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Life and Work with Maria Plata

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Plata.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Plata Learning And Teaching Academy is a product of my personal journey. I moved to Arizona from Mexico when i was eight years old. From that moment, I learned the importance and value of language. As I struggled, internally, with accepting a new identity I learned so many lessons that I would then use as an adult. I graduated from ASU in 2009 and began my teaching career. I was a teacher for nine years, seven of those years as a Spanish teacher in a Spanish immersion program. At the beginning of 2018, I had this “gut feeling” that I needed to do something else. I absolutely love teaching and working with children, but the every day stress of being a public educator was taking a huge toll on my mental and emotional health. I did all of the things that I thought I needed to do in order to sustain the love I had for being in the classroom – but then this crazy idea popped into my head. What if I could teach on my own terms? The thought was terrifying yet thrilling which was the sign I needed in order to make that move.

My friend had been asking me to teach her daughter Spanish and I finally said “yes, let’s do it!” in January of 2018. I had tutored before but it had always been something to make extra money. This time though, I went all-in when I began tutoring this 5 year old kid and found myself loving the creative process of making my lesson plans without the restrictions of being in a regular classroom. As excited as I was, I was still so scared to take that leap and leave what I was comfortable with. I had gotten several awards for teaching and felt really comfortable teaching Spanish in a first-grade classroom. After many hearts to heart conversations with my husband, I decided that if I didn’t give this a chance now I would never go for it. And so I filed my name for my business, bought a gazillion books to figure out what I needed to do, began making connections and putting my name out there and looked for people that were a few steps ahead of me to figure this whole thing out.

I continued to tutor a few other students during the last few months of school and I met some of the sweetest people. In May of 2018, I closed my teaching chapter and shed many tears, but felt really happy with my decision to start my own thing. During the summer a friend of mine and I ran couple Spanish STEAM classes and I had so much fun! I felt like I was a little kid again with the creative freedom I had. And the most meaningful part of teaching, which for me is connecting with someone else, was enhanced during this time.

Today, I am working really hard to set up monthly Spanish classes that allow for that creative freedom all while teaching in my native language. I am also teaching private sessions for a few students and working towards building smaller classes that I can teach during the week. I am creating everything from scratch, so I am also building my own curriculum that I will share and sell as I go.

I love motivating and inspiring others and will continue with a group that I led while teaching, that is specifically designed to give highly sensitive people (like myself!) tools and strategies to help navigate a world that is typically not made for sensitive people. A major goal of mine, that I have started, is to write a book based on my experience as an immigrant child and how my life was shaped by needing to have two identities as I grew up. I also run a Facebook group just for Spanish teachers, we are getting close to reaching 1,000 members! It is so exciting to connect with so many passionate people that value Spanish and are out there helping build bilingual communities. And now, that I feel this creative freedom I am getting more comfortable with creating my own images for the curriculum I use for my classes. I have a lot of projects that I want to accomplish on the side, I just have to remember to take it one step at a time!

For now, I am really excited to be able to spend more time with my son and family and to continue teaching Spanish. My ultimate goal is to build the foundation of a community that is excited and eager to have children who are bilingual and culturally aware. I feel like it is my calling, to help create a world that is more accepting, more fun and with people who are more excited to be their authentic themselves!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Having to quit something that I was “good” it was a huge challenge. The amount of guilt I felt for wanting to leave my classroom and a program that I had helped build was incredible. I almost allowed all of that guilt to stop me. But for about a year and a half, I’ve been consistently going to therapy to help me face the challenges in a more positive way. I am a huge perfectionist and have anxiety so every little thing can turn into something major. I doubt myself on a daily basis as a wife, mother, and person in general. I am afraid that I am not enough or that I will make mistakes. But what I am slowly learning is that these mistakes are a GREAT opportunity for me to learn more about myself and my next steps. During one of my summer classes I only had one student sign up and I posted my “real thoughts” on social media and I received so many messages from other people thanking me for being so real and authentic. So I guess my journey is to just go for it. Go for those BIG DREAMS! Even if you’ve already accomplished some pretty big dreams or none at all. Really sit down with yourself and figure out what it is that makes you excited to get up in the morning (it’s not always going to feel like that though, just FYI) and go for it! And if you screw up or something doesn’t happen the way you hoped, at least you tried! I always teach my students and help them figure out how they can instill this little voice inside their head that will say “Si se puede” when they feel like they can’t. Work really hard to have that little voice that at the end of the day says “you are enough, yes you can and you will”.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Plata Learning And Teaching Academy – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I am the founder of Plata Learning And Teaching Academy (P.L.A.T.A.) and I specialize in teaching Spanish to children. Since I am still pretty new at this, I feel like my goals are constantly evolving. I tutor one-on-one students who need help in their Spanish classes, I teach Spanish to students who want to learn, I run classes that help children learn Spanish through play and engaging activities. I am most proud of how I connect with others. I know there are many teachers out there who are amazing, I’ve met so many of them. And the one thing that they always have in common is that they know how to connect with other people and they are not afraid to be themselves. I am continuing my teaching journey with that same mindset. I am still Maestra Plata, just in a different (and maybe even more fun) capacity!

Often it feels as if the media, by and large, is only focused on the obstacles faced by women, but we feel it’s important to also look for the opportunities. In your view, are there opportunities that you see that women are particularly well positioned for?
I think a challenge is a call for you to open that as an opportunity for someone else. I think women, in general, have been taught to behave a certain way since we were little kids that we often question if we are well positioned for a certain opportunity. Here is the thing though, we are well positioned for whatever it is that makes us feel alive. If being a nurse makes someone feel like they doing what they were called to do then that’s great. If they feel that way being a surgeon, then that is great too! The problem, I think, is not necessarily that women don’t have opportunities but that they don’t feel like they are enough or deserve those opportunities.

Pricing:

  • private class- one hour $50
  • Saturday Monthly Spanish class- 3 hours $50
  • private class- half hour $35

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Maria Plata

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