MILWAUKEE — When many adults look back on their education, they often have a favorite teacher. It can often be a teacher who inspired them to excel or help build their confidence.
Milwaukee Public School teacher Alondra Garcia teaches second grade bilingual studies at Allen-Field Elementary School.
Garcia has a unique approach to learning that she said she hopes her students will always remember and learn from.
She teaches her students about influential women, both past and present, by impersonating them in her classroom by wearing costumes.
Garcia said she recently wrapped up Women’s History Month, during which she dressed up as a different woman of empowerment every day in March.
“It gets the children excited to figure out who I am and representing and learn about them,” said Garcia.
Garcia said she hopes her kids will learn the importance of inclusion, confidence and community in her classroom.
“It is important to talk about women and empower each other. I have been Frida Kahlo, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Maya Angelou. The list goes on,” she said.
That list includes about 50-women Garcia has presented to her classes in the past five years. Garcia said her parents inspired her to go the extra mile.
“My parents migrated from Mexico back in ‘99. I’m an immigrant, and they always emphasized the importance of education since they weren’t able to obtain one back home and they said life would be better here, so I took it very seriously,” said Garcia.
Allison Guijosa is one of Garcia’s students. She said she wants to be just like her teacher when she grows up.
“I want to be a teacher because she dresses up and I want to do the same thing too,” said Guijosa.
Garcia said she hopes all her students will be encouraged to be the best versions of themselves.
“It allows them to have this mentality that boys aren’t better than girls and girls aren’t better than boys but that we have to work together and fight for each other’s rights,” she said.
Correction: A previous version of this story spelled Allison Guijosa's name incorrectly. This error has been corrected. (April 12, 2024)