Ms. Bees guides her first graders with care and creativity
By Patricia Bradford | February 15, 2024
CHAMPAIGN – From messy college apartments to toy-filled classrooms, first grade teacher Bianca Espinosa made a swift transition from student-to-teacher less than six weeks after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Now, she is teaching students in both English and Spanish. According to Espinosa, she is giving multilingual students in the Champaign Unit 4 School District the experience she never received.
“I remember being around other kids at my preschool, which was all English, of course and not really understanding what anybody else was saying,” Espinosa said. “Now I get to be that support system for students that come into the district who were in a similar situation as me.”
Originally from Springfield, IL, Espinosa says she had to learn English at a young age as she is a native Spanish speaker. According to her mom, she picked up on English pretty quickly considering she was always around it in school.
Espinosa has called Champaign her home for the last six years. After graduating from Glenwood High School in Chatham IL, she obtained a BS in elementary education with a bilingual and ESL endorsement from UIUC before accepting her current role.
Espinosa is employed by the Champaign Unit 4 School district (K-12), the largest district in Champaign-Urbana. She is currently in her second year of teaching at the International Prep Academy (IPA) as a first grade teacher.
“I thought it was really important to teach students about their own culture, only because I felt like when I was growing up I had to morph into American culture,” Espinosa said. “Plus, I had never heard of a dual language school before and it’s the only one in the district. I also felt like they had a really large Spanish population and I also got to speak my native language so I thought it would be cool to experience and get to know what that environment was like.”
IPA follows a dual language two-way immersion instruction model which means native English speakers and native Spanish speakers are integrated for instruction through both the English and Spanish language, according to the Champaign Unit 4 School District website.
Espinosa says joining the IPA team was one of the best decisions she has made since starting her career.
As an education major, she says had the opportunity to explore nearby districts while working as a student-teacher through the university.
Initially placed in Rantoul City Schools District #137, she says she learned quickly just how hard the job can get. Espinosa says she dealt with a long list of issues including staffing, working conditions and others that she just couldn’t keep track. It wasn’t long after she began that she decided to change locations, according to Espinosa.
Once placed at IPA, she says she loved it. As a student-teacher she was able to connect with the staff in a way she hadn’t done at her other site and was told to apply for a job almost immediately, Espinosa says.
Although her official role would not start until June 2022, pending her graduation in May, she says she officially accepted her role as first grade elementary teacher at IPA three months prior to starting.
Espinosa was made for the role, according to the International Prep Academy assistant principal Stephanie Kinney. She says students of Espinosa will grow simply by being around her.
“She truly supports her kids,” says Kinney. “Her personality, her connection, her love and just her simple guidance for those kids is infectious and we are lucky to have her.”
Kinney has been influential in assisting Espinosas transition from student to full-time teacher. They both describe their relationship similar to mother-daughter instead of admin-teacher.
Espinosa says she has found solace in their relationship and continues to look at Kinney as a role model.
Since stepping into the role as a first grade teacher, Espinosa asks that her students refer to her as Ms. Bees. Although, the bee theme doesn’t just stop there. Her room is filled with vibrant colors reflective of springtime and buzzing bee decorations that brighten the room.
According to some of her students, Ms. Bees likes to start every class with warm hugs and welcoming high fives as students spend the first few minutes of class socializing, coloring and finishing breakfast.
Although for teachers, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. Espinosa says the first year was no walk in the park. She says finding a routine and managing work-life balance was the most difficult part about the transition.
“The first year was crazy. I wanna say I cried, like, five days out of the week in my classroom,” Espinosa said. “But I think it was more because I didn’t have a routine for my own class environment or myself, and I was trying to figure out what that was like.”
Now in her second year of teaching, Espinosa says she has overcome some of the trivial challenges but still feels as if she has a long way to go. This year she says she wants to dedicate more time to learning about the district, its union and the school board as she’s trying to get more involved.
Espinosa says doing so has been increasingly difficult due to a new curriculum that teachers are expected to adopt. She thinks students need someone that can be fully attentive to them and not focused on lesson plans all day.
“It’s hard to teach what we don’t know,” Espinosa said. “When you’re not confident in the curriculum it’s kind of hard to teach those kids well. So unfortunately I feel like these kids are not going to get the best education this year because we as teachers are still learning.”
However, Espinosa says she looks forward to the years to come. Unlike other UI students who work in the district and then find jobs back home, Espinosa doesn’t plan on going anywhere.
As for the challenges, she says they don’t phase her anymore. The things that keep her going are the smiles on her kids faces and the large cup of coffee she pours every morning.
From student to teacher, Espinosa says she hopes to make a difference in the community and improve just a little every year. She says she wants to be someone students can still feel connected to by the time they leave the district.
“I’m not just their teacher, I’m their confidant,” Espinosa said. “I think when they go into a classroom they know they are walking into a safe space. I just want them to know this is a place where they can always talk about how they feel and I want to extend that part of myself to my students and let them know the classroom is their second home.”