Zdravo moje ime je Nina Finci and I’m an ELD teacher at Bridge and a member of the instructional lead team. Having immigrated to the United States and been an ELD student in high school, has inspired me to work with emerging bilinguals my entire career, starting at Balboa High School in San Francisco. 

My greatest professional growth and personal transformations occurred during the ten years I taught English and ELD at Peninsula High School, where I learned the importance of creating safe spaces and building curriculum around students’ background and interests. This was also the time I became a mom and wrote a memoir about my family’s immigrant experience in the backdrop of the civil war in my home country. It is these identities – educator, mother and writer – that I have been trying to merge and balance ever since.

After taking a brief pause from teaching to be an instructional and literacy coach, I soon realized that my roots are back in the classroom. Having visited many classrooms and worked with a variety of teachers in the district, I yearned to try some of those great ideas and strategies with my own students again. So six years ago, I found my true home at Bridge, a place of belonging, love, justice, hope and joy for myself and up to 72 newcomers to our district. This year I am excited to bring ethnic studies tenants into my classroom and am challenging myself to allow the students to lead the learning. I’m looking forward to learning alongside my colleagues and growing in my practice towards being a more anti-racist educator this year. Hvala na povjerenju i vidimo se uskoro!

Fun facts:

• In high school, my favorite subjects were keyboarding and driver’s ed.

• My first job was at Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors 

• My all time favorite songs are Black by Pearl Jam and Killing Me Softly by The Fugees

• If I wasn’t a teacher, I’d be a traveling food critic.

• My dream is to publish my book Peel Me a Pomegranate