Meet Teacher of the Month Edward Garnica

With February comes celebrations of Lunar New Year, friendship, and love, but also another opportunity to recognize a new Teacher of the Month. This month’s awardee is an educator who sees strength in all his students and demonstrates a commitment to his community as well. We are so pleased to announce that Edward Garnica of César Chávez Elementary School is our fantastic February Teacher of the Month! 

Mr. Garnica teaches 5th grade at César Chávez and is an integral part of the community there. He is a member of an innovation grant planning team as well as the Instructional Leadership team, while also going out of his way to support every one of his students. One colleague says that Mr. Garnica “has a child with multiple disabilities in his class and he sees having her there as an honor. He is consistently positive with working with students and families.”

His students full-heartedly echo this praise. One student raves that “Mr. Garnica is a very helpful teacher because when we are doing our tests, he helps us understand the problems. Also when kids are not feeling well. He talks with them and makes them feel better . . .Mr. Garnica is the best teacher I had in five years.” 

Mr. Garnica’s compassion and support is felt not only by his students and colleagues, but by their parents as well. One parent said that “due to Mr. Garnica’s effort, motivation, and passion, I have seen an increase in (students’) self motivation to be in school. Mr. Garnica’s leadership and leading by example has made an impact on my son positively academically and wanting to do better each day in school.” 

Thank you so much for your commitment to your students and your community, Mr. Garnica. We are thrilled to have you as our Teacher of the Month! Read more about past teachers of the month here

We warmly thank our friends at KKR for making our Teacher of the Month Program possible this year with a KKR COVID Response Fund. Learn more at KKR.com/grants.