Voces sin Fronteras: Stories Beyond Borders

    I first met "Ali" in the school setting where we both work. He's an educator originally from Iran, and I recently interviewed him as part of my personal podcast project " Tell Me Your Story" . The purpose of this podcast is to share meaningful experiences of international students and educators, focusing on their journeys through language learning, cultural adaptation, and professional growth in my school and hopefully next year will expand to other schools in the district. There are local students interviewing international students, teachers and parents.       Ali has lived in the U.S. for over a decade, having arrived in 2011 with dreams of advancing his education and supporting his family from abroad. Despite the challenges he faced, Ali successfully completed a master’s degree and is now working on his PhD in education. Currently, he's an English teacher who actively engages with his community, passionately sharing insights abou...

As an immigrant educator, I've had to learn more than just a new language. I’ve had to learn how things are said, when to speak, when to wait, and what silence means in a completely different culture. One experience from my first year teaching in Denver still echoes in my heart. It happened during team planning sessions for a summer program. My goal at the time was to learn more about Denver and its people, and I was excited to contribute. But right away, I noticed the way planning worked here was very different from what I knew. In my culture and personal experience, meetings usually have one main speaker. It’s a sign of respect to listen carefully and not interrupt while they are speaking or directly challenge ideas in front of everyone else,  especially in public. If you have something really important to say, you usually meet with the leader in private. It’s hard to explain, it’s just something everyone understands. I think it's because we value relationshiops and human...

As I reviewed five powerful articles on culturally responsive instruction (CRI), one message stood out clearly: meaningful CRI doesn’t happen by chance, it’s intentional, strategic, and deeply connected to students’ identities. Across the literature, I saw a consistent pattern: effective CRI goes beyond group activities or general student-centered practices. It requires teachers to thoughtfully include students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds in lesson design. The concept of “mirrors and windows” from Levine and Tamburrino (2024) particularly inspired me. This approach encourages us to create language arts lessons where students not only see themselves represented (“mirrors”) but also learn about others’ lived experiences (“windows”). It reminded me that representation isn’t a trend; it’s a responsibility. Another eye-opening moment came from Shubbar’s (2024) work on teacher self-efficacy. As a mentor, I realized that the confidence and preparedness of our teachers directly ...

 By Dorian       When I first started teaching at Montbello Middle School in Denver three years ago, I quickly learned that equitable instruction is not just about giving everyone the same tools; it is about truly understanding each student's unique needs and strengths. Many of my students come from countries like Mexico, Venezuela, Haiti, and Afghanistan. They have faced disrupted education and language barriers, which makes a traditional approach useless. Creating equity means to reshape our teaching practices to honor the diverse experiences of every learner.      As educators, we have an essential role to redefine success in ways that respect our students' identities. This is not easy because it challenges our ideas about intelligence and language. But when we prioritize equity, our students begin to succeed, interestingly, because of their differences. Here, I will share five strategies to increase equitable instructiona...