San Diego Hero: Aidin Esparza
Aidin Esparza | Special Education Teacher, Sweetwater Union High School District
“When I have a student with challenging behaviors, I try different strategies and just when I think everything is going smoothly, the student will have a meltdown,” says Aidin Esparza, a special education teacher for Sweetwater Union High School District. “I have to constantly modify and accommodate my students’ needs, daily and sometimes hourly.”
Esparza has an education specialist credential with an autism authorization from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. She works with autistic seventh- and eighth-grade students, many of whom deal with social anxiety, school phobias, and related behaviors.
She teaches science, math, English, and social communication classes in a calm, stress-free environment without any distractions. Her classroom has low lighting, a warm-colored light for the projector, fidget spinners, yoga balls, and calming lavender oils. She’s found that, after she goes over the daily schedule with students each morning, it helps if they run or walk two laps around the field, before returning to class energized and ready to be productive. After lunch, the students enjoy five minutes of classical music or a relaxing Pandora station.
Some of the daily challenges she faces with her students include them refusing to enter the classroom or abruptly running from it, not participating in assignments or activities, shutting down emotionally due to social anxiety, and having outbursts like inexplicable crying. There are times when she has to stop her lessons altogether to address these behaviors. Esparza engages with parents and other staff members for their support, which can mean sending some of her students to therapy for help with coping strategies. Being a bilingual Mexican American—she’s also first-generation—has worked to her advantage too, since many of her students’ parents speak only Spanish.
Over the course of her 15-year career she’s worked with thousands of students—sometimes spending up to three or four years with the same kids—in all types of learning environments, from homes to hospitals and public libraries, for students who are homeless or have unstable living conditions.
She’s known to give away her breakfast when students are distracted due to hunger, and in the past has bought groceries for those who didn’t have food staples at home.
After a particularly trying school day, she heads down to the harbor for a long run. But the following morning, she always returns to work with a renewed sense of passion for turning her students into lifelong learners.
“I show up to work being the best possible role model and teacher that I can for my students,” she says. “I hope to motivate and inspire as many lives as possible during my career and lifetime.”
