My name is Francisca Decker. I was born in Yuscaran, a town in Honduras and immigrated to the United States when I was six years old. Growing up in the Bronx in New York City, I learned self reliance and hard work from my father and five siblings. I loved growing up in a culturally diverse bilingual community and this significantly shaped the person that I am today. I attended Marymount College of Fordham University where I graduated with a B.A in psychology. After graduating, I worked as an afterschool site director for the Y.M.C.A. and was an assistant teacher at a Montessori school. It was the experience of learning and applying the Montessori method that made me want to dedicate my life to teaching.
Though New York City is a fantastically diverse place, I found myself wanting to see more of the world and I decided to move to Japan to teach English as a second language. I loved Japan so much that I ended up staying for ten years. I taught at public elementary schools and then switched to working at a private conversation school. We used language learning to build cultural bridges for our students. For me, that’s the beauty of becoming bilingual, it provides people with two different ways of looking at the world.
I am a mother of two young curious children. As they are learning about and exploring the world they continually inspire me to do so as well. I believe in having a sense of wonder and that it is a teacher’s responsibility to cultivate a sense of wonder in their students. Curiosity is one of the primary tools our children use to engage with the world and when I teach I try to create a classroom environment that stimulates and encourages curiosity.
I also enjoy traveling, especially on foot. My own travels have taught me that travel, especially walking through a country, is one of the best ways to learn about different people, other cultures and ourselves. After leaving Japan my husband and I decided to take a year of our lives and dedicate it to traveling. During that year we walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain, the Camino Portugues in Portugal and the Shikoku Pilgrimage in Japan. We ended our year of travel by trekking to Mt. Everest base camp in Nepal. All said and done we walked over 2,000 miles together before returning home to start a new life and family.
Now that I’m a mother of two BCGC kids I won’t be making any long treks in the near future but my family and I are really enjoying all of the hiking trails and parks in and around Bloomington. My personal favorite spot is McCormic’s Creek. Getting out into nature with our kids is so important, especially now in an era where many people may feel trapped inside. I am genuinely looking forward to being a part of this wonderful community and embarking on this new journey of getting to know you and your children.