Cooperating Teachers

Spring 2025 Cooperating Teacher Spotlight

Pictured above: Irene Hidalgo, Cedar Creek Elementary/EISD, Kristen Kelly, Vista Ridge High School/LISD, Sarah Ruiz, Weiss High School/PFISD, Andrea Ramos, Bedichek Middle School/AISD, Emily Overton, Hendrickson High School/PFISD 

UTL 101 - Irene Hidalgo

Irene Hidalgo, a 5th grade science Spanish immersion teacher at Cedar Creek Elementary, has supported the growth of many student interns since 2014. Her exceptional mentorship has profoundly impacted aspiring teachers through her insightful feedback, equipping them with practical skills and a deep appreciation for effective teaching.

Here are testimonials from four student interns under Mrs. Hidalgo’s mentorship this year:

“Ms. Hidalgo was patient, kind, and so understanding. For every lesson, she provided me with helpful and intentional commentary to help me become a better teacher. Any time I needed support as I was teaching, she never hesitated to help and was also very graceful in giving me the space to try various techniques and activities with the students. Learning from her was honestly amazing because I was able to gain so much knowledge on how to be a great teacher from working with her.” - Bryanna N.

“Mrs. Hidalgo was very helpful in helping me understand what I needed to work on. I really appreciated her feedback on each of my lessons as well as the advice she gave me for my teaching journey. I feel that working with Mrs. Hidalgo in my first semester at UTeach helped me prepare better for UTL 202.” - Dayanna R.

"Mrs. Hidalgo has the most wonderful and smart kids in her class, and it's easily discernible that these students are being taught well by Mrs. Hidalgo. What sets Mrs. Hidalgo apart from other teachers that I had from when I was in grade school is that it's obvious that she cares about how all her students learn. Not only was she teaching her 5th grade students, but she was also teaching me on what it takes to be an extraordinary teacher. Mrs. Hidalgo is definitely someone lots of people could look up to, she is the standard." Marianna G.

“A big thank you to Mrs. Hidalgo for being such an amazing cooperating teacher. I had the pleasure of working with her at the beginning of my teaching career, and it was quite inspiring. She is the type of teacher I hope to be someday. Her love for her students was amazing to see, and I hope one day I can be a quarter of what she is. Thank you for being an amazing mentor.” - Valery H.

These heartfelt testimonies consistently highlight Mrs. Hidalgo's deep impact on future teachers. She embodies the essence of guidance and excellence, leaving an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of the student interns she supports.

UTL 202 - Andrea Ramos

Andrea Ramos has been a teacher for 15 years. All of her classroom experience has been in middle school social studies, spanning 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. She currently teaches 8th grade US History at Bedichek MIddle School in Austin ISD and also serves as the Social Studies Department Chair and Lead Mentor Teacher Coordinator.  In addition to all the work she does at her school, she has consistently opened her classroom to my 202 students, hosting multiple students every year and guiding each of them through their first real secondary teaching experience. Andrea says she enjoys hosting student interns because she deeply believes in teaching as a career path and wants to help in any way that she can in motivating young people to see this path as one of dignity and importance. 

When I ask my students who are placed with Ms. Ramos what they love about being in her classroom, they tell me how she makes positive connections with her students, how she effectively engages them, and how she continuously works to build a strong classroom community. Building community in her classroom, a key pillar of what I strive to teach my students, is a strength of Andrea’s. Her student intern this semester noted “I appreciated how she integrated me into the classroom and the little community of teachers who I saw regularly. She is a natural at connecting with people!” Andrea says her favorite part of teaching is forming bonds with students, noting that relationships become the foundation for the quality of education she can provide to her students. And this attention to relationships is a huge benefit to the interns she hosts. Andrea’s interns also describe her as “authentic” and note their appreciation of how she “keeps it real.” 

My 202 students are very lucky to learn from an experienced, community-oriented, and passionate educator like Ms. Ramos.

UTL 360 Social Studies - Sarah Ruiz

Sarah Ruiz exemplifies the founding mission of UTEACH-Liberal Arts: prepare educators who will be great teachers to their individual students and also contribute to the future of education itself. Sarah is a product of UTEACH-Liberal Arts, having gone through the program to learn the ins and outs of being a great Social Studies teacher. Since then, she has not only been an acclaimed History teacher at Weiss High School, but she has also been an exemplary mentor to many UTEACH students who followed in her footsteps. 

Sarah focuses on mutual collaboration with her mentees to help them flourish. In the words of her current student teacher, Montana Prather, Sarah displays the utmost of flexibility, encouraging Montana to push against her boundaries by experimenting with new and unconventional lesson ideas as part of the grand experiment of seeing what works best with students. "If there's any time for you to try three different ways of running the same lesson, it's during your student teaching." In other words, Sarah knows that not only do History students need freedom to test out their thoughts to grow their knowledge, but future teachers need to do the same as well to reach their full potential as educators.

Most importantly, Sarah models the most important quality of a teacher to our student teachers: just be kind. Whether it's with her students or with her UTEACH'ers, Sarah's guiding attribute is to interact with everyone with kindness. As Montana says, "I cannot count the number of students she's had in past years who stop by just to give her a fist bump or a hug or to even just be given a smile. How she keeps up with all of their personal lives, I will never know, but the art of which does not go unnoticed. It's clear from the amount of snacks and treats she receives on a daily basis that for as much as she loves her students, they love her back just as much. I'm learning a lot about the value of building strong classroom relationships and hope that one day I can master it as well as she has."

