M-DCPS TEACHER OF THE YEAR IS DETERMINED TO SPARK
STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN THEIR OWN EDUCATION

            Educators all over Miami-Dade County recently got a new role model:  Miami-Dade County Public Schools Teacher of the Year, Jacquelle E. Sconiers.  A teacher who truly inspires her students to think, she also serves as an inspiration to her peers.

            Sconiers teaches business, math and social skills to a population of students that some may consider “unteachable,” who are enrolled in the alternative education program at the Juvenile Justice Center School.

            “The average person who doesn’t understand would judge these students as outcasts, misfits or only mere criminals,” Sconiers said.  “I often reiterate to my students that a juvenile detention center doesn’t have to be the only stop in their lives, and a prison or grave doesn’t have to be in their future,” she said. “They are the captains of their own fates.”

            Sconiers says her students are extremely proud of her winning the top teaching prize, but she doesn’t see her accomplishment as motivating enough to incite a new fervor for education. “I do, however, believe they feel special that someone, who has been acknowledged in this manner, cares so much about them and chooses to educate them,” she stated.

            Sconiers strives to be the spark that ignites the pilot light in each of her students that encourages lifelong learning.  She capitalizes on values instilled in her by her parents to persuade and empathize with the students and to help them open up to new ideas.  Sconiers is a life-long learner herself.  She’s continuing her own education towards a doctorate, and takes various other courses as well. She then shares this knowledge with her colleagues and her students. After all, she says, that is the mission of an educator.  A pinnacle moment for her comes when the light in a student’s eyes start to flicker with understanding and she sees the pride of accomplishment on their faces. 

            “I hope they realize, they still have a responsibility to themselves to want to own their education for their own sake,” she said.  “Education is not power, it is merely potential power to the user who cultivates it.”

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