SAN ANTONIO — It was a show of heartfelt admiration filled with music, smiles, cheers and even tears. The cafeteria was lined up with people, packed with teachers, students and Juana Peña’s family, all in celebration of the Bilingual reading and language arts teacher. Peña won the KENS 5 EXCEL Award for Somerset ISD and a $1,000 check from partner Credit Human.
“I am so grateful. The tears are for the people that were there to support me my first year as a teacher,” an emotional Peña said, as she stood on stage addressing the crowd. She continued giving credit to her colleagues and even the little ones that she is now guiding, "They made me a better teacher,” Peña said pointing to her 3rd and 4th graders at Barrera Veterans Elementary.
“The reason maybe even why I'm getting this award is because from them, I learned so much."
Yet to her students, Peña is their idol. As they sat in the classroom learning about Amelia Earhart, one student read aloud, “A legend in flight reveals that she is courageous."
It’s one of Peña’s many lessons. She helps her students build courage and confidence in themselves. In fact, Peña might just be their favorite pilot, "She's the greatest teacher we could ever have,” one student said, “Because she makes us learn."
Peña said she works hard to come up with memorable lessons, “What you do in college is nothing compared to when you get to your own classroom and own set of students and you're like, well, what do I do?"
One of the many things she does well, is explain all of her lessons in English and Spanish.
“I grew up in a household where both languages were used," Peña said, adding she considers it to be a gift. A lot of her students speak mostly Spanish so she's able to easily relay information in both languages. “That’s the beauty of it, that you don’t want to get rid of the Spanish,” Peña said. "To try to instill that in my students and in the parents as well, because sometimes they want them to just learn English. But we need to appreciate the first language that they're coming with. You're able to have twice the opportunities that someone that is only monolingual."
Though it is twice the work for Peña, it doesn’t go unnoticed. Her colleagues understand and appreciate the hard work it takes, “I’m so proud of her. Countless, countless, countless hours, like so much more than a lot of us do,” one colleague told us.
As for Peña, she says it’s all out of love for her students, "We do it for the kids to see them grow and succeed, and become just better."
This is the KENS 5 EXCEL Awards 25th years partnering with Credit Human to honor local teachers. If you’d like to watch past winners, click on kens5.com/EXCEL.