Up next for our second Faculty Friday spotlight of the school year is Tania Traller! She is a tenured teacher with more than 10 years of experience in Spanish-language education at Rhodes College and Christian Brothers University. Her role at St. George's takes her out of the lecture hall and places her into brightly colored classrooms as our Lower School Spanish teacher.
Tania is originally from Nicaragua, where she grew up speaking Spanish and developed a love for Spanish-speaking cultures. This naturally drew her to pursue a career in education, through which she could share her passions professionally. After spending time instructing older students, she chose to transition to elementary education because of the joy she sees children get from learning. Her students at St. George’s are especially curious, asking questions and demonstrating a desire to dive further into her lessons.
“They always want to know more and learn more,” she explained, “I love it!”
She also seeks to ignite their natural curiosities and inspire a love of learning within her students. She stays with her Spanish students from early childhood throughout their entire elementary education, giving her the opportunity to foster deeper connections and deliver more individualized instruction.
As her students progress, Tania adapts her teaching style to fit the needs of each age group. For her early childhood students, she likes to focus on educational music, puppets and fun activities, while her elementary students are slowly introduced to conversational Spanish with an emphasis on vocabulary and phrases. With all of her students, Tania emphasizes the importance of interactive, varied learning with plenty of hands-on activities, games and real- world applications.
In addition to traditional Spanish-language education, her curriculum also emphasizes cultural lessons that build the next generation of global citizens. Global citizenship – the ability to respect, understand and communicate with each other across cultural barriers – is increasingly desirable in our interconnected digital world. Tania sees her class as a gateway to this important attribute that will guide the next generation’s well-rounded, thoughtful leaders.
It is clear through the way she speaks about her career that Tania is an incredibly talented, passionate teacher. She enriches the lives of our students and our community, leaving an undeniable impact on each student she encounters. Her joy is contagious!
“I am so grateful to be here – I love learning from my students as much as I love teaching them!”
We are thrilled to have Tania as a part of our St. George’s community and look forward to seeing how she molds the next generation of global leaders.