When Monica Bremer, Spanish teacher, first started teaching in the United States, she found students wearing pajamas to school to be unusual.
“The educational systems are very different in each country,” Bremer said. “It was quite a journey to understand because you see things happen and kind of go with it.”
Currently, Bremer is the only Spanish teacher at MHS who is a native Spanish speaker, having been born and raised in Panama. She also plans on retiring this year.
Though Bremer has a Masters of Education degree, she said that’s not enough to understand the cultural differences in the American educational system.
“I’m always different, and at some point, you just accept that,” Bremer said. “I’ve been alone long enough that I’m okay.”
She said she wishes there were more native speaking teachers at MHS as her way of teaching Spanish can differ from her coworkers.
Occasionally, she weaves in Panamanian slang and history into her teaching, but above all, she said the biggest difference between her style of teaching and her coworkers is how heavily she encourages students to practice speaking.
“I push them a lot into speaking, and so I hope that they do,” Bremer said. “I think when they’re in the classroom they get better at it. Some of them vibe with it more than others and they challenge themselves, and some of them just want to get out of it.”
Tommy O’Dell, senior, is a student in Bremer’s AP Spanish class, and said Bremer’s emphasis on speaking Spanish helps him improve.
“You hear her speak and she’s always encouraging you to speak better,” O’Dell said. “She knows how it’s supposed to sound.”
O’Dell said having a native speaker as a teacher helps him with real life experience.
“As you go and talk to a Spanish speaker in Panama and Mexico, you’d have a lot more experience in understanding the language, rather than the English-ified version of it,” O’Dell said.
Bremer narrates stories about Panama at least once every class that give context to what’s being taught, O’Dell said.
“You can watch and read about it, but having an actual story from a native speaker is a lot different,” O’Dell said. “She definitely has more energy than other teachers and she’s very helpful at bridging the gap between Spanish and English.”
While currently enrolled in Spanish 4, Laura Castillo, sophomore, has taken Heritage Spanish and is a member of the Spanish Honors Society, a club that Bremer sponsors. Castillo is also a native Spanish speaker and enjoys speaking strictly Spanish with Bremer.
In Castillo’s Heritage Spanish class, Bremer often pointed out the differences between the dialects of Spanish. Because Bremer grew up in Panama but also lived in Spain, she’s become familiar with the differences between Spanish, Castillo said.
“I’m from Mexico, so her Panamanian Spanish was different, so we would always talk about similarities and differences,” Castillo said.
Overall, Castillo said because Bremer is a native Spanish speaker, she enjoys her Spanish classes so much more.
“It just made me feel better, especially as a freshman, coming in and taking a Spanish class,” Castillo said.
Jocelyn Nebel Theiss, Spanish teacher, has worked with Bremer for the past 14 years, and said that she has asked her questions about assessments and activities to make sure they’re being taught correctly.
Theiss finds that as a non-native speaker, she’s not able to provide first-hand accounts on culture and traditions to her students. She also feels it can be challenging to continuously speak Spanish throughout all of class.
“I get so frustrated with myself because I’ll forget a word or think, ‘It’ll be so much faster and easier if I say this in English,’” Theiss said. “For Señora Bremer, maintaining a comprehensive but challenging language level is easier because it’s more second-nature.”
Not only does Bremer assist with making sure what’s already being taught is correct, but she also helps the department improve the curriculum.
“Señora Bremer likes to make a lot of her own activities in class and shares them when asked, which is so helpful when we need materials for units,” Theiss said. “She’s wonderfully collaborative, kind, and willing to help us all out.”
With Bremer’s approachable attitude, focus on interpersonal communication skills, first-hand experiences from Spanish speaking countries, and new ideas for ways of teaching, she’s brought so much to the MHS Spanish department, Theiss said.
“Unfortunately, we can’t take you to a Spanish speaking country in the middle of the school year, but having someone who’s been speaking Spanish since childhood gives you the most authentic application of the language that we can give you on a regular basis,” Theiss said.
