A Conversation with Víctor Gómez, our 2025 Teacher of the Year

We sit down with Víctor Gómez, Illinois’ 2025 Teacher of the Year, to unpack what bilingual STEM education looks like when it’s treated as rigorous, affirming, and truly equitable 

Víctor shares his monarch butterfly story from Michoacán, Mexico, where migration, memory, and identity meet, and how that metaphor helps communities reframe bilingualism as something to celebrate. He also connects the monarch phenomenon back to the classroom with STEM instruction, showing how a cultural narrative can lead into physics concepts like forces, acceleration, speed, and distance.

We get practical about policy and practice too: the difference between bilingual educators and ESL support, what “truly bilingual” science means at Leyden High School, and how translanguaging lets multilingual learners use their full linguistic repertoire. Víctor explains how cognates and home-language knowledge can bridge into English without sacrificing academic content, and why sink-or-swim English-only approaches can cost students both opportunity and identity. 

Our theme music is by José Rivera.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:05

We are the Illinois State Board of Education. We love Illinois Schools. I'm Dusty Rhodes in the Public Relations Department. Today I'm chatting with Victor Gomez, our 2025 Teacher of the Year. He teaches in Leyden High School District 212, where he co-developed the bilingual program and helped launch the school's first bilingual chemistry course.

A Year Of Advocacy And Speeches

Speaker 2 0:28

I think I want to start by just asking you what your year has been like since it's wrapping up.

Speaker 0:35

This year has been uh fulfilling. It's given me an opportunity to really advocate for something I uh hold near and dear to my heart, which is bilingual uh education specifically in STEM, but also for all of education. And I've had the unique experience to um go to all these multilingual conferences, whether it was for the IRC or whether it was the National Association of Bilingual Educators. So it's been uh really cool to have these opportunities. Yes. it's a combination of keynote speeches, um, professional developments, podcasts, and um expert panels. I I love it because uh being able to tell my story through uh my keynote gives me the opportunity to tell the story of my uh my family, of my students, and really how uh those who came before me, my that my former teachers paved the way for me to be here today, and how my family instilled in me those values of how to become a good person and eventually become a good educator that really cares for for his students. And it's uh wonderful to see people resonate with uh with that story because uh many of the events I've done are for like uh BPAC meetings, so bilingual parent meetings, uh multilingual conferences, and a lot of people share similar similarities in their stories with that of my families and and and myself and my students. So that's been wonderful.

Monarch Butterflies As A Teaching Metaphor

Speaker 2 2:48

You have a story that involves some monarch butterflies. Um, you give people monarch pens. Is that right?

Speaker 2:57

That is correct.

Speaker 2 2:59

And is that the story that you're just mentioning about your family? Do you want to give me like the the short version of it?

Speaker 3:08

Yeah, of course. My family uh they they come from uh from a place called Mitracan Mexico. It's where there's a sanctuary where the monarch butterflies, the super generation that travels over 3,000 miles, uh, comes to rest in the forests of that state. Uh they come from parts of Canada and the northern United States, and then they make that journey back uh up north once the winter is over. And it's it's a beautiful story because really those butterflies they come at the same time of Day of the Dead. So uh there's this migration that they make, pilgrimage. They come uh to come back home. And and in in our culture, we use it as a metaphor to really uh not only tell our story but also honor our ancestors. And the monarch butterfly in the multilingual world is truly used to show how migration is something beautiful and something that uh it is part of our identity. And then uh it also shows us that our bilingualism is something that needs to be celebrated. And so many people really resonate with that story. And uh the monarch butterfly, I also like to use it as a metaphor for teaching because um those monarchs that travel that large distance, they don't do it alone. It's from generation to generation to generation. And in teaching, uh, the teachers who came before us uh pave the way for us who are currently in the profession, and us who are currently profession will pave the way for those who come after us after us, and then our students will continue to pave that journey. So it's uh it's a beautiful migration story of education. So I I I use that to frame uh my keynote around and my professional development as well. And then I also get to talk about the science related to it, which is really cool.

Turning Migration Into Physics Lessons

Speaker 2 5:05

Say more about that.

Speaker 5:08

Well, yeah, of course. Um in our in our lessons at school, um, there was this uh one teacher who was able to come up with a really cool lesson on how to explain forces and how we can use the monarch butterfly as not only a metaphor for migration, but also for motion, acceleration, and speed. So it kind of uh helps us to relate that to the phenomena of the monarch butterfly and how such a small creature can travel so far, and then explain the physics behind it.

Speaker 2 5:39

I wish I'd been in the audience to hear that. Um, so you've met other bilingual STEM educators?

