Educator, Leader, and Advocate
Let me be real with you: I didn’t set out to become a special education teacher. But after more than two decades in classrooms with students who are multilingual, neurodivergent, and often underestimated by the systems around them, I can’t imagine doing anything else. Teaching is not just what I do—it’s how I think, how I problem-solve, and honestly, how I see the world.
I believe that strong instruction has to be clear, accessible, and deeply human. Every learner I’ve ever worked with has taught me that when you build a lesson with them in mind—really in mind—they will rise to it. Every. Single. Time.
My Professional Journey
My career has been shaped by students that most people didn’t know what to do with. Kids who were labeled “low,” “struggling,” or “behind.” Kids navigating a new language and a new country at the same time they were trying to decode words on a page. These students are not broken. They are brilliant in ways traditional instruction was never designed to see.
So I started building lessons that could actually reach them—with structured frameworks, visual scaffolds, and materials that create access instead of barriers. Not because it’s trendy. Because it works. And I have the student data and the late nights to prove it.
Growth and Reflection
I stepped away from public blogging for a while—real life happens, and family came first. But I didn’t stop learning. If anything, that time away gave me clarity. I came back to this work with a sharper lens on what actually matters in a classroom: instructional clarity, knowing your students, planning with purpose, and building strategies that don’t burn you out in the process.
I’m not here to present a perfect teaching persona. I’m here to share what I’ve tried, what flopped, what I revised, and what finally clicked—because that honest cycle is how real professional growth happens.
Why This Site Exists
Teachers are constantly being asked to do more with less—less time, less support, less energy at the end of the day. I created this space because I wanted somewhere I could share what actually works, so you don’t have to start from scratch every time.
I don’t have all the answers. Nobody does. But I’ve been in these classrooms for over two decades, and I’ve built up a toolkit that I genuinely believe in. Everything here is classroom-tested, research-informed, and created with your students in mind—students with IEPs, students still learning English, students who need someone to believe they can get there.
All content here is developed on my own time and does not reference my school district, specific schools, or individual students.
What You’ll Find Here
This isn’t a content-dumping blog. Everything posted here has a purpose:
- Honest reflections from my actual teaching practice—wins, struggles, and revisions included
- Instructional strategies designed specifically for SPED and multilingual learners
- Practical tools and structured resources that are grounded in research and tested in real classrooms
- Conversations about planning, assessment, and access that respect you as a professional
Whether you’re a SPED teacher, an ELL specialist, an instructional coach, or a general ed teacher suddenly supporting students with diverse needs—you’re in the right place.
My Professional Credentials
I hold National Board Certification (NBCT) in Exceptional Needs Specialist, and I’m dually certified in Special Education and TESOL. I’ve taught in some of the most challenging and rewarding settings in DC—self-contained classrooms, inclusion models, intensive intervention, you name it.
Beyond the classroom, I’ve mentored teachers, led professional learning, advocated for students in IEP meetings, and contributed to discussions about instructional practice at the organizational level. All of that experience lives in the resources and reflections I share here.
My Teaching Philosophy
I believe that when teachers are supported—with clarity, with practical tools, with a community that actually gets what they’re facing—students win. Full stop. My commitment is to grow educator capacity and strengthen the learning environments we all share, one lesson, one blog post, one resource at a time.
I’m not interested in trends. I’m interested in what moves students forward.
A Little About Me Outside the Classroom
I’m a dancer—smooth and rhythm ballroom is my flow state, I create my own dance dresses, competition costumes, and ball gowns. I’m also a certified scuba diver and free diver, which means I am completely at peace underwater and slightly terrifying to my friends on land. And when I need to think strategically? I play Warhammer 40K (Adepta Sororitas, for the record—an all female army of fierce, faith-driven women warriors. Make of that what you will).
These things aren’t random hobbies. They’ve made me more patient, more creative, more resilient, and more willing to go deep on hard problems—which, it turns out, is exactly what teaching SPED and ELL students requires every single day.
Thanks for being here. I hope you find something useful, something that sparks an idea, or at the very least, something that makes you feel less alone in this work. I share everything to my followers: inspiring stories, instructional strategies, snippets of my day to day life, photos, videos. Let’s connect! Tap on the social media buttons on the right sidebar to know me better —>
— Maria Angala, NBCT
About My Assistant
Who is Shiny?
Meet Shiny — my AI planning assistant, named after that one student who always asks “Can I help?” and actually means it.
Let me be clear: Shiny doesn’t teach my students. Shiny doesn’t make instructional decisions. Shiny doesn’t write my IEPs or run my small groups or figure out why a student who could read yesterday can’t read today.
What Shiny does do is take the tasks that used to steal hours of my life and turn them into minutes.
