She has served students for 32 years, making a meaningful impact as a bilingual teacher. She has a deep understanding of how difficult it can be to learn a second language, bringing the culture, language and experiences of her home country, Puerto Rico, to her teaching. She is committed to using all the strategies possible to ensure that her children become strong learners in two languages and her day-to-day actions affirm her strong belief in building meaningful relationships with her students and families. She believes in holding students accountable at a very high level of expectations and, as a result, her students continue to soar academically. Her peer consider her one of the best teachers, sharing that she sets the bar very high for her students, while working alongside them to ensure their success. Her principal and peers note that she arrives early and stays late in an effort to capitalize on every possible moment to reinforce and teach key concepts to her students. She believes in holding her students accountable and expects the same from herself. When a second grade teacher at Woodridge had to stop teaching due to medical reasons, Manuelita gave up her conference/planning time to go and work with those second grade students, recognizing that having the students with a substitute teacher for more than a third of the year would not be in the students best interests. After a few weeks, Manuelita asked her principal, Dr. Cordell Jones, if she could merge the second graders with her current third grade class, so that she could work with them the remainder of the year. Together, they agreed to do just that and Manuelita was was able to manage two classes of multi-age students. This type of selflessness is amazing! Her students always take top priority for Manuelita! For her dedication to her students and exceptional teaching, Woodridge Elementary Third Grade Bilingual Teacher, Manuelita Rodriguez, as been named the Rotary Teacher of Excellence for November 2011.
|
|
Rotary Teacher of Excellence
