Ms. Ayleen Cabral is a new ELD teacher in our school. She was born in California and raised in Mexico. She enjoys spending her free time with her friends from college and high school. She also likes to watch Netflix with her sister, and her two dogs.
Ms. Cabral has multiple hobbies, like reading, especially classic books like Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice and other Jane Austen books. But she also likes to read easier books, like romances and other novels.
Ms. Cabral loves scary movies and enjoys TV shows, like K-dramas and romance anime, and because of that, she started to learn Korean. Music is a big part of her life, and she listens to all genres, but mostly K-pop. She also enjoys podcasts about mysteries and criminal justice.
Ms. Cabral studied for two years at Pasadena City College, where she chose English as her associate’s degree. She then transferred to Cal Poly Pomona to complete the rest of her bachelor’s degree.
After graduation in 2022, Ms. Cabral entered the teaching credential program at Cal Poly Pomona, which took about a year and a half. She completed her credential program last year.
Before working at Glendale High School, Ms. Cabral worked at Diamond Bar High School as an English teacher. Before stepping into teaching, she worked as a behavior therapist, helping children with autism and other learning disabilities. She helped them overcome challenges and make their lives easier. She also helped parents learn the right way to support their children at home.
Ms. Cabral always wanted to be an ELD teacher, because her first language is Spanish, and she was also an ELD student when she was little. She said, “I think it just makes it easier to relate to the students who are in ELD, because I know what it feels like to not know English.”
Despite the fact that she loves helping international students to learn a new language, Ms. Cabral is really good at math. If she wasn’t working as a teacher, she would like to be an engineer or to help people as a nurse.
What Ms. Cabral values most in her students is their hard work and determination. It’s a good quality for every student to have, because she thinks that if you don’t believe in yourself, then it’s hard for a teacher to make you want to learn or pay attention in class. Students should also have a sense of compassion for others, because it’s important to not only want to succeed yourself, but you should want your classmates to succeed as well.
During her teaching career, Ms. Cabral has learned that the hardest part for students learning English is to work on reducing their accent and recognize that there are different ways of saying things. She wants to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
If she could go back to college, Ms. Cabral would focus on reading more literature. Most students are struggling with reading at a certain level, and Ms. Cabral is sure that if you’re not able to read the words, it’s difficult to understand everything else in life.
Ms. Cabral feels that all of her students should study and go to college. She said, “I wish that everyone can see how important it is to go further in life, to get a job, get a career, to see the importance in studying what you love and what you are passionate for.” And she’s not saying this only because she is a teacher. This is from her own experience, as she was once a student with dreams and goals.
Ms. Cabral is a terrific teacher and has set a great example for her students. She cares about her students, and she strives to make sure that everyone leaves her class with new knowledge. We are so lucky to have her at our school!