I had the honor to interview Ms. Brenda Lopez. Shes a civics teacher at Morton east high school. Ms. lopez, graduated from Morton East in 2015. She later graduated from UIC with a bachelor’s in teaching of history in 2019 and then graduated in 2021 with a Master of Arts in Education from Dominican University at River Forest. Ms. lopez does her very best every day she’s deeply committed to their student’s growth and success. Her dedication shows not just in civics but in how they motivate, encourage curiosity and lead. 

What inspired you to became a teacher?
I truly love working with young people. There are many that don’t have the patience or simply write off teenagers as being immature, but I love seeing their growth. Every day is different, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What’s one lesson you learned from your students?
It’s okay to ask for help. I tell students all the time that its okay to admit when you don’t know something and need someone’s assistance, but I need to take that advice. What kind of a person would I be if I don’t show my students what I want them to do? I have done better about working on advocating for myself and my needs, but this is something that I have learned alongside my students.
If you weren’t a teacher what job would you have?
I always go back and forth, but I think I’d either be a mailperson or a massage therapist. Very different, they’re both are a service job and teaching is also a service job. I also wouldn’t mind working in law as a paralegal after seeing my boyfriend talk about his experience working as an attorney.
How do you keep students motivated when they’re not interested?
This is tough, and I’m sure if you asked any other teacher, they’d tell you the same. I do my best to have a connection with the student(s) and see what motivates them in other areas and see if I can find a way to reach them, but honestly, and this is a tough lesson for many, you can’t help someone who does not want to be helped. If they are not on that path, we cannot change their lives around single-handedly. I do my best to connect my class to the real world since all of our lessons are for the outside world (ex how the government works, how to file taxes, how to vote, etc), but at the same time, I have to remember that some people don’t really want to learn about that so I focus on those who are willing to challenge themselves, as sad as it can be.
What do you think makes a person successful?
I think there’s a couple of things, but I think if I could narrow it down to three qualities I would say vulnerability, accountability, and drive. I don’t think it’s necessarily about being the smartest, I think its about who is willing to admit they made a mistake, work on learning from it, and commit to improving. That to me is the most impressive and it shows potential in future success.
How do you balance your work and personal life?
It’s taken a lot of time! I’ve learned that while I have to show my personality and be my authentic self in my classroom and to my students, that doesn’t mean that being a teacher is my entire personality.
What advice would you give someone who wants to become a teacher?
Make sure you are going into teaching for the right reasons. For example, if you love history and that’s all you want to have your career focus on, you’re in the wrong profession. Your priority should be working with students. While it is important to focus on their academic growth, their social-emotional growth and connection to school outweighs it in my opinion. They will forget your lessons, but will never forget how you treated them.
What do you love most about teaching?
Seeing when something “clicks” for my students. I swear, ask any educator and they’ll know what I’m talking about. When I see my kids literally make the connections in their head and apply content to their real life or when it finally makes sense, it makes all I’ve done worth it. Or when they say that they voted or applied for a credit card, that’s awesome too!
If you could tell your younger self something what would it be?
Start therapy earlier. I learned so much about myself and about my emotional regulation that I feel I can better work with others as a result. The more I worked on myself, the better person I feel I am which makes me a better teacher. I was able to learn my triggers, how to set boundaries, how to cope, and how to have difficult conversations which literally is all part of my job. Going to therapy not only saved my life, but I have learned how to be a better person and teacher from it.
What do you think is the most important quality a teacher should have?
Emotional awareness/intelligence. It’s important for us as teachers to have this skill to know to understand others. For example, we need to know how not to take things personally or how to take accountability when we make mistakes. Saying “I’m sorry” to a student is not a sign of weakness – it’s vulnerability and it models to students on what to do. Sharing with students, “I’m having a bad day but I’m showing you all how one still keeps going while experiencing a bad day,” is huge too. These and more are examples of how we can show up for our students outside of the academics. Our field is mainly working with others, but we need to first know how to self-manage and be aware of ourselves before doing so.