Juan Carlos Morales
2008 Hall of Fame Nominee
Miami Palmetto Senior High School
Miami, FL
2008 Finalist from SCOLT
German and ESL
“It is only in recent times that we, as Americans, have been forced to take a step back to appreciate how we value each other and how we value ourselves. These times have made us realize that there is still much we do not understand about other peoples, other cultures, and other customs. As a World Languages teacher, I am faced with these two tasks daily: how do I teach my students to value themselves and each other, and how do I teach them to value others whose cultures and values are different from theirs? My task it to make the foreign into something familiar, to take the far away and try to shape it into something that feels like one’s own. In doing so, I am creating a third space, one that brings together the ‘I’ and the ‘other’ harmoniously.”