Encompassing Coral Gables Senior Highs‘ heart of teaching in room 9222, Ms. Zuniga cultivates a vibrant environment through the classes she teaches and activities she leads. Dedicating herself towards her responsibilities in and outside the classroom, whether through math lessons or working side-by-side with Gables publications as an academy leader, Ms. Zuniga embraces the Cavalier experience. Coming full circle, Ms. Zuniga persists, being nominated by her colleagues to represent Gables in a competition against other Teachers of the Year in the region, with a vision to advance to the district.
Twisting the doorknob of opportunity at four years old, Ms. Zuniga came from another country and was gaining a grasp of the English language. Recognizing math as a universal language, growing up she soon discovered she excelled at the subject.
Ms. Zuniga’s love for teaching began in high school, where she crafted math lessons for her peers that sparked their interest and strengthened her passion for education. Delving deeper into her knack, Ms. Zuniga pursued a career path combining her adoration for mathematics and teaching.
As an Ibis, Ms. Zuniga graduated from the Univerisity of Miami with her bachelors’ degree. On a hunt for teaching experience, UM’s partnership with Gables granted Ms. Zuniga the opportunity to intern at the home of the Cavaliers during the fall of her senior year. Laying the groundwork for a full-time job, Ms. Zuniga was hired and started teaching in 2001.
“The high school that I went to, Miami High, has a teaching magnet. One of the things we had to do was prepare a lesson on anything. Some of my friends were preparing lessons on modeling, scuba diving, on really fun things, and my lesson was on math, on factoring, trinomials and polynomials, and my friends loved it. They were actually learning that in Algebra 2, and they were struggling. By seeing how much they enjoyed how I broke it down for them to understand and that it actually helped them in their class, [it] encouraged me even more to pursue math,” Ms. Zuniga said.
Launching her teaching journey, Ms. Zuniga got her start guiding Cavaliers who arrived from Central America in the geometry bilingual content curriculum. Assisting them in overcoming the language barrier, Ms. Zuniga gave it her all to provide them with essential mathematics knowledge.
Lending a helping hand in a little bit of everything, over the years Ms. Zuniga has taught Algebra 1, Geometry and Algebra 2. Eventually taking over the International Baccalaureate year 1 track, Ms. Zuniga redirected her focus on IB math classes and Dual Enrollment Algebra. Serving as a professor for Florida International University and Miami Dade College, Ms. Zuniga filled in the DE gap at Gables.
Building a rapport with her students, Ms. Zuniga strives to make her lessons entertaining, fun and meaningful. Straying away from typical PowerPoint presentations, Ms. Zuniga demonstrates real-world applications step by step. Formulating engaging activities, such as a gallery walk where students work in partners and rotate answering questions along the way or showing a dance to graph a cumulative frequency curve, Ms. Zuniga adds a new layer of significance in her lesson plans that stick with students.
“[What inspired me to write two books about math anxiety was that] a lot of students have math anxiety and a lot of times they have to get past that psychological aspect of learning so then they can make room for learning content. If they don’t believe they can learn math, it doesn’t matter how many times I stand in front of the class to teach them a lesson, they’re always going to believe they’re not good at it. So the important part is for them to tackle that anxiety through different techniques to figure out how to get over it. They don’t have to like math, they just have to be able to do math; that’s always my motto,” Ms. Zuniga said.
From creating a YouTube channel to support remote learners to leading the Yearbook team, Ms. Zuniga has embraced diverse roles to enrich students’ learning experiences. Uploading consistently to “Yes, I Can Do Math” Ms. Zuniga creates easily accessible content for her students to look back on. Currently, brainstorming YouTube videos to add to the channel Ms. Zuniga appreciates the impact she has been able to make on students.
Being involved with the Yearbook in high school, Ms. Zuniga received the role of Yearbook adviser offered to her by Ms. Suarez with open arms, producing her first book in 2005. Stepping up for the previous Yearbook teacher who stepped down, Ms. Zuniga and the Cavaleon would go to conferences in New York, Boston, Chicago, and the National Scholastic Press Association.
Kindling her eagerness for journalistic involvement, Ms. Zuniga expanded her horizons to become the Communications, Arts, Film and Digital Media Academy leader in 2011. Additionally stepping up to the plate as Quill & Scroll adviser, Ms. Zunigas’ implemented an overflow of ideas such as Field Day and the CAF&DM banquet which have grown to be fan-favorites in the CAF&DM academy.
“Being the CAF&DM academy leader, I think by now all the students know CAF&DM. We really have such a great team of teachers. Everything that we accomplish as an academy would not be accomplished by me alone. The reason why CAF&DM is so wonderful is because we have a group of passionate teachers that work just as hard. So in planning all these activities and doing fundraisers a lot of these things require money, but by now, we’ve grown in our culture. It’s exciting. I’m super excited all the time to plan activities for our academy. It’s that love for being apart of that community that motivates me to keep going,” Ms. Zuniga said.
Receiving thanks for her teachings, generating IB pass rates above the global average, producing Yearbooks that are recognized as All-Southern, All-Florida, All-National, and All-American, recently being awarded the gold medallion and building a reputation for the CAF&DM academy on campus, Ms. Zuniga is devoted to helping her students succeed. Through her dedication, Ms. Zuniga has left an indelible mark on Gables, from elevating IB math pass rates to producing award-winning Yearbooks.
“One of my most memorable moments was just this past year when I was awarded the Gold Medallion award from the Florida Scholastic Press Association. I was not expecting to receive that award. I wasn’t even sure that they called my name, and they did. It’s such an honor to receive it, because I was 1 of 3 recipients last year. I was the only teacher who received it in all of the state of Florida, let alone in all of Miami Dade Public Schools, so I was super excited to receive that, and it’s one of the highest honors I’ve ever received,” Ms. Zuniga said.
Carrying aspirations to represent Gables in a positive light, Ms. Zuniga plans to highlight the selflessness of Gables teachers who go beyond the basic levels of teaching to empower the student body through her nomination. Channeling her gratitude, Ms. Zuniga hopes to share with the world what Gables is all about.