April, despite its inclement weather, often gives us the first tastes of the blooming beauty of springtime. After winter, seeing the buds emerge is a rejuvenating sight for sore eyes. Some of the buds of our April are all of the amazing educators who are hard at work teaching our young people, currently at a distance and through unprecedented challenges — like our April Teacher of the Month, Ariana Contreras. Her commitment to fostering the growth of young minds in creative and compassionate ways is so impressive. Congratulations, Ms. Ariana!
Ms. Ariana has been a huge asset to her entire school community, taking on multiple leadership positions that help to grow her and others’ ability to assist students. She has served on the Instructional Leadership Team, which helps to set goals for the instructional vision of her school, and is a member of the Superintendent’s Innovation Fellowship and Elementary Literacy Collaborative. She is always looking for ways to improve her teaching practice and help others do the same.
And her devotion to improving her community goes beyond teaching. She has assisted in writing grants to obtain more funding for her school, and she’s always looking for fun and educational field trips to take students on. As one parent says, “Ariana is truly a wonderful asset to our school. She is always present, always has a smile for everyone, brings new ideas, and most importantly, inspires the kids to learn.”
Ms. Ariana has shown a deft ability to teach young students the fundamentals, and in turn instills in them a love for learning. She makes her lessons fun and engaging, as well as informative and instructive. One student says, “She makes me excited to learn by reading books with me. She helps people read a lot and we both sound out the words together.”
Uplifting each of her students is always at the forefront of Ms. Ariana’s teaching. She pays close attention to the needs of each of her students—both inside and outside of the classroom—and engineers creative ways to help students who may need extra support, showing them that they are cared for.
We’ll leave it to a student to sum it up: “She is always looking out for us and I think she is the best teacher I could ever have.”
Congratulations, Ms. Ariana, and thank you for all that you do to support your students and community!
If you’re interested in learning more about our Teacher of the Month program, and how to nominate a teacher you know, visit us here.