North Carolina Teacher Finds Fulfillment in Education
| by Hannah Sparling
When Gabriela Machin stepped into her classroom for the first time as a teacher, it was a week before the first day of school. She’d already missed half of the new-teacher orientation. She had zero experience. She had nothing but “a filing cabinet full of papers from the previous teacher that I had no idea how to use.”
And, a surprise to Machin, it was staff picture day.
“My first-day-of-work picture haunts me,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m not prepared for this.’ It was very overwhelming.”
Machin is a career changer who is wrapping up her second year as a Spanish teacher for Langtree Charter Academy in Mooresville, North Carolina. Her first year was a challenge, but she’s already settling in as an educator.
In May, she’ll graduate from Moreland University’s TEACH-NOW Teacher Preparation Certificate Program, on track to earning her professional teaching license.
“Teaching fulfills me,” she said. “It makes me happy that I can be a trusted adult to children when I know how important that was to me when I was growing up.”
Changing Careers
Machin grew up in a Spanish-speaking home in Miami and has been bilingual for as long as she can remember. In fact, her mom spoke only Spanish to Machin for the first four years of her life.
“I was not supposed to know English until I got to school,” she said. “But one day, I responded to her in English.”
“Since when do you know English?” her mom asked.
And Machin responded: “Mom. Sesame Street. Barney. Duh.”
When Machin had her own daughter in 2018, she moved from Florida to North Carolina and started working at a daycare. Spanish and English were both so common in Miami that Machin was surprised when she started hearing that the local schools lacked teachers who could truly speak Spanish.
Then she heard about an open job for a high-school Spanish teacher, and she decided to go for it. She taught freshman, sophomores, and juniors her first year. This year, she’s teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.
Gabriela Machin and her daughter
Earning her Teaching License
Langtree Charter Academy is part of the Charter Schools USA network. CSUSA has a partnership with Moreland University, which meant Machin could get full tuition coverage for Moreland’s TEACH-NOW program to earn her license.
“I’ve enjoyed it to an extreme,” she said. “It’s been so helpful in the way I mold my lessons.”
Along with traditional pedagogy and lesson planning, Moreland helped Machin understand that her students might need some physical movement built into their class time. Recently, she made them a Spanish scavenger hunt in the hallway.
“Moreland has really helped me understand more of the classroom setting,” she said. “TEACH-NOW gives you leniency in that you’re online and you’re able to do things at your pace. But it also gives you a foundation, a core understanding of what needs to happen for a successful classroom.”
A New Dream
Machin’s initial career dream was to become a lawyer. Prior to the daycare, along with being an interpreter, most of her work experience was as a paralegal. But she found out she didn’t actually like working in a law firm. She didn’t find the work fulfilling or rewarding. It was mostly giving people bad news.
In the classroom, though? She feels at home.
Mooresville is a small town, so Machin often sees current or former students outside of school, and they’re always eager to fill her in on their lives. One student moved to an acting school but still emails Machin every month.
And Machin has also become the middle school soccer and volleyball coach.
“Fun fact, I’ve never played either of those sports,” she said. “But the kids needed me, they needed a coach, and I said, ‘You know what, my job is to be here for you. So, let’s go for it.’”
In the future, Machin could see herself moving toward more of a guidance counselor role. She loves being a support for her students, someone they can trust. Or maybe she’ll stay in the classroom. It really depends, she said. Wherever the students need her, wherever she can have the greatest impact, that’s where she’ll be.
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