Daring to dream
Amid a pandemic and beyond, educators reimagine the future of K–12 schools
There has been no such thing as a “normal” year of teaching for up-and-coming educator Diana Bustamante-Aguilar, and she sees that as a good thing.
As a student teacher, she joined the masses of educators who protested before state legislatures seeking respect and fair wages. By spring 2020, the 2019 51Թ teacher licensure graduate was just hitting her stride in her first official teaching position at Denver’s South High School when her classes were upended by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that abruptly sent educators and students home for online learning through the end of the school year.
“It was a very difficult way to end my first year of teaching,” she said. “But what was interesting is that year we were wrapping up online and everything happened with George Floyd. To end the school year like that was hard, and it was hard to not be in a space to have conversations around racial injustices and police violence and all these things that have happened for a long time.
“I think it was a moment for every teacher to