Irma Lopez always recalls having had a good experience with her teachers in school, which led to her being inspired by a teacher to pursue a career in engineering. She graduated from college with a civil engineering degree, but later noticed she enjoyed science and math and started teaching.

Beamer Elementary School Principal Hortencia Hernandez recognizes Lopez for being a leader and a team player.

“Maestra Lopez has taught at Beamer for over 15 years and continues to be a life learner,” Hernandez said. “She is passionate about teaching dual immersion and attends professional development when opportunities arise. She is a leader who leads with heart. She is dedicated to supporting her students, families, and colleagues.”

Lopez says she feels honored and grateful for the nomination as Teacher of the Week.

“I’ve worked here for 27 years, I’m a hard worker, and I’m not the kind of teacher who feels like I know it all and that I’m going to do the same thing every year. I’m always learning,” Lopez said. “I don’t like to bring attention to myself, so that’s a little bit nerve-wracking. But of course, it feels good to see that my principal and people notice my hard work and what I’ve been trying to do to improve every single year, and so it’s one of those things where you’re honored, but at the same time, you’re kind of embarrassed.”

Lopez was born in Mexico and grew up in East Los Angeles. She attended school in the Montebello Unified School District, sharing that she always got good grades and recalls having a good experience with her teachers.

“I had a good experience with my teachers, and actually had a teacher who motivated me to go into engineering. She said, ‘You’re going to be my next woman engineer,’” Lopez said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ So then she started taking me out and taking me to different workshops, classes, so that I could get involved.”

She later attended UCLA, where she earned her degree in civil engineering. After college, she worked for a small consulting firm, but mentioned that she graduated during a hiring freeze, which prompted her to look for different job opportunities.

“I ran into my teacher again, and she said that I’d make a great science teacher, because I told her I was moving up here to Northern California,” Lopez said.

Soon after, she started subbing and teaching third grade at Beamer, where she fell in love with teaching elementary school students. That is where she realized her love of science and math, motivating her to become a teacher.

“I love science and I love math, and I don’t remember really loving science or understanding it or doing it until I was in high school, because the teacher who motivated me, she was my science teacher, and at first, I was like, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing,’ but I did really well on one test, and she started just raving about it and complimenting me. So that motivated me to try to understand it and continue to do well,” Lopez said.

In college, Lopez was also part of a student organization called the Society of Latino Engineers and Scientists, which often tutored high school students. Through that program, she realized that she wanted to help kids out through teaching.

“I would ask these kids, what do you guys want to be? And they’re like, ‘Well, I don’t know, maybe a secretary, maybe nothing.’ But then I asked if they had their A through G requirements, and they’re like, ‘What’s that?’ A lot of them were EL students, and they had two to three classes, and then they were being sent home, and I’m like, that’s not right,” she shared. “So that also triggered my wanting to go into education and helping out kids.”

Now, Lopez is a fifth-grade dual immersion teacher at Beamer Elementary School, where she has worked for 27 years.

“It’s just like the perfect grade for me, just because they’re moldable,” Lopez said. “You can motivate them, you can get them to like science, to like math, and I think that’s my favorite part.”

She emphasized the importance of dual immersion classes as a way to keep the language and part of their culture.

“There are a lot of different reasons why kids are in the program, but part of it is that you keep your Spanish. I think that it’s very important to be able to keep that language,” she shares. “Even though my parents only spoke Spanish, by the time I was a senior, I could barely speak it. I would forget some of the words and just be very awkward when speaking them. Then I started working, and a lot of the small companies that I was in were in Spanish, and so I started bringing that back. But to me, it’s very important for kids to keep that language, and I think a lot of parents want their kids to be bilingual, to keep that part of their culture.”

Lopez shares that she likes to implement the school’s three rules of respect, responsibility, and safety with her students in the classroom.

“I run like a democratic classroom, where it’s not my classroom, it’s our classroom. So the kids have community jobs, and we help each other out,” she shares. “We have our three rules for the school, which are respect, responsibility, and safety, but I always tell my kids a really big rule for me is safety, and not just physical safety, but emotional safety. I want my kids to feel safe coming to school and feel like they’re being heard and that it’s a safe environment for them, and they can ask what they want and learn.”

She also always tries to focus on what kids need to learn and how she can meet all of their needs, creating a welcoming environment for all of her students.

“I’m not the kind of teacher who feels like I know it all and that I’m going to do the same thing every year. I’m always learning, I’m always going to classes, and it’s like kids, what you do one year is not necessarily going to work next year. You always have to be changing things around because of the kids. So it’s always what the kids need, and you modify what you do in order to meet all the kids’ needs,” she says. “It’s not just that we learn from each other, so it’s not just each child individually, but we work in community groups. We do a lot of group work to try to help each other out.”

One of Lopez’s favorite lessons to teach her students is hands-on science experiments, but also novel readings, where she can teach her students about empathy and respect.

“We’ve been doing some novel readings with the book “Wonder” and “Esperanza Rising” and those just teach a lot about empathy and respect for others, and I think that is like the biggest thing that we’ve been trying to do at fifth grade, because they get to an age where kids can be mean, and that’s not tolerated in in our classroom, but we try to do it in a way where kids learn through these books,” she shares.

She also shares that at the beginning of the day, her students always start with In Lak’ech, a term symbolizing “you are my other me,” so that her students can be respectful with one another and treat each other like family. Her favorite part of teaching is watching kids learn and teaching them that anything is possible.

“I love kids learning. I just love when they get something, when they’re finally getting,” she shares. “I love being able to work with the families and help out the kids, but I also feel like it’s important for me to motivate my kids the way my teachers motivated me. To make them aware that anything is possible. You just have to work hard at it, and you can do it. Don’t take no for an answer, try your best, and just keep going. That’s my favorite part, and giving back what some of my teachers gave to me.”

Lopez is appreciative of all the support from her school and colleagues

“I feel that as long as you work as a team, so it’s not just them giving to us, but it’s also us giving to them, as a school, and it just feels that we’re supportive when we work as a team, where we give and they give and we work to do what’s best for the kids,” she says.

Additionally, she is also involved with the California Association of Bilingual Educators, as well as the mariachi program. Last year, Lopez also served as the treasurer for the PTA group at her school. Outside of teaching, she enjoys playing soccer and painting.