When Kelly Serrano thinks of teaching, she cannot help but remember her early years when her grandfather, a craftsman, made her a blackboard with his very own hands. “My playtime was mainly teaching to an ‘imaginary’ group of students,” Ms. Serrano says. “I grew up in Ecuador, South America, and was fortunate enough to travel quite often with my parents as I was growing up.”
Traveling and learning about other cultures opened her eyes to a world of possibilities, to knowing that there was a “world” that needed to be explored. As the youngest child of three, she developed a sense of early independence and determination to achieve her goals.
As years passed, Ms. Serrano’s interest turned toward economics. She earned her B.S. in Business Administration, with a concentration in Economics at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and worked for a Fortune 500 company for the first three years after graduation. Only after profound reflection and feelings of emptiness at the end of a workday, did she realize that teaching was what she was meant to do. “I truly wanted a meaningful career where I could not only influence children academically, but also as individuals,” Ms. Serrano says.
In the beginning, much of Ms. Serrano’s teaching philosophy came from her own experience as a student. But her philosophy changed after taking several education courses to obtain her teaching certificate at Florida International University, working toward her master’s degree in Literacy Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia (which she recently completed), and spending three years teaching third, fourth and fifth graders at a charter school in Miami, Florida. She acquired a new mentality, one where students are valued and put at the center of all teaching objectives.
Ms. Serrano believes that all children have the ability to learn, and that all children deserve teachers who have high expectations for them. “When I say, ‘I believe all children have the ability to learn,’ I truly mean it. If anyone is to walk into my classroom at any given day, they will observe children who are truly engaged; children who respect each other regardless of their race, ethnicity, or social status; and children who try to the best of their abilities without fear of failure,” Ms. Serrano says. “One of the reasons, I think, my students trust themselves as learners is that they know they are working in a risk-free environment where differences are celebrated.”
Ms. Serrano encourages all students to have a clear understanding of their strengths as learners. “Children too often concentrate on what they cannot do,” Ms. Serrano says, “My job as a teacher is not only to help learners find their strengths, but also to help them understand that what they call weaknesses are areas where they can most likely see the biggest amount of growth.”
In Ms. Serrano’s classroom, learning is not an option—it is the result of hard work. “I have very high expectations for each one of my students,” Ms. Serrano says. She believes her role in the classroom is to support and guide the students in their own journey of learning; classmates are also there to help each other reach their objectives. Her students know they have a community of support, and where there is support and trust, there is learning. Ms. Serrano remembers walking into the LFCSA office and seeing the “organized chaos” of a school that was in the process of moving. While waiting to be interviewed, she looked through the school-to-be brochure and thought, this is where I want to teach. She says, “I am excited to be part of a very determined school.”
When Ms. Serrano is not teaching, she enjoys spending time with her family, playing with Sharky (her Beagle), traveling, reading, cooking and trying challenging things, like completing a triathlon, or running 5K or 10Ks.