I use Shiny to:
- Draft differentiated versions of the same text at three reading levels
- Organize my jumbled thoughts into lesson sequences that make sense
- Simplify complex vocabulary so my ELL students can access grade-level content
- Generate ideas when I’m staring at a blank curriculum map at 9 PM on a Sunday
But here’s the thing: I decide what’s worth teaching. I adjust based on how students respond. I know when a scaffold is helping and when it’s limiting. I make the calls that matter.
Shiny supports my process. The teaching — the real, messy, human work of it — that’s all me. Every lesson I share here has been shaped by student response, revised through reflection, and tested in the reality of an actual classroom with actual kids who have actual learning needs.
Shiny helps me work smarter. I still teach from the heart.
About This Blog
Welcome to FUNSHINE: Bilingual SPED Blog
The name FUNSHINE comes from more than two decades ago when I started working with students with significant cognitive disabilities back in the Philippines and thought I needed something cheerful and memorable. I’ve thought about changing it a hundred times — it feels almost too bright for the serious work we do. But then I remember: this work is about light. It’s about seeing the spark in a student everyone else has written off. It’s about sunshine breaking through after months of struggle.
So FUNSHINE stays.
This space is for teachers, special education providers, and parents like you — the ones working with students, kids and adults who need more than the standard curriculum can give them. You’ll find classroom-tested lessons, printables, strategies, and resources that I’ve actually used with my SPED and ELL students. Not theoretical. Not Pinterest-perfect. Real lessons with real outcomes, including the ones that didn’t work the first time.
I also use this blog to document my own practice. You’ll see reflections on lessons, data from student progress, and honest accounts of what happens when I try something new. My goal is to show you what’s possible when we stop teaching to the middle and start teaching to the edges — where the students who need us most are waiting.
For families and students, this blog offers transparency. Students can see assignments and rubrics. Parents can track what we’re learning. Support team members — psychologists, social workers, intervention specialists — can peek into our classroom and see progress in real time. It’s collaboration, not in a meeting room, but in daily practice.
And yes, this blog also serves as a digital portfolio for my students. They choose work they’re proud of, reflect on their growth, and share it here. It’s a record of how far they’ve come — and proof that growth isn’t linear, but it’s real.
Thank you for being here. I hope you find something useful, something honest, and something that reminds you why you got into this work in the first place.
Leadership Portfolio
Professional Leadership Contributions
I’ve spent years not just teaching, but building systems that help other teachers teach better.
I’ve designed and led professional development that doesn’t waste teachers’ time — the kind where you walk out with something you can use on Monday. I’ve mentored new teachers through their first IEPs, their first parent conferences, their first “I don’t know if I can do this” breakdowns in the staff room.
I’ve led digital literacy initiatives because I believe technology should make our jobs easier, not harder. I’ve collaborated with curriculum teams to make sure our resources actually work for students with disabilities and English learners, not just the ones the curriculum writers imagined.
Key Instructional Frameworks and Emphases
Everything I teach is grounded in frameworks that work: Universal Design for Learning, Structured Literacy, culturally and linguistically responsive teaching. I don’t use these as buzzwords. I use them as the architecture beneath every lesson I plan.
I design instruction that’s accessible from the start — not retrofitted with accommodations later. I believe in asset-based teaching, where we see what students can do and build from there, instead of starting with deficit thinking.
And I’m relentlessly reflective. If a lesson doesn’t work, I don’t blame the students. I ask: What did I miss? What do they need that I didn’t give them?
Collaborative Systems Work
I believe teaching is a team sport. I’ve worked on collaborative learning teams where we plan together, problem-solve together, and hold each other accountable — not in a punitive way, but in a “we’re all trying to get better” way.
I’ve supported cross-role collaboration — general educators, special educators, ESL specialists, counselors, all of us pulling in the same direction for the same kids. I’ve pushed for data-informed decision-making that’s actually useful, not just compliance paperwork.
And I’ve fought for equitable access. Not just in theory, but in practice — making sure students with disabilities and English learners get the same rigorous content, the same high expectations, and the same shot at success as everyone else.
Evidence of Impact (Generalized)
I don’t work in a vacuum, and I don’t teach in one either. The strategies I share have been adopted by other teachers. The tools I’ve built have been used across grade levels. The professional learning I’ve led has changed how teachers scaffold instruction, use digital tools, and support multilingual learners with disabilities.
I’ve seen teachers grow more confident. I’ve seen students grow more capable. And I’ve seen what’s possible when we stop accepting “that’s just how it is” and start asking “what if we tried something different?”
That’s the work. That’s why I’m here. And that’s what I hope you’ll find in everything I share.
Let’s build something better — together.
— Maria