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Today we are here with Norma AK M Mendoza or La Profe
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Nori on TikTok. Let's give a ride.
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you went viral for your video.
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My students made a chis box,
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and here is the weekly tea.
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I'm gonna steal her man.
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How did you come up with the idea of the cheese box
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in your classroom? Honestly started where my school works with
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restorative justice, so we're like huge on restorative practices and restorative
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conversations and every Monday we have mandatory circle time.
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My students were on TikTok over the weekend and they saw an
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elementary school teacher and she had a like a mason jar that
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Miss, can we have a tatta to box?
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you know, since they're in high school,
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I'm like, aren't you guys a little too old for tatta
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to? Yeah, they're like,
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OK, well, since you teach Spanish,
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can we do like a tee box?
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And I'm like, a tee box.
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we're gonna do cheese in the box.
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This is what we're gonna use for circle,
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so it's gonna be like an informal circle.
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Yeah, so I gave them the rules and I said,
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OK, you guys are gonna add things to the box and
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then during Circle Monday.
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this is what we're going to do.
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So what rules did you set up for the cheeseme box?
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So,, first rule is I'm a mandated reporter,
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so they know that whatever is put in this box,
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even though they're anonymous,
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if it's something that I need to report,
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I'm going to report it,
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yeah, so you read them all beforehand,
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yeah, I always read them beforehand.
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second rule is this is not in.
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Intended to make fun of anybody.
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It's not intended to talk negatively about any of our other students
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and we go into the chismme box with an open mind
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because sometimes what's OK with me might not be OK with you
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and vice versa. Third worlds just have fun like we're here
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to talk and I know it has the word chismme but they
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add so many different topics,
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not just. Like chando they it's like where they get
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to ask questions and we get to have like an actual conversation
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so it's an informal circle but they're doing circle without knowing they're
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doing circle. Oh I love that.
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So it's like a fun little spin on it,
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right? Like I love that and it it honestly it sounds
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like you're doing it for the right reasons,
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you know. I remember growing up and going to high school
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and like some teachers,
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I mean sometimes you,
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you, you're like you're there for checking,
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but you, it looks like you're like trying to have fun
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with it, trying to make them have fun with it,
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and you care. I don't remember one teacher that I don't
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remember any teacher that actually took the time to get to know
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me or I never had any teachers that looked like me or
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I never had anybody that not just a teacher but a principal
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or a counselor. I never had that situation.
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And I was heavily bullied as a kid and I didn't have
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that yeah so for me I want my kids to feel welcomed
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and equally yeah, even the ones that are a little bit
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I want all of them to know that at least
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when they're with me,
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even if it's 30 minutes a day they're safe and,
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and what do like the kids that are not Latino think of
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the cheese box? like what do they think of it they
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love it they love it.
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Love it. I haven't received any pushback from any of my
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kids at all all of them are so into it and
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I know sometimes people tell me like,
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well why don't you have them write it in Spanish?
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And I'm like, well no,
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because the fact that I have kids from other races,
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not everybody speaks Spanish,
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not everybody writes Spanish so I like to keep it English just
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so that way whoever wants to participate they can't without feeling like
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they have to write in a different language and you think she's
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is healthy, honestly,
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yes, I think it depends.
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yeah, I think it depends on what it is.
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I think the word chme has like this huge stigma around it
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you know, and people are like,
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oh, you're gossiping,
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and I've heard where people say gossiping is a sin and everything
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I'm like, well it's not like we're gossiping and we're
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talking about other people.
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What we are having a conversation and we're having so many different
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topics and it's, you know,
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it's not healthy to keep everything.
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Being bottled in, you know,
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it's great to talk about it and especially with teenagers where,
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you know, where some of them don't feel like they can
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go home and talk to mom and dad about certain things,
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at least they have an adult that they can talk to,
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and I'm never going to give them any negative advice or anything
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or any of that so I wanna read some of the,
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let's see. And how do you get it?
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Do you flip it up or like 00 OK.
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They asked what is the toughest part about being a woman and
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a producer and I feel like a lot of the students you
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know right now they're super young but being in in high
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school they probably even feel this way but after high school they're
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gonna feel it even more where you get imposter syndrome almost even
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having like a show I'm like why me?
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you know what I mean like and and you feel like that
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you're there for a reason.
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That's one thing I could tell your students every accomplishment you make
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you made that for a reason,
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you know, people saw your potential and you deserve to be
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there. You're more than able to do it,
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you know, and if I could do it they could do
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it. So love that I love that that was an awesome
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Thank you, thank you.
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It's hard as a woman though.
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It really is too true my students,
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here's one thing my my girls tell me clock it,
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clock it clock it clock.
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What is your advice if someone is constantly messing with you and
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staff won't do nothing,
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you know what? Just ignore them because they're trying to get
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reaction from you. I'm not gonna like try to like get
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a reaction from something like I can like if I can't push
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this I'm not gonna keep doing this.
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I can't push anymore so I'm gonna stop pushing it,
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Gonna stop eventually like and don't listen to them yeah that's what
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I would say I love that I love that this is amazing
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and honestly dude, you sound like such an amazing teacher.
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I'm so proud of you and you're,
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you're really, really making a difference.
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I'm not just saying that because you're next to me.
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there should be more teachers like you and I'm proud of you
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I'm proud of you and I and I tell all my
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I. I love to I love to see women in high
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positions and we like growing up it was just men,
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men, men and nothing against the men,
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but it's nice to see women that look like us doing something
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and the girls can see like that could be me one day
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and I can grow up and I can do whatever I set
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my mind up for sure definitely definitely very proud of you as
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OK, let's give it up for Miss Mendoza guys.
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And where can people follow you?
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It's under La profe Nori TikTok and Instagram.
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Amazing. And I heard also that you have an Amazon wish
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list. Yes, so if they go to my bio on
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Instagram and on TikTok.
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my this is my student's Amazon wish list and they put for
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snacks. I think they asked me for like a uno uno
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go or I'm not too sure.
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What it's called, but they wanted a uno cards if we
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play card games and they have a card game club that they
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play as well so it's on,
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OK, well if you guys wanna go ahead and and click
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her link in bio and yeah,
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I mean hook the kids up with some snacks,
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some games, thank you again you let's give it up
