Graduated in 2021 with a major in Music Therapy. Principal instrument: voice.
Position: ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher in the Framingham MA Public Schools. Valeria works with four different kindergarten classrooms, helping their regular teacher, then in the afternoon she works with small groups of children for whom English is particularly new. This is a standard, unionized teaching position.
Overview: With the pandemic ongoing, Valeria did a remote practicum. She found it hard to monestize her music and was losing the love. Valeria moved back to Greece, but found that music therapy is pretty nonexistent in Greece. So she applied to teachers aide jobs and got one teaching English to small children. She really enjoyed that work, but wanted to return to the United States, so she applied to get her Masters in Education, specializing in ESL instruction, from Boston University. Valeria started that very intense program June 2022 and finished a year later, doing student teaching at the same time as she took classes.
Valeria was hired in Somerville, MA to teach ESL to learning-disabled students. She loved the job, but her visa would only let her work in the United States for a year unless her employer sponsored her, and Somerville didn’t sponsor people. Some colleagues mentioned that Framingham will sponsors teachers, so after an academic year in Somerville one of them introduced Valeria to a department chair in Framingham and Valeria was hired into her current job.
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You can see Valeria’s LinkedIn profile here.
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Choice Quotes: “I love working with this age group (kindergarteners). They’re little and already know so much but they get so excited to experience new things. It’s great to see them happy and really engage and make new connections themselves. I really enjoy working with them and find it really fun.”
“Berklee’s Music Therapy program did a great job exposing us to many populations and giving us a taste so we could figure out who we enjoy working with. I figured out that I love working with kids, knowing how to talk to kids, how to engage kids to create trust. My music therapy background also got me that job in Somerville, where it really helped as I worked with developmentally disabled children.”
“Even when I was studying at Berklee I had second thoughts about music and thought about going into education. I stuck it through at Berklee but ultimately ended up where I sensed I would. Trust what you like to do and go for it. That’s it.”
“If you want to teach ESL in the public schools, tt’s important to remember that it’s going to be lot of work and it will be hard. Many teachers work a lot outside of their contract hours. It’s important to set boundaries. We want the best for our students, but it’s a job and we need time for ourselves. Being with students is the easiest part of what your job will be.”
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