Norma Flores

I taught Language Arts Enrichment and ESL in the LAUSD Gifted Students Program. I was an Associate Professor of Speech Communication at CSULA, Southwestern College, Mt.San Antonio College, Cal Poly Pomona, San Bernardino State University and retired from the Speech Communication Dept. at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Ca. in 2001. I've also taught in the Orange County Migrant Education Program specializing in Bicultural Speech Communication.

I've taught multicultural students and mainstream students in all my classes. My focus has always been on verbal interaction in which I facilitate student learning through ( 1 ) message phrasing; ( 2 ) message paraphrasing; and ( 3 ) message clarifying to reach mutual understanding.

1974 Received the Dr. Helen Miller Bailey Scholarship to ELACC; 1974 Received the Ruben Salazar Award for Public Relations; 1975 Awarded Certificate of Excellence Title IX Chicano Literature; 1975 Received B'nai B'rith ELAC Public Speaking Contest; 1977 Received a Certificate of Honor CSULA Speech Communication & Drama; 1979 Received Graduate Student Program Commendation CSULA 1979 Received the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Advocacy.

1956 Graduate of Theodore Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights. 1975 Graduate of Calif. State University Los Angeles with a Duo B.A.in Speech Communication and Mexican-American Studies. 1979 Graduate of Calif. State University Los Angeles with an M.A. in Speech Communication upon completion of my graduate Project Thesis: The Development of an English as a Second Language Functional Communication Curriculum Guide for the Post-Secondary Level. 1981 Post Graduate Studies at the School of Theology at Claremont ( Christian Ethics in a Secular Society in order to link the framework of Judeo-Christian social identification with intercultural collaboration communication competence.) 1989 TESOL teacher preparation program at the University of California at Riverside. 1999 National Communication Association Credo for Ethical Communication co-author.

When I was 8 years old I taught 100 bracero workers in Holly, Colorado to speak "English Fieldworker" phrases with the help of 3 University of Mexico teacher preparation students. They taught me how to interact with the students in Spanish and coach them in English. As an adult I volunteered to work with the ESL students that had just come to the Southeast part of Los Angeles. I developed and taught my own curriculum because there wasn't very much available back in the late 60's early 70's. Part of my curriculum included writing poetry. I wrote a poem about Cesar Chavez that appeared in El Malcriado in 1969. After I received the Ruben Salazar Award for Community Action, I was appointed the Minister of Education for the Brown Berets. I attended many school board meetings and sat on many curriculum development committees in order to facilitate bicultural and multicultural curriculum, texts and teacher workshops.