In episode 110, Stacey talks with Spanish teacher Michelle Nicola who spent several months in Mexico last fall learning about what it means to be a Mexican person of African descent. Michelle discusses the Fulbright award that funded her research project as well as the people she met and interviewed in Mexico. Now back home with interviews in hand from her time abroad, Michelle also shares her plans for how she will make these stories of Afro-Mexican people accessible and comprehensible for novice Spanish students everywhere.
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Show Notes
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Michelle Nicola has taught Spanish at the middle and high school level. She was a Teaching Tolerance Excellence in Education Awardee in 2014 and a Fulbright Scholar to Mexico in 2018, and has written articles for Rethinking Schools Magazine, including Rethinking Identity: Afro-Mexican History. She has presented at ACTFL and Northwest Teachers for Social Justice. You can learn more about Michelle’s work on her blog abertura.org or reach out to her on Twitter @profe_nicola or by email.
I am so glad you interviewed my friend Michelle Nicola and I can hardly wait for her book to come out! It will fill an important hole in our Spanish classroom literature. I loved what she said about telling many stories, so that our students will begin to appreciate the breadth of culture and human experience, which is true for every language, not just Spanish.