7/2/2021
Education and Outreach
When teacher Christiana Diaz Caballero arrived in Las Vegas to teach at Myrtle Tate Elementary School in 2015, she felt eager to explore her new city.
So, she asked her students where she should go.
“The answers I received quickly clued me in that many of my students didn’t really leave their neighborhoods, or were aware of the amazing museums, nature and cultural experiences that Las Vegas has to offer,” Diaz Caballero says.
She decided to fix that.
In just six years at the school, Diaz Caballero has organized eight field trips and collaborated with community partners to immerse her students in the athletics, arts and special resources of their world-famous city.
“I take every opportunity I can to provide students with experiences that will inspire them to explore life and find their passions,” Diaz Caballero explains. “It is my dream to have past students visit me and say that one of their dreams or passions was realized through something I taught or showed them.”
In recognition of her impact, The Smith Center honored Diaz Caballero as one of the top 20 teachers of its sixth-annual Heart of Education Awards, honoring outstanding Clark County School District teachers. Thanks to the generosity of The Rogers Foundation, she received a $5,000 cash prize and a $1,000 donation to her school.
“To be recognized is a great honor, and I am humbled by this whole experience,” she says. “It’s a distinction I will cherish for the rest of my life and display with pride.”
Not Your Average Field Trip
As an art teacher, Diaz Caballero believes students learn a great deal outside the classroom.
“I believe strongly in a cross-curricular approach to learning. Art can connect to all subjects,” she says. “Every time I take students on a field trip, it is one of the most exciting experiences of the year for them, and one I hope they will remember and be inspired by.”
Even on the rugby field.
Diaz Caballero applied for her school to join USA Sevens’ Adopt A Country program, which builds a curriculum for students around the international cultures of participating teams in the USA Sevens International Rugby Tournament.
Through this initiative, Diaz Caballero’s fourth and fifth-grade students met professional rugby players from New Zealand, Scotland and Australia. Roughly 150 students went on field trips to rugby matches for their adopted team.
“I also lead the collaboration with the fourth and fifth-grade teachers and other specialists to incorporate rugby and our team’s country into their curriculum,” she says.
She further obtains micro grants each year from Get Outdoors Nevada to take roughly 100 students on annual field trips throughout Las Vegas.
These have included visiting the Lion Habitat Ranch and the Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. Diaz Caballero also organizes field trips to see literary-inspired matinees and Broadway musicals at The Smith Center, on top of watching performances by community artists.
The pandemic postponed a planned field trip to Disneyland, which she intends to reschedule.
“Field trips are opportunities to apply what students have learned to real-life situations, and see how their learning connects to the outside world,” she says.
A Digital Theater Program
Diaz Caballero also coordinated for her school to join The Smith Center’s Disney Musicals in Schools program, which helps elementary schools launch their own musical theater programs.
This opportunity to stage and perform musical productions helps children build strong relationships and explore new talents, she says.
“One of the best parts of directing an arts program like Disney Musicals in Schools is watching the students who begin as shy, stiff and insecure students blossom into expressive, passionate and confident performers,” she says.
She refused to lose this during social distancing. With the help of fellow teacher Christina Mehl Smith, she transformed the theater program into a virtual one, providing students with virtual theater lessons.
Using Google Meets, the teachers also met with the program’s students every day for an hour.
“At first we tried to focus mostly on skills and performing, but quickly we realized that we all were really striving for connection in this new virtual world,” Diaz Caballero says. “Students logged in every day just to laugh with friends and feel a sense of normalcy in the fact that they can still sing, act and dance with familiar faces who care about them.”
On top of this, Diaz Caballero and Mehl Smith co-lead the school’s 21st Century Community Learning Center program. Five days a week, this afterschool program provides academic tutoring for students, as well as enrichment clubs that span dance, theater, sports, science and more.
“Usually, we serve around 250 students a year at no cost to them,” she says. “Our families love this program because it gives their children more opportunities both academically and extracurricular, as well as provides them with a safe place to have their children after school.”
Resources for Every Child
Determined to see every student succeed, Diaz Caballero strives to ensure each student can access materials and additional support.
She recently launched her school’s first summer program to help students with learning regression.
And during distance learning, she made 1,150 sketchbooks by hand so all of her students could create art at home.
“I knew at the beginning of the year that If we didn’t provide materials, like crayons or a sketchbook, many students would not have them to participate in virtual art classes,” she says. “I did research and found that it would be more cost effective and better quality if I made the sketchbooks instead of buying them.”
As she works with 800 students from kindergarten through fifth grade, she looks forward to providing more experiences that shape their childhoods.
“I love that I get to know them and watch them grow up,” she says. “To see their whole journey and watch how they grow in self-expression and confidence warms my heart like nothing else.”