Glen Burnie resident hailed in P.G.
Colleagues say the county’s Teacher of the Year ‘gives back to the profession’
As she made her way through high school, Daleisha Myers wasn’t interested in becoming a teacher.
The Glen Burnie resident enjoyed working with children, but her grandmother was a teacher and so was her aunt. So were several of her cousins. Myers thought she might try something else and forge her own path.
“I was fighting it, maybe just to be a little rebellious,” she said.
When she started her undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, she finally yielded to whatever combination of genetics and shared interests that created so manyteachers in her family — and started on her journey to becoming a teacher.
“It’s just something that the people in my family took hold of,” she said.
She’s never looked back.
Myers’ career choice gained some serious validation last week when the fifth-grade teacher at Tulip Grove Elementary School in Bowie was named the 2018 Prince George’s County Teacher of the Year.
To her colleagues, the award came as no surprise.
“Mrs. Myers is good at what she does because she understands the importance of building relationships,” said Jaime Whitefield-Coffen, Tulip Grove’s principal. “Some teachers fail to realize that the first thing you have to do is build positive relationships with their students.
“You have to make them want to come to school every day. Because of that, her children work hard for her and they love her and have agreat respect for her.The teaching of the content is secondary because she has built such a great relationships with them and they’re already engaged. And so they learn a lot.”
Whitefield-Coffen said she spotted something special in Myers right away, when she interviewed for an open teaching spot at Tulip Grove about four years ago. Myers had taught for eight years at Marlton Elementary School in Upper Marlboro before that.
“I could tell that she was enthusiastic about instruction,” she said. “She understood that her job wasto takethem to the next level.
Iknew when she walked away from that interview that I wanted her because someone else was going to scoop her up.”
Myers handles a little bit of everything as a fifth-grade teacher, but encouraging students to write is her particular passion. “I love to write, so my writing classes are fun to me,” she said. “I look forward to teaching it three times a day. My goal for them is to make writing fun and connect it to reading. … My kids are readers here, so I always try to relate it back to that. One way to get them inspired is to make them think about their audience. You’re not writing for yourself, you’re writing for someone else and your job is to make them love what you’re about to write.”
At the awards gala last week, she listened to classroom stories from the other Teacher of the Year nominees and came away impressed. There were other elementary school teachers there, as well as some from county high schools and middle schools.
“I was inspired,” she said. “They’re doing some cool things. Iwascompletely fascinated listening to them. I would have honestly been happyto have anyone of them standing there [getting the award]. That’s the honest truth.”
Sometimes she thinks about moving on to middle school as her fifth-graders do at the end of every school year. But for now, she’s happy where she is.
“I thought about [teaching] sixth grade or seventh grade,” she said. “But I love kids at this age level because they still have that inquisitiveness, that wonder about things.
That’s what Ilove.So Idon’t see myself going there [middle school], but I also don’t cross anything out.”
She doesn’t just teach fifth-graders, though. She also teaches teachers, serving as a mentor to younger colleagues and as an instructor at Bowie State University, where she teaches education classes.
“She’s a great teacher,” said Whitfield- Coffen. “Mrs. Myers understands that, in our profession, that’s not always consecutive.
Because she understands that, she does professional development with her colleagues.
At Bowie State, she gives back to the profession. She does that so that when achild leaves her classroom, they can have the same [positive] experience in someone else’s classroom.
She’s ensuring that they, too, are growing as educators.
“It’s not just a job for her. It’s a calling.” jmcnamara@capgaznews.com
The Glen Burnie resident enjoyed working with children, but her grandmother was a teacher and so was her aunt. So were several of her cousins. Myers thought she might try something else and forge her own path.
“I was fighting it, maybe just to be a little rebellious,” she said.
When she started her undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, she finally yielded to whatever combination of genetics and shared interests that created so manyteachers in her family — and started on her journey to becoming a teacher.
“It’s just something that the people in my family took hold of,” she said.
She’s never looked back.
Myers’ career choice gained some serious validation last week when the fifth-grade teacher at Tulip Grove Elementary School in Bowie was named the 2018 Prince George’s County Teacher of the Year.
To her colleagues, the award came as no surprise.
“Mrs. Myers is good at what she does because she understands the importance of building relationships,” said Jaime Whitefield-Coffen, Tulip Grove’s principal. “Some teachers fail to realize that the first thing you have to do is build positive relationships with their students.
“You have to make them want to come to school every day. Because of that, her children work hard for her and they love her and have agreat respect for her.The teaching of the content is secondary because she has built such a great relationships with them and they’re already engaged. And so they learn a lot.”
Whitefield-Coffen said she spotted something special in Myers right away, when she interviewed for an open teaching spot at Tulip Grove about four years ago. Myers had taught for eight years at Marlton Elementary School in Upper Marlboro before that.
“I could tell that she was enthusiastic about instruction,” she said. “She understood that her job wasto takethem to the next level.
Iknew when she walked away from that interview that I wanted her because someone else was going to scoop her up.”
Myers handles a little bit of everything as a fifth-grade teacher, but encouraging students to write is her particular passion. “I love to write, so my writing classes are fun to me,” she said. “I look forward to teaching it three times a day. My goal for them is to make writing fun and connect it to reading. … My kids are readers here, so I always try to relate it back to that. One way to get them inspired is to make them think about their audience. You’re not writing for yourself, you’re writing for someone else and your job is to make them love what you’re about to write.”
At the awards gala last week, she listened to classroom stories from the other Teacher of the Year nominees and came away impressed. There were other elementary school teachers there, as well as some from county high schools and middle schools.
“I was inspired,” she said. “They’re doing some cool things. Iwascompletely fascinated listening to them. I would have honestly been happyto have anyone of them standing there [getting the award]. That’s the honest truth.”
Sometimes she thinks about moving on to middle school as her fifth-graders do at the end of every school year. But for now, she’s happy where she is.
“I thought about [teaching] sixth grade or seventh grade,” she said. “But I love kids at this age level because they still have that inquisitiveness, that wonder about things.
That’s what Ilove.So Idon’t see myself going there [middle school], but I also don’t cross anything out.”
She doesn’t just teach fifth-graders, though. She also teaches teachers, serving as a mentor to younger colleagues and as an instructor at Bowie State University, where she teaches education classes.
“She’s a great teacher,” said Whitfield- Coffen. “Mrs. Myers understands that, in our profession, that’s not always consecutive.
Because she understands that, she does professional development with her colleagues.
At Bowie State, she gives back to the profession. She does that so that when achild leaves her classroom, they can have the same [positive] experience in someone else’s classroom.
She’s ensuring that they, too, are growing as educators.
“It’s not just a job for her. It’s a calling.” jmcnamara@capgaznews.com
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
