Local teacher brings culture to the classroom for Hispanic Heritage Month

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax is getting real about minority achievements in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Action News Jax Alicia Tarancon introduces us to a local teacher who uses her own culture as a learning tool to help teach diversity and inclusion to all her students.

Abby Solano is a dual language teacher at West Riverside Elementary school meaning she teaches classes both in Spanish and English.

Solano grew up with parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Costa Rica.

“I feel very grateful that my parents taught me about my Costa Rican culture and told me about Costa Rica and raise me to be connected to that culture,” Solano said.

Through them, she not only gained pride in being Hispanic, but she learned about hard work just by watching them.

Her parents valued education which helped set Solano on the path to becoming a teacher.

This year is Solano’s 6th year teaching and this year she’s teaching her 4th and 5th grade students virtually because of the pandemic.

Every year she looks forward to sharing Hispanic culture with her students during Hispanic Heritage month through artwork and food but this year will be a little different.

“Fourth grade, normally we cook a lot in the classroom. So obviously I’m not going to be able eat with them but we are going to put together a recipe book where they will research a recipe from Latin America,” she said.

Solano said growing up she didn’t always feel accepted because of her Costa Rican roots, but recently she was awarded the Wolfburg Fellowship for social justice education.

She told me it’ll help bring diversity and inclusion to the classroom where students can always feel welcomed.

“This fellowship is trying to invest in that so that every classroom has the resources it needs and teachers who are informed so that they could create a safe space where everybody feels validated and represented,” Solano said.

Cox Media Group