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AGUSTIN GRANA NAMED M-DCPS TEACHER OF THE YEAR Agustin Grana, a special education teacher at Southwest Miami Senior High School, was named the 2012 Francisco R. Walker Miami-Dade County Teacher of the Year in a ceremony at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa last night. Seven finalists vied for the coveted title this year, which included one nominee from each of the District’s five regions, one from the Education Transformation Office and one from Alternative Education. Grana has been teaching intellectually disabled students at Southwest Miami for the past 10 years since he began his teaching career in 2000. Grana, who also has a master’s in divinity, says his role is not simply to give information to his students, but to make it applicable. Because of this and also his students’ need for work training, Grana founded the C.L.A.W. (Community, Living and Working) Wash program – a student-operated school business that washes faculty and staff cars during school hours. The program serves a dual purpose, it reinforces academic skills learned in the classroom and promotes both social and employability skills. Grana also has founded the Southwest Pantry to assist the needy and impoverished in the Southwest High School community by providing them with donated food and clothing. Lisette Reigosa, a 5th grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at William Jennings Bryan Elementary School, was chosen as the runner-up. Reigosa uses a variety of strategies from peer discussion and small group instruction to graphics and FCAT Task cards to make sure all her students’ needs are met. “We celebrate our Teacher of the Year because this great nation of ours was built by teachers,” said Superintendent of Schools Alberto M. Carvalho. “Teachers mold the future, and we should address them in the most reverent ways possible.” # # # 11-JS/038/HD |
