Ms. Martinez was born in Sun Valley, California, but moved to Mexico when she was six months old. She then studied there until 7th grade before returning to the United States.

Ms. Martinez then became a teacher’s assistant because she was unsure of what to study. After her counselor suggested that she become a teacher herself, Ms. Martinez began teaching at Van Nuys High School in 2004.

Here’s 5 minutes with her;

1. If you could eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pozole. It has to have onions, Tapitio and cabbage. If you don’t add onions, it won’t taste good.

2. Do you prefer going out or staying home on a Friday night?
When I was younger, I used to like to go out with my friends dancing. Now that I have a 10-year-old daughter, we just stay home and watch TV, or I watch Instagram reels and laugh.

3. What was the last movie you watched, and how did you feel about it?
I watched Zombies 4. It was okay, but I like the other Zombie movies because they talk about how people can work together with other types of people and find their similarities.

4. Are you more of an optimistic or a pessimistic person?
I’d say I’m optimistic because I like to see the world in a positive way, and I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt every time.

5. What would be the first thing you would do if you won the lottery?
I thought about this. Because I work in the office where I deal with international students, some of them come without a parent, and many of them get kicked out of their homes when they’re older. So I would build a building with dorms for them to live in. It would be an apartment building for students who want to finish high school and keep studying. In order to stay, they would have to have good grades and go to school.