Teacher Feature April 2026: Gisele Esquivel
Gisele Esquivel is the Education Specialist at Ocean State Media in Rhode Island, where she draws on her experience as a former elementary classroom teacher and Fulbright Fellow to spark student curiosity and deepen media literacy. In her current role, she supports educators, students, and families through inclusive initiatives as part of the Community and Education Team. She is currently piloting a fourth-grade student journalism club, with plans to expand the program in partnership with multiple schools across the state.
Discover Gisele’s favorite tools, pro tips, and insights from her student journalism club in the Q&A below.
How long have you been using StoryMaker resources? Just a few months.
What are your favorite StoryMaker lessons? My favorite lessons would have to be The Elementary Express: What are the 5 W’s, and the Fact vs. Opinion lesson is a close second. Both of these lessons integrate so easily with English language arts lessons that students are already learning about in school. I believe that they help to establish a strong foundation for how to approach storytelling.
What’s a media-making tool or resource you can’t live without? Canva is my favorite resource to use to create slide decks to facilitate the Journalism Club and for editing videos currently.
What’s your advice for teachers and educators just getting started on StoryMaker? I do not believe that there is a right way to use a resource or even a right lesson to begin with. StoryMaker has a number of excellent resources to get you started. To really determine where to start is dependent on your students, what they are hoping to achieve, and what they are wondering about. I believe that student-driven curiosity can lead to amazing results. Asking students for their goals and hopes for our collaboration is an excellent starting point to create projects that reflect and interest their audience (their school community). I started exploring potential story topics with students by just asking, “Who are you?” and “What do you care about?”
What’s one moment from your student journalism club that made you proud or surprised you? Students are so capable. The first story we recently published on school lunch began by asking students, “What are the things you care about?” And in response, the topic of school lunch came up. Students were wondering where school lunch comes from, who decides on the menu, and why some items are gone from the menu. I am continuously impressed by their creativity and curiosity. This initial idea led to our interview with the executive chef, production manager, and registered dietitian from Sodexo, who provide lunch for all of the schools in the Providence School District. I am impressed with how thoughtful their questions were and how detailed they were in determining how to edit the footage to engage their school community. What most surprised me about this experience is how much the students can independently drive a story they care about telling. I am really just a facilitator, and I love having the opportunity to support their storytelling.
You’re working to expand your student journalism club across multiple schools. What’s been the key to building strong collaborations with other educators and schools so far? I am so thankful for my current teacher partner, Tasha White. She has been awesome to work with and has really promoted the Journalism Club with colleagues. Journalism Club started from a conversation between her and I regarding her students’ growing interest in expanding their media-making knowledge to tell more stories and her sharing a need for support. I think that being able to jump in and support where needed, really listening to what educators and students are looking for is key to building strong partnerships. Another factor instrumental to the success of the Journalism Club is the administration’s full support at Alfred Lima Elementary where I currently lead the club. That speaks to the trust they have in my teacher partner, Tasha White and without that trust, entering the school to begin this club would not have been so easy. As I approach new schools to collaborate with, I am thinking about how to build trust with educators and administrators and collaboratively create a Journalism Club that responds to the specific needs and wants of that school community.
Links to student work: Our first interview, and this was in response to the shooting at Brown University a few months ago
What’s a dream story you’d like to report on or a person you’d like to interview? It is hard to think of a person or a specific story. I think my dream is really for the opportunity to create a community of educators locally who are interested in student journalism (like SRL but on a state-level) and to see a space that is accessible for students to share stories that they care about. So I guess you could say my dream is to see student storytelling regularly. There’s a lot to learn from that, I think.
What are you currently listening to? Camilo! He’s a Latin pop artist from Colombia.
You can reach out to Gisele directly in the SRL Community Commons to learn how she’s adapted StoryMaker for her program. And keep an eye out for an upcoming SRL Chat with Gisele. RSVP here.
TRL Chats are short, live conversations with educators swapping stories, strategies, and sparks from their classrooms in the SRL Community Commons. Join us!