Educator

Connie MestaHernandez worked in Tucson, AZ in the Sunnyside School District for 35+ years. She attended the University of Arizona. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Bilingual Elementary Education in 1988 and her Master’s degree in Gifted Education in 1996. Connie began her career teaching kindergarten. After a few years, she was hired to work with adults as a Career Ladder Evaluator. Having finished her work as evaluator, she took a position in the S.U.N. (Serving Unique Needs) Program as a teacher for the gifted. SUN in Sunnyside is known as GATE elsewhere. She was also a Spanish language, Bateria Woodcock-Munoz (assessment system), testing coordinator. In June 2018, Connie attended the We The People Summer Institute and ever since, began implementing the We the People (WTP) curriculum in her classes.  She was determined from the start and put in the extra time and effort to establish WTP in her curriculum as well in the SUN Program’s curriculum. During the years following, she held WTP Hearings with the other SUN classes or her own classes. The last 2 years these were held in the District’s boardroom. She recruited judges from the community: UofA History professors, Sunnyside Board Members, and community businesspersons.

Connie loves teaching civics! She sees so much potential in every student! She finds it fascinating when a student is able to bridge new understanding into previous learnings. Nothing beats seeing her students’ faces when they grasp ideas that had been previously difficult to comprehend. Sharing teaching strategies and experience with fellow teachers is her current focus. She has been married to Jaaci for 37 years and has two grown University of Arizona graduates. She loves traveling, having visited over 20 countries. Her time is spent reading, baking, and watering the gardens (husband does the gardening).