“It feels great, it’s a wonderful opportunity. I believe I’ll get to share and get to learn more,” she says. She describes the school as “very welcoming and very friendly.”
Maria Tinoco was born in Mexico City, Mexico. At the age of three she moved to a city called Morelia, Michoacan in Mexico. She said it was a colonial city where she made many wonderful memories. She says that the city was very beautiful and the food was amazing.
“My father used to take us to many of the little towns in that state. Every Sunday, he would take us to a new place he wanted us to visit with new food he wanted us to try,” she says. It was a city she describes as “big but not huge.” It allowed her to have many amazing interactions with people from other countries because there were many tourists.
Tinoco went to college in Mexico and studied to become an English teacher. She taught at the elementary level and high school level. She also helped college kids prepare for English proficiency tests.
In addition to teaching, she currently tutors Spanish to college students who are enrolled in the medical field. She has also taught Spanish to a priest who came to America from Guanda. At her local parish she helped with a diseducational program, a program designed to help kids that learn differently.
While she lived in Mexico, she met her now husband which led her to move to Chicago where he lived. She said, “I met my husband, fell in love, dated him for a couple of years. He asked me if I wanted to marry him. It was a big decision to make and it represented a huge change in my life.”
She says she easily bonds with her students. She says, “I have been working with teenagers for many years now. I enjoy working with teenagers. I believe at that age they have so much potential in discovering their talents, what they want to be, what their talents are. I just like to be a part of that process.”
Tinoco aims to make it easier for students to learn a new language. She says, “I believe that learning a new language opens up a whole new world of opportunities.”
Outside of school, Tinoco enjoys gardening and learning new things. Most of the time though, she spends with her husband. They enjoy going to festivals and trying different food. She also likes exploring new places with him. Despite how challenging it was for Tinoco to marry her husband she says, “Love can move mountains.”
Mrs. Tinoco working on her computer.
