OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — At just three years old, Lorena Martinez moved to the U.S. from Mexico.
"I didn't know English. I was only Spanish speaking my whole life and so I get to a strange world, where I know nothing and I know no one," Martinez said.
And a few months later she came to Omaha, where she started her English learning journey.
"It was very difficult, because I mean my parents, none of my family spoke English, so it took me about five years to fully understand English," Martinez said.
She even repeated first grade. So what kept her going?
"My teachers were actually the ones that really motivated me to keep on going to not give up, and that is essentially why I decided that I wanted to someday make students feel the way those teachers made me feel," Martinez said.
Today, she helps 43 Spanish-speaking students across two schools, Oakdale Elementary and Paddock Road Elementary, to learn English just like she did years ago. She uses a curriculum that meets each students' needs.
"We have a variety of like, videos that they can listen to, we always want to have sentence starters that they can practice with us," Martinez said.
Incorporating pictures, games and even songs.
"We try to make it fun, while they are still learning vocabulary and English," Martinez said.
She said learning English helps the students connect to their classmates.
"I have a sense of satisfaction seeing that because I also put myself in their shoes and I know what it felt like to not understand anything and then to the next day kind of understanding my surroundings a little more," Martinez said.
But she said it's also essential beyond the classroom.
"Their future jobs are going to require them to speak English, anywhere they go, whether it's going to a restaurant, and reading the menu and some menus don't have pictures, so they really need to know how to read the English," Martinez said.
And her story makes an impact too.
"I actually have some students saying like it 'Oh really it was that hard for you?', And I am like yeah it was so hard. I cried so many times too. And then they are like okay we can do it, eventually, I will get there," Martinez said.
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