UTL 640 LOTE - Kristen Kelly

Kristen Kelly is a UTeach-Liberal Arts alum. In a remarkably short time at Vista Ridge High School, Ms. Kelly has ascended from Spanish teacher to department chair and now serves as an impactful instructional coach. Her consistent excellence is further evident in her role as an exceptional cooperating teacher, shaping the next generation of educators by showing them the strategies to become an effective and compassionate Spanish teacher. This testimony is from her mentee Kelsey Iriarte-Tasch:

“Kristen Kelly is the kind of teacher I aspire to become. During my time as student teaching in her AP Spanish IV classroom, she welcomed me with open arms and modeled not just excellent instruction, but the kind of passion and humanity that makes a teacher unforgettable. Her love for language shines through in every lesson. Kristen’s openness about her early years as a teacher and the challenges she faced created a space where I felt safe to learn, make mistakes, and grow. I loved watching her rapport with students. She built connections not only with those she taught, but also with students she had never had in class. Her classroom was a place where all students, especially non-native and emerging bilingual students, felt genuinely comfortable and welcome. Every day, I saw students seek out her room simply to be in that safe and warm environment. I also always knew Kristen had my back. During my final observation, when I was unsure of how my lesson was going, she slipped me a quick thumbs-up and kind words that gave me the confidence I needed. When I had questions on weekends or felt like something was missing from a lesson I had designed, Kristen always made time to sit down with me, review my plans thoughtfully, and help me strengthen them. She has built such an extraordinary bond with her students, and if I can one day build even half of what she has, I would consider myself truly lucky. Kristen is truly a superhero in the classroom, and I feel so grateful to have had her as my mentor.” 

UTL 360 English - Emily Overton

Emily Overton currently teaches Advanced English II and AP English III and is serving in her second year as English Department Chair at Hendrickson High School in Pflugerville ISD. She has served as a UTLA Cooperating Teacher since the fall of 2018—just three and half years after completing the UTeach-Liberal Arts certification program and graduating from UT Austin. 😊 Over the last seven years, Ms. Overton has mentored four of our preservice English teachersfrom their high school internship through student teaching semesters, modeling how to effectively craft engaging, concept-based curriculum and how to balance building relationshipswith upholding high standards for performance in the classroom. And she applies those same skills with her mentees—coaching them dig deeper when they reflect on their performance while working to build their confidence in themselves as capable educators.

The students who work with Emily consistently benefit from her honest, thoughtful feedback and consistently characterize her as a warm demander, regarding her as a model of how to make high school students feel respected and genuinely cared for while appropriately challenging them to take ownership of their learning and to grow both their intellect and capacity for empathy. As such, we are lucky to call Emily Overton one of our UTLA English Cooperating Teachers, and we are excited to send a fifth UTeacher her way in the coming year. We genuinely appreciate Emily Overton’s commitment to the UTLA program and to her Hendrickson Highstudents and colleagues.

Previous Cooperating Teacher Spotlights

Spring 2024 

David Robenhorst – Highland Park Elementary/Austin ISD
Shannon Jones - Kealing Middle School/Austin ISD 
Alexandra Caspers - Austin High School/Austin ISD
Andrew Ellis – Anderson High School/Austin ISD
Erin Balfour – McNeil High School/Round Rock ISD

Spring 2023 

Liz Singhurst – Baranoff Elementary/Austin ISD
Julia Gritte - LASA/AISD 
Jessica Weisinger - Hill Country Middle School/Eanes ISD
MilyBett Llanos-Gremillion – Westwood High School/Round Rock ISD
Amy Jaggers – Anderson High School/Austin ISD

Spring 2022 

Ilene Pappert – Highland Park Elementary/Austin ISD
Renee Oricchio – Kelly Lane Middle School/Pflugerville ISD
Nikki Northcutt – McCallum High School/Austin ISD
Brittany Bussell – McNeil High School/Round Rock ISD
Mirtha Tabasco – Navarro Early College High School/Austin ISD

Spring 2021 

Melanie Drews – Gattis Elementary/Round Rock ISD
Brenda Mosher – Hill Country Middle School/Eanes ISD
Monica Watson – Anderson High School/Austin ISD
Anne Macharia – Westwood High School/Round Rock ISD
Karen Guerrero – Crockett High School/Austin ISD 

Spring 2020 

Stacey Shapiro – Zilker Elementary/Austin ISD
Christianne Cecil – Dailey Middle School/Del Valle ISD
Diana Adamson – McCallum High School/Austin ISD
Courtney Diranieh/Austin High School/Austin ISD
Melissa Prepster – Gorzycki Middle School/Austin ISD 

Spring 2019 

Sylvia Burcham – Brentwood Christian School/Private
Liesl Patteson – Vandegrift High School/Leander ISD
William Shoaf – Kealing Middle School/Austin ISD
Hiroko Fukuhara-Karch – Liberal Arts and Science Academy/Austin ISD
Kat Kelley – Austin High School/Austin ISD. 

Spring 2018 

Peggy Zahm – Gattis Elementary/Round Rock ISD
Richard Horn – Connally High School/Pflugerville ISD
Kris Campos – Cedar Park High School/Leander ISD
Jaclyn Fallin – Crockett High School/Austin ISD
James Wyatt – Murchison Middle School/Austin ISD 

Spring 2017    

Will Barrera – Allison Elementary/Austin ISD
Terry Williams – Lamar Middle School/Austin ISD
Kim Denning-Knapp – McNeil High School/Round Rock ISD
MilyBett Llanos-Gremillion – Westwood High School/Round Rock ISD
Josephine Skaer – LASA/Austin ISD

Spring 2016 

Isabel Ahearn – Ortega Elementary
Yolanda Melendez – Fulmore Middle School
Becky Stewart – Brentwood Christian Academy
Stacy Webster – Academy for Global Studies
Jennifer (JJ) Melgar – Westwood High School/Round Rock ISD
Hellen Barczi – Hendrickson High School/Pflugerville ISD