huge shift in how she felt about school once in the US. In Ecuador, she was a “nerd” – raised by her grandmother, she was taught to always speak her mind. But here, she was sent to the back of the room. “It was the first time that I felt like I wasn't really wanted,” Ms. Bermeo says.  

 

The next school year for Ms. Bermeo, though, was different. Her sixth grade teacher made sure she knew that she belonged. She “told me I could do it, I can learn the language. I felt like she got me,” Ms. Bermeo remembered, “She changed my outlook on everything. She's the reason I got into teaching. I got my dual language license because of her.” 


Ms. Alvarado came to feel more at home in the US watching her father, who immigrated eight years earlier. “No matter what happens in your life,” she remembers him saying, “you have to always work with love, with patience.” It’s a philosophy she brings into the pre-K classroom. 


“I want them to feel welcomed.”

Being bilingual and bicultural is a huge asset that Ms. Bermeo and Ms. Alvarado bring to the children and families they work with. Astoria – including P.S. 17 – is home to a large number of newly arrived migrant families, and Ms. Alvarado and Ms. Bermeo take the responsibility of welcoming families very seriously. “When immigrants come to my classroom,” Ms. Bermeo says, “I want them to feel welcomed. I want them to feel safe. I want them to feel like they belong.” 


“I personally can relate. I really had a very hard time in this country when I first came here. It wasn't as welcoming as I thought,” Ms.Bermeo says. “I don't want the kids that are migrants from different countries to feel that.” 


Walking into Ms. Bermeo and Ms. Alvarado’s classroom, it’s clear how safe children feel in the classroom – safe to explore, safe to use their imagination, and safe to express themselves. Some children are playing with magnet tiles, others are at a water table wearing plastic yellow aprons, and a handful more are off in the play center, cooking up gourmet meals. At one moment, there’s a loud crash from a falling tower in the block area, but no worried hush falls over the classroom. The kids keep playing. Those in the block area check in with each other, laugh, and clean up the happy wreckage together. 


During circle time, kids are eager to share their ideas – especially when Ms. Alvarado brings out their classroom puppet, Lolo. Lolo plays a critical role for Ms. Alvarado and Ms. Bermeo as they implement ParentCorps’ classroom social-emotional learning program, called Friends School. 


Ms. Bermeo asks the kids, “What did you like about Friends School?” 


Lolo’s puppet hand shoots up. 


“Yes Lolo! What would you like to share?”


“I have to tell you, I really really learned a lot about feelings,” Lolo (operated by Ms. Alvarado) says. “Our feelings always, always are important friends. DooOOooOOn’t forgeeeEEEeeeet!” Lolo shakes his whole body and the kids erupt in laughter. A hand goes up in the back of the group. 


“Go ahead, my friend,” Ms. Bermeo says.


“Um, we learning about… We learning about how Lolo and every person’s hair and eye color are different and sometimes our color is almost the same as the other but not,” the child explains.


Ms. Bermeo’s eyes light up. “That’s right! Our differences make us unique. You said we have different hair and eyes, and also our beautiful skin color makes us all unique. Thank you, my friend!”     

   

Later, still in the circle, a student struggles to find her words. Ms. Bermeo doesn’t try to rush her, or to guess at what she wants to say. She reassures her. “Say it one more time, please?” she asks. “I want to hear what you said.”  


Cindy Gray is a ParentCorps Senior Program Coordinator.


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