Walking into a new school can be hard for a lot of people, especially if you are a new teacher. For Mrs. Durango, Wayne Hills has become an easy place to fit into and marks another chapter in her journey as an educator. Mrs. Durango teaches environmental science and biology. There are many moments in Mrs. Durango’s career that made her want to become a teacher. Some include moments during her hardest times, teachers who inspired her, and students who helped her.
“I always love having a teacher like Mrs. Durango. Going into high school, I thought biology was going to be hard, but Mrs. Durango helps me understand it,” said Zoe Hill, a freshman at Wayne Hills. Zoe Hill is a student in Mrs. Durango’s biology class.
“I had a very hard upbringing in high school, so school became a safe place for me and I want others to feel the same,” Mrs. Durango states. In school, Mrs. Durango experienced care and belonging from her teachers. Teachers she had all throughout her learning career really helped her discover her love for learning and becoming such impactful figures in people’s lives. “My first teacher in fourth grade, Mrs. Panatilino, had a way of making the room feel safe and making everyone feel valuable.’’
By high school, Mrs. Durango really started to realize how important teachers are to students. “Those memories stuck with me and guided my decision to become an educator… I strive to be the teacher I once needed–one who leads with empathy, believes in her students, and understands that learning happens best when students feel supported as human beings.”
Teaching was not the path Mrs. Durango originally wanted to take in high school. “I thought I wanted to be a dentist all throughout high school.” While pursuing her career as a dentist in high school, Mrs. Durango worked at a dental office. She had all her certificates and identifications, including her RDA and CDA. After high school, Mrs. Durango attended a dental school where her career took a turn. “The doctors asked me if I wanted to work on my days off at the day office and teach underprivileged kids in Newark oral hygiene. I decided to take that opportunity and added education as a minor,” she states.
Mrs. Durango has had many experiences as a teacher. One of the most impactful was during her fourth year as a teacher. A student Mrs. Durango had struggled with many things like being organized, arriving on time, and was very forgetful. Yet, he was still one of her kindest students that she has ever taught. Everyday, he kept on forgetting his signed progress report; consequently, Mrs. Durango had to give him detention nearly every day.
Mrs. Durango wanted to understand what was going on, so she went to his home with a copy of the progress report. When she got there, she saw that his elderly grandparents were caring for him and his three brothers. After that day, this interaction changed the way she saw her students.
“Everyone is fighting something. Children carry weight we cannot always see. While we are not our students’ parents, we are responsible for helping raise not just students, but humans,” Mrs. Durango reflects.
A couple years ago, Mrs. Durango taught a class that struggled with conflict. There was lots of drama and aggressive situations. During fourth period, Mrs. Durango found out that her grandmother had passed away. Mrs. Durango still had to teach her fifth period class. However, as she began to teach the class, her emotions became visible. One student named Randy noticed and asked what’s wrong. When she shared the passing of her grandmother, everything in that classroom changed. “Randy pulled a chair, helped me sit down, and told the class to be still.” The next 30 minutes of class were silent. “In that moment, a group of students I once worried about hurting one another showed me an extraordinary level of empathy.”
Over the years, Mrs. Durango has seen how students have changed. As a result, her style of teaching has focused on not only teaching students, but also how they feel and what they are going through. As she teaches at Wayne Hills, she hopes to be the teacher she once needed.
