I’m a LAUSD Teacher of the Year!

I am excited to announce that I was selected as one of LAUSD’s Teachers of the Year! I am very honored by the award, but even more humbling is how I was nominated.

Earlier in my career, when I taught at a charter school, I would often go entire school years with exactly the same class. That’s because charter schools can set enrollment limits. Maybe one or two students might leave and they would be replaced by a student off the waitlist, but some years I could go the entire year with exactly the same set of students.

Teaching at a neighborhood school is different. We have no enrollment limit. We accept anyone who walks in the door and have no waitlist. If they show up at 7:00 AM, they could be in our classrooms at 7:45 AM.  This is not uncommon, and often my rosters will increase by 5 or 6 students throughout the year.

This year was much more intense – I received 10 new students throughout the year. We got students displaced from Houston by Hurricane Harvey, some students moved to our neighborhood after family tragedy, and others who’s families were transient, moving from one neighborhood to another until they hopefully found a more permanent situation.

It was one of these students, someone who came to my class in November and moved on to another home by January, that nominated me for Teacher of the Year. 

Let’s be honest: it can be very challenging to on-board a student into your classroom culture in the middle of the year, let alone 10 students coming in at varying times. But it also reminds us the purpose of public schools – that every student, regardless of their situation, deserves an excellent education. 

People who read my blog know that I do not get paid for writing. However, if you are interested in contributing in someway, I would really appreciate a donation to my classroom projects through Donors Choose. Any contribution would go directly to supplies that students use everyday. I have one project requesting 5 extra chromebooks for my classroom, and another project requesting supplies for our engineering room. I would really appreciate your support.