Math teacher Marilyn Garcia named Lee schools’ 2022 New Teacher of the Year

When Marilyn Garcia — fourth-grade math trainer at James Stephens Elementary — walked into the Lee County district workplaces for a subject vacation in Might, she never envisioned she would be obtaining an award.

“You don’t know if you might be likely to win unless of course they surprise you somewhere,” Garcia explained.

Garcia is the Lee County College District’s 2022 New Trainer of the 12 months. She was picked out of 25 nominated new academics all through the district and went via a lengthy job interview system.

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“It is an honor to get this award and it would not have been achievable without my mentor, principal, students and family members,” Garcia claimed. “My to start with calendar year as a teacher was practically nothing limited of wonderful. I genuinely adore what I do, and I cannot hold out to satisfy my future pupils and make a difference in their lives.”

Joelle McLaughlin, coordinator of specialist improvement for Lee County Schools, claimed in an emailed assertion that Garcia stood out among the 25 fellow encouraged instructors for the award.

“Marilyn Garcia was the excellent option for our New Teacher of the Year Award,” McLaughlin stated in her assertion. “Marilyn stood out for many reasons, but the most clear was her enthusiasm for teaching and her love of the students and team at James Stephens.”

Jacki Fantasia, assistant principal at James Stephens Elementary, nominated Garcia for the award.

“Marilyn’s a special good results story, so it was type of a no brainer for me,” Fantasia explained. “We presented her our fourth-quality math, which would make her the only math teacher for 66 college students. It was a substantial enterprise.”

And her students adore her.

“She is a most well-liked adult on our campus,” Fantasia stated. “She builds outstanding interactions with all of her youngsters. No one has a undesirable point to say about Marilyn.”

Tale continues

Instructor of the 12 months: Lee County’s Instructor of the Year is Allison Kerner of Harns Marsh Middle College

How Garcia got her get started at James Stephens Elementary

Garcia commenced at James Stephens Elementary as a paraprofessional in 2019. She done her training internship at the college before currently being employed as a extended-expression visitor teacher for next grade last spring.

She was hired as a total-time teacher at the commence of the 2021-22 school calendar year, where she taught fourth-grade math to a few intervals of pupils.

Her curriculum includes everything from division to fractions, styles to lines of symmetry. And she does all the things with a mentor teacher, Melissa Johns — a 20-year veteran teacher and math coach — who in the course of the earlier calendar year has served Garcia create lesson options and checks and replicate on what is actually performing and what just isn’t.

“Marilyn has been outstanding. She’s a full organic with the pupils. She’s really pushed. She is all about mastering her written content,” Fantasia claimed. “So them working collectively has been unbelievable. If we could replicate that with just about every new teacher, think about what instruction could appear like.”

For students in behavioral intervention systems, Fantasia explained Garcia’s class is typically the only topic they go away their application for.

“She does a great job with all of our young children who occur from our behavior intervention unit,” Fantasia reported. “Some of all those learners go out to normal education classes just for a portion of the working day and several of them really feel additional assured in their math competencies, so they conclude up likely to Ms. Garcia’s course.”

Although Garcia knew she required to train elementary faculty, she failed to foresee owning fourth quality students.

“I type of understood that I required to start out off in elementary and my intention is to inevitably operate my way up to you know, middle college or higher school, but I was normally established on kindergarten through 2nd quality,” Garcia mentioned. “It unquestionably pushed me exterior of my comfort zone. And I really feel like it was the ideal alternative simply because it was a fantastic year.”

And she is resuming her situation at the elementary faculty for the 2022-23 faculty 12 months.

“I feel like it came entire circle for me,” Garcia said of educating at the faculty in which she commenced as a paraprofessional.

Garcia aspires to train at the high university level.

“I come to feel like for me developing up, my high college teachers made the most impression on me because I was trying to use for colleges and they ended up actually encouraging me determine out what route I wished to go down,” Garcia claimed.

McLaughlin stated the College District of Lee County is honored that Garcia selected to get started her instructing occupation in Lee.

“She wonderfully represents all of the amazing new academics inside of the School District of Lee County,” McLaughlin explained in her statement. “Marilyn Loves training. She spoke of her college students with tears in her eyes.”

Nikki Ross covers training for the Fort Myers News-Push and Naples Daily Information. She can be arrived at at [email protected] or adhere to her on Twitter @nikkiinreallife.

This posting originally appeared on Fort Myers Information-Press: James Stephens Elementary math teacher named New Trainer of the Yr