When Bilingual STEM Crosses Borders

Speaker 5:47

Uh yes, I have. There was one who uh really resonated with me, and it was uh El Professor Victor Hurtado. I I believe he's from CPS, and he is a bilingual math educator. I didn't meet him in person, but I had the opportunity to call him because there was something that happened when uh I had the opportunity to go to Mexico to visit my family early on in the sabbatical, right? I wanted to go and visit the university that my mom attended uh in in the fall. And during that time, uh I had a little cousin who told me that they had an assignment, and the assignment had to do with them uh talking about who inspires them. And they were telling their teacher, oh, my parents inspire me, or these professional athletes inspire me. Uh, and then they turned the question around to their teacher and they said, Well, who inspires you? And the teacher said that she has family in Chicago and she watches the local Chicago news all the way over there in Morelia in Mexico. And she came across the story of a bilingual teacher who had won something for Golden Apple. Uh, so excellence in teaching for Golden Apple, and that was Mr. Hurtado, and I believe it was a CPS, and he is a bilingual math teacher who's really done great work with his multilingual and bilingual students. And so I had the opportunity to go walk with my my little cousin and to go meet that teacher and to have that conversation. And so once I learned about him, I was like, wow, there's two of us. Both of our names are Victor, and uh, we won awards for education, and we were bilingual STEM educators. So I gave him a call and I was able to be like, Look, uh, the things that you do, uh, the impact that you have on your students in bilingual STEM education really transcends borders and barriers. It's really cool to have seen our message travel all the way down to Mitraca, Mexico.

Speaker 2 7:53

That's amazing. Um, and you're both name fixed for that's cool. Um, I think you should get together though.

Speaker 8:04

We we are planning on it, yes, this semester, because he's I believe he has a uh some sort of sabbatical. He didn't have it in the fall, but here in the spring, and we're working on making our schedules aligned so that we can meet or do some sort of professional development together or a keynote together.

Missing Students And Mentoring Future Teachers

Speaker 2 8:22

All the things, all the things. Did you did you I mean just between us, did you miss your classroom at all?

Speaker 8:31

I did. I really missed uh uh teaching uh my students and interacting with them and you know building those meaningful relationships and they just they they love to to joke even though that we're we're learning about uh really difficult topics in science. It's always uh there's a joy in in learning, especially in my multilingual and bilingual classrooms, and I really miss the miss my students.

Speaker 2 8:59

Have you heard from them while you've been on sabbatical?

Speaker 9:03

Yes, I've got an emails asking me when I'm gonna be back.

Speaker 2 9:09

That's a good thing.

Speaker 9:10

Not as many emails as I thought as I expected, but yeah, there's there's this there's students who reach out and they're like, oh, can you help us on this topic in chemistry or when are you coming back, Mr. Gomez? And and things like that. But I've had uh former students reach out. Uh there's this a former student who uh is at Dominican University and he is studying to become a bilingual science educator as well. And he's reached out on um on advice on on his education classes, on his uh on his science classes. And I'm just really proud that he is following in those footsteps and that he really wants to uh give back to the community uh of multilingual learners. Uh, he wants to come back, hopefully in three years, to come teach at Leighton High School as well.

Speaker 2 9:59

That's really cool.

Speaker 10:00

One of the things he joked about was that he can't wait to come and replace me or take my current position. And I was like, I would be honored to. That'd be like the greatest honor.

Speaker 2 10:11

Uh, there's probably room for both of you for a time.

Speaker 10:13

Um that's what I'm telling them.

Speaker 2 10:17

Uh let me back up a minute. Uh explain the difference between, for people who don't know, the difference between bilingual educators and ESL educators.

Speaker 10:30

So bilingual educators are teachers who uh speak the native language of the students you're teaching. And the class is designed for newcomer students, so level one and level two, uh, in their English language development. And it's so that they have access to rigorous and relevant curriculum in their native language while allowing us to also bridge into the English language. Uh, right, and then ESL or multilingual education uh is when uh the instruction is in English with language supports.

Speaker 2 11:06

You know, I saw in in some of the materials um about you that you created the first bilingual course at Leiden. And in some in some versions it said the first truly bilingual. What does truly bilingual science class, what does that mean?

Speaker 11:29

Uh what it means is uh in Leyden High School we've had bilingual classes before, but they weren't taught by the content uh specific experts in the language for bilingual classes. So when uh I was hired along along with Dr. Diana Bonilla, who was the other bilingual teacher who was hired that year, we were given the unique opportunity to advocate for uh these bilingual classes so that students would have access to a relevant and rigorous uh curricula in chemistry and biology right off the bat instead of taking physical science uh right away. And um that's that's how we came about it. And uh we advocated for it, and the administration at Leiden High School was very supportive, and they saw that it was equitable and necessary for us to design something like that, especially once we had the teachers who were qualified to teach those classes. And we have the numbers of bilingual uh newcomer students coming into our districts, and it's been a game changer, it's allowed them uh the access to that equitable educational experience in STEM education. And the program has grown not only from science, now we have social science, uh, we have um mathematics and other various bilingual courses offered to our bilingual students, our newcomer students.

