Professor Centellas

This past semester I taught two classes for the Latino Studies Program at IUPUI. All I can really say is wow… what a challenging but enlightening experience.

It was nice to have another formal relationship in higher education. I am also a Community Base Learning Coordinator for Notre Dame through their Center for Social Concerns so I am maintaining some great connections in higher education despite it no longer being my full time career.

Originally I was approached to teach an introductory class, but then I ended up teaching a 101 and 350 course.  It really challenged and pushed me to expand my reading related to Latino studies. So it was a win win as it helped me read a lot of items I had on my list and never finished. I wrote a personal blog about teaching at the beginning of the semester: I’m That Latino, but Not That Latino

So the semester is over, as much as I enjoyed it, man I have enjoyed not having discussion groups and chat sessions for the past couple weeks! We had some great conversations in both classes that I really enjoyed:

The American Dream: How do Latino Families view the dream?
Monroe Doctrine of Manifest Destiny: Biggest Impact on Latin America?
Latino or Hispanic: What is the correct term?
Elections: When did Latinos have the Biggest Influence
True Impact of 2006 Immigrant Marches
and many more…

I had a lot of fun being in the classroom, especially since it was my first time in a digital classroom. One of my classes even included a Civic Engagement portion which was interesting to see the students connect in the local community and bring the online classroom discussions to real life.

For Fall 2014 Semester I will just teach one class, so I get to really reflect on what worked well, what I can tweak. The class will include Civic Engagement again and I am looking forward to that part especially. I get to learn more about Indianapolis Latino focused agencies through papers and reflections. Next semester maybe I can join my students at some site, see what things I can bring back for La Casa.

Thank you to my students, to the program chair that believed in me, and I am even working on my own course for the future! It was nice to be called professor, reminded them no I am not a PhD… but makes me think of when will I get back into the classroom on the student side…