Episode #93: Why Schools Need to SEE Students with Carissa Duran

Carissa Duran is a Teacher, an ELD/Literacy/EdTech Instructional Coach, and Testing Coordinator at Del Lago Academy in the Escondido Union High School District in the San Diego, California area. I met Carissa at the Aurora Institute where she was awarded the 2019 Personalized Learning Teacher of the Year and invited her to share her story on my podcast.<br />Your background <br />I am a Californian native, born in Orange County, grew up mostly in Riverside County, and now live in San Diego County. Southern California is kind of my stomping ground. I did spend a few years living in Oregon right after my first year of college and then returned back to southern California to get my degree at UC Riverside. <br /><br />A fun picture of me with siblings and cousins<br />I am the 7th of 9 children. We were raised by my mom and grew up in Riverside in one of the more disadvantaged neighborhoods and was exposed to a lot of diverse cultures from people from different backgrounds in my community and in my schools. <br />What it was like for you as a student<br />School for me was a place of privilege. I used to think I had no privilege at all. I grew up really poor as a minority female in a single-parent home. The first day I was terrified of the unknown with a puddle of tears. My teacher, Mrs. Takanaga, welcomed me in and gave me time and let me hide under her desk for four hours until I was ready to come out. She made school really safe for me because home was not a safe place for me. Because I felt safe [at school], I went all in and was really privileged because traditional school was more or less became natural for me. Being successful in school changed the entire trajectory of my life.<br />I was one of those under the radar kids who didn’t demand a lot of attention. My school had no idea that my family lost their home between 8th and 9th grade and that I started high school homeless. They didn’t know what was going on when it was happening. I was good at school and making myself small enough to fit into that mold, bu