Translanguaging In STEM With Cognates

Speaker 2 12:48

One of your colleagues who wrote a letter of recommendation for you said that student voice and experience is brought into your classroom daily through your use of translanguaging. What is translanguaging?

Speaker 13:02

Well, translanguaging is encouraging our students to use their full linguistic repertoire. That means that we want them to use the Spanish grammar skills that they already have in order to bridge into the English language. And one of the ways we do that in science is by using cognates or words that are spelled and sound similar in both languages, right? For example, if we're talking about uh chemical reactions, right, uh those cognates would be reacciones químicas, and it sounds similar, uh spelled almost similarly. And when we're talking about certain elements, for example, chlorine would be called cloro, or oxygen would be oxygeno, magnesium would be magnesio. And so the students without knowing it, they already come with a rich wealth of knowledge, linguistic knowledge that they're able to bring in uh to learn a second language. And so that's what trans that's the beauty of translanguaging, especially when you allow your students to really explore that full linguistic repertoire and to show them that their bilingualism is an asset, not a deficit.

Speaker 2 14:12

And I think we now consider it a superpower.

Speaker 14:15

It is, it definitely is a superpower.

Speaker 2 14:18

I wonder how many people still um are living under the myth that keeping a language prevents you from learning a new one. Like you like you can only hold one. Do you run into people who still who still think that that we should just immerse students in English and make them learn it and forget Spanish?

Speaker 14:44

Do you mean like a sink or swim kind of model?

Speaker 2 14:46

Yes. Do you still run into that?

Speaker 14:48

Not as much. Um like when we're talking about monolingualism and uh those assimilative practices that the English-only practices that students um should learn English without uh honoring or using their native language, our research shows that that's not necessarily how it works, right? It's important to make sure to bring in their full linguistic repertoire into the mix to give the students the opportunity not only to learn English, but also uh co-develop both languages, right? Because we don't wanna we don't want them to lose their Spanish language. There's many families who come and uh they they they want their student, their their their children just to learn English, that they start losing that part of their identity, their their linguistic identity. And their their Spanish uh language acquisition isn't as strong anymore as it should have been. And when you co-develop those languages, then uh they're able to have a two-language set that they're able to uh draw upon when they're uh engaging in conversations with people. And I think it's also important, especially in these times, to be bilingual. And much of the world is bilingual and they really uplift that and make sure that their students are learning more than one language because they see the benefit of it.

Speaker 2 16:09

It sounds like you're giving them a chance to prove their academic prowess so that they get into higher level courses that they in pastimes would not have been able to show that they qualify for. One of your colleagues said they would have been gatekeeped out of um AP courses because of their Spanish.

Speaker 16:30

Yeah, once they're introduced to uh higher level uh science courses early on, especially with their with their language, and then as we transition them into English, they're also getting that background in science, right? They're not missing out on all that important content and rigorous uh scientific uh knowledge that they need to learn in order to get into these higher level classes, right? We don't start them off at lower level science classes, uh we start them off at uh the higher opportunity classes.

Speaker 2 16:59

So you helped create the mariachi band there. Is it still going?

Speaker 17:06

Currently, no. There's uh what we're hoping for is eventually to get a mariachi class, like many other districts have, right? Because one of the things that we had difficulties with was having the kids practice on their own and only meeting once a week. And it's a performing kind of club, so we would only get a couple songs done throughout the year. Uh right now it's not, but I'm hoping when I come back to the district, we bring up the mariachi club again.

Speaker 2 17:32

I think I have on my, I want to call it my phone, but the iPod that's inside my phone, an entire album of a high school mariachi band that won a Grammy.

Speaker 17:45

Oh, yeah. There's there's many that are like phenomenal. We're definitely an amateur mariachi uh band, right? It's more like a club right now. I I really, really want to encourage the district to make it a class, like beginning mariachi and then advanced mariachi, and that'd be amazing. That would be amazing, especially for the community members.

Speaker 1 18:07

That was Victor Gomez, our 2025 Teacher of the Year. We recently announced Seth Brady as our 2026 Teacher of the Year. And when I asked Victor what advice he has for Seth, Victor said advocate for her students, teachers, and communities by elevating your voice and speaking through a humble heart. Thanks for listening.