Indianapolis Public Schools honors two as ‘Teacher of the Year’

Do you need to know a secret?

That was the query Indianapolis Public Faculties Superintendent Aleesia Johnson had for a number of dozen first graders at James Whitcomb Riley Faculty 43 on Friday.

They did, in fact. And it was a fairly large one.

Certainly one of their academics was the most effective elementary faculty trainer in your complete district. They usually have been all about to shock her.

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Moments later, DaMeisha Fleming was being cheered and hugged, surrounded by college students, household and IPS officers gathered within the Faculty 43’s library to inform the first-grade trainer that she was one among two IPS academics chosen because the district’s “Trainer of the Yr.”

“My thoughts is blown,” stated Fleming, who thought she was taking her class to the library for storytime with the superintendent. “It’s really an honor and a privilege to carry such a giant title.”

For the primary time, IPS selected two of its academics as “Trainer of the Yr.” Whereas they have been chosen to characterize completely different elements of the schooling system – one for elementary grades and one for secondary – they’re each working to make the district a extra equitable place for all college students.

For Fleming, meaning strolling into her classroom daily prepared to like her college students, meet them the place they’re and ensure they see themselves represented within the supplies they examine.

“I simply know that I’ve to instill in my college students a way of identification and a way of affection,” she stated. “They arrive right into a classroom the place they’re accepted and appreciated every day.”

For Paige Sjoerdsma, a seventh and eighth grade English trainer at Butler Lab Faculty 55, meaning setting excessive expectations for all of her college students.

“Despite the fact that she’s actual strict, she pushes us to go additional,” stated Willayah Brewer, an eighth-grade scholar at Faculty 55. “She needs us to chase our goals.”

One other eighth-grader, Ausieana Dugan, stated Sjoerdsma by no means provides up on her college students.

“She means lots to me as a result of she pushed me to maintain going,” Dugan stated, “even after I gave up.”

They have been two of dozens of scholars packed within the Faculty 55 library to shock Sjoerdsma on Friday afternoon. Wiping away tears, Sjoerdsma stated she was blown away to stroll right into a room filled with “all of the folks I like and care about.”

The IPS Trainer of the Yr for center and highschool grades, she has had a winding profession that’s about to take her in a brand new path – out of the classroom.

A trainer for 9 years, first on the elementary degree after which at seventh and eighth grades, she’s helped construct out the center faculty applications at each of the district’s Butler lab faculties. Subsequent 12 months, she’ll transfer into a training position that can permit her to assist academics all through the constructing. Nonetheless, she stated, she’s not leaving instructing.

“I will likely be in all the school rooms,” she stated. “I hope to spend virtually all my time in lecture rooms, so I’m actually enthusiastic about that.”

Fleming will likely be again in her first-grade classroom subsequent 12 months, however with even larger plans.

She’s going to increase on her Black Historical past Unit, instructing her younger college students about vital Black figures all year long, quite than simply throughout Black historical past month. Studying