Meet Emily Palacios

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Palacios. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Emily, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

This is a really interesting question to answer because I don’t think I took any deliberate steps on my journey to confidence. However, if I think back to my childhood I can probably say it all started when I was developing friendships. My dad was incredibly protective of me and my mental health, so when I would have a playdate with a new friend, he would sit there and watch how we interacted, if he saw that person was taking advantage of me, after the playdate he would tell me I was not allowed to see them again. So, from a very young age I was incredibly aware of my relationship to other people and their relationship to me. As I grew up, I was bullied mercilessly for my hair, my nose, and my person. I was very different than other kids my age because of my relationship to my siblings. I have two older brothers and they are 8 and 10 years older than me, and I was lucky enough that they wanted to include me in their life. So, when I was five I was hanging out with 15 year olds, thinking I was fifteen. Unfortunately, the bullying continued into my college career but once I went to graduate school, I was determined to release myself from that space and start trying to love myself for who I am. I once had a good friend tell me that it was okay to let my freak flag fly and that sentiment has never left my brain or my heart. I think anyone who has been bullied understands the affects it has on your person and your relationship to yourself. I don’t think that trauma is ever gone, but if we are lucky, and have a good therapist, hopefully you can work on it. The biggest shift in my relationship to confidence was when I met my husband, and yes I know that sounds super gushy, but it is true. It was the first time in my life where I was in a relationship that wasn’t abusive or emotionally manipulating. He saw me for me and accepted me flaws and all. And as I saw myself projected through his love for me, I grew more confident in myself and really started allowing that freak flag to fly without the fear of how it would be perceived by the outside world. Another thing that helped me find confidence was my job, teaching. Standing in front of a group of 30-125 kids is a really good way to dive into the deep end of confidence because in the classroom it requires you to be the person in charge. I have been in the classroom for 5 years and I can honestly say that I am a different person because of the relationships I have developed with my students and the relationship I have developed with myself. Now, I don’t want anyone reading this to think I am fully confident all the time. I still have my moments where I doubt myself, but as I tell my students, that is life, it is a journey, no one is perfect; in fact perfect is just a word made up of seven letters.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I never thought I would be a teacher. My mother was a social worker and my dad was a teacher for kids who were neurodivergent. I wanted to be a full time performer for as long as I can remember and I was successful for many years, but once Covid happened I was forced to sit with my thoughts like everyone else and realized that auditioning was not great for my mental health as it always put me in a space of comparison. So, being someone who loves theater and loves teaching others made me look into being a theater educator. And I have been an adjunct professor at Broward College in their Theater department for five years now. Over that time I have taught hundreds of students the importance of theater and the things it can do to improve their life and the way they view the world. This job has been incredibly rewarding and eye opening. However, being an educator is an interesting thing. Because I teach a humanities course I find that a lot of my students expect that they will pass the class without having to do the work, or without showing up to class, which is always incredibly confusing to me. I have had this conversation so many times with so many different people, but the truth is, we do not value education or educators in our society anymore. We have given all the power to the students and the job has become that of working in customer service. By that I mean, I have to deal with parents of students who feel their child deserves a better grade and students who make false claims about how I run the classroom. While being an educator is incredibly rewarding, not speaking the truth that teachers go through would be a missed opportunity to enlighten people that don’t know. And as I tell my students all the time you don’t know what you don’t know. So, I guess what I am getting at is how we need to appreciate our educators more because this is a hard job and we are not getting the respect or the compensation we deserve.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I think public speaking is the first skill that I think of when I read this question. Because of cellphones and how students are interacting online now instead of in person, they have forgotten how to communicate with others. This is something I see everyday in my classroom as students forget that they are in a live learning environment and that I can see and hear them. So, in my class, 20% of their grade is based on participation. The reason I make it so important is because the students need to learn how to speak up in a crowd, how to have a different opinion than someone else, or if they have a question feel comfortable enough to ask. Over my years of being in the classroom and as cellphones have become the common way of communication, I have seen a large number of students come to me saying that they have some kind of anxiety disorder and that they won’t be able to participate. I always say back to the student that I encourage them to challenge themselves and if they are uncomfortable participating to create an easier goal for themselves of maybe talking every other class, so it seems like a less daunting task. And if the student is up for the challenge it is amazing how far they grow from the beginning of the semester to the end.
Another skill that has been important on my journey is knowing how to color outside the lines. Let me explain, as a teacher we have an idea of who this person is, what they wear, and how they present themself. This is our social construct of what a teacher is and most likely, if you are a millennial, was created by watching Boy Meets World and seeing Mr. Feeny. And while I may be some of the things you associate with a teacher, I also am flexible enough to not just be what the kids expect me to be, but something much more. In the first week of class I always say to the students that I am 110% myself, if they meet me outside of the classroom, I will still talk, speak, and interact the way I do in the classroom setting, because I am me and that is all I can be. So, I think having the understanding that just because you are, insert job title here, doesn’t mean you need to do what every other, insert job title here, has been in the past. Always bring yourself to whatever role you are playing because there is only one you and while not everyone will like that person, you will find and connect to the people that do.
I think the last skill that is important to have in the classroom is time management. And that is such a crucial skill for so many different fields. I need to make sure I am giving the time I need for a topic, but I also know that I need to move forward or nothing will be done. I think the biggest piece of this puzzle is not biting off more than you can chew at a time. I schedule the time in my classroom to have extra room just incase we go on a tangent and loose track of time. I think looking at the big picture and breaking it into smaller pieces is the way to be successful at managing your time.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

While I may not be able to speak for all educators, I can certainly speak for myself. As I said previously I have been at my current job for 5 years. Within those 5 years I asked for a raise once and received a one word response, “no.” The truth is I will never make more money doing what I am doing because the education system is really broken and we need to look into how to improve it.
If I am lucky I make 20K a year. I don’t know how everyone lives their life, but 20K is not going to get you very far in this society, especially currently with all the inflation. While I may not be a doctor helping save lives, I am saving lives in another way and teachers deserve to be better compensated for what they do in the classroom.
The best way I can try and resolve this, not only for myself, but for my fellow educators, is speak about it openly and hopefully open someones eyes to the reality of the situation.
I love what I do, I am passionate educating the next generation, but I also deserve to be compensated in a way that doesn’t make what I do or my person feel worthless.

Contact Info:

• Other: email: [email protected]