Delaney Gunster

Delaney is in her fourth year of teaching middle school Spanish in MCPS. Her experience is primarily with 7th and 8th grade students at the Spanish 1 and 2 level, but she has tutored privately for students in Spanish through level 5. Additionally, Delaney worked as a student intern in a two-way immersion program at the elementary level. In this role, she specialized in teaching literacy, math, and science in Spanish with a focus on supporting and building academic foundations in both languages. In addition to Spanish, Delaney has also tutored students in English and History through the 10th grade level.

Delaney believes that academic success is not dictated by the grades earned, but rather the experiences had, and the learning gained. Many students struggle with traditional testing formats and typical classroom settings, to circumvent this as much as possible, Delaney strives to provide multi-modal assignments to assess student progress. Students in her class participate in projects where they create posters, presentations, comic strips, or other creative methods to explain what they learned. Spanish is unique because it is a high school level course in middle school, therefore, students are challenged and held to higher standards of organization, rigor, and output. Delaney supports her young adolescent student's development and preparation for high school by holding students accountable for their work production, bringing materials, and her retake policy — which states that students must complete quiz corrections and have them looked over and reviewed before they may do a retake.

She graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor's in Secondary Education and Spanish with a minor in History. As an avid reader, Delaney has a passion for history and spends much of her free time reading non-fiction books. Delaney is currently in a Master's program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where she studies Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL/ESL). Her thesis focus for this program will be on how well students are prepared for college and career readiness and if these preparations are in alignment with the Maryland Blueprint for Success.