Nebraska native joins CCS’s teaching staff

Vanessa Taylor has joined the teaching staff at Chase County Schools as the high school Spanish teacher. She is also the sophomore class sponsor.
Taylor was raised in the rural town of Ainsworth, graduating high school, then attending the University of Nebraska-Kearney.
There she graduated with honors earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern Language Education 7-12 with an emphasis in Spanish.
Taylor also earned a supplemental endorsement in English as a Second Language and a minor in Special Education.
 Before signing on at CCS, she was student teaching in Spanish and ESL classrooms on all grade levels in the Holdrege school system.
“When I was little, before I started school, my mom was a teacher. And when I was old enough to attend school, I really enjoyed it, so the idea of teaching was in the back of my mind,” Taylor said.
Once she reached high school, she started thinking more about teaching but didn’t know then what area, she said.
During her junior year of high school, she developed an interest in learning the Spanish language.
“There wasn’t a Spanish teacher, so I did my learning through distance learning and Rosetta Stone,” said Taylor.
During the second semester that year, the school hired a Spanish teacher and she was hooked, she said.
When Taylor was a senior, she had the privilege of working with a group of adult ESL learners who had recently moved to her community.
“It allowed me to practice my Spanish with native speakers and improve my teaching skills,” Taylor said.
She also acquired classroom teaching opportunities during high school and college, volunteering as an elementary school religion teacher at a local church along with summer AWANA programs where she worked with at-risk children from low-income backgrounds, she added.
“Once in college, I dove into Spanish where there were lots of opportunities to speak and hear Spanish,” she said.
Taylor arrived in Imperial the middle of July, and said she was lucky to find a place to live right away.
“I have met a lot of nice people, and the kids here are great,” said Taylor.
She said it was also nice to have native-speaking students to work with.
“I want to foster a love of language learning. It’s important and beneficial for the future,” Taylor said.
 She explained that her classroom is a safe environment to learn and feel comfortable to practice.
“I am surprised at how much interest so many students have in learning Spanish,” she said.
She commented on how much she appreciated the number of resources former Spanish teacher Randy Longoria left for classroom use.
When not teaching, Taylor’s interests lie in reading, especially mysteries, playing golf and spending time with family and friends.
“I plan to visit my family about once a month or so. My parents have moved to Arapahoe, and my little brother is a senior this year,” she said.
She added that her brother is on the golf team, so they like to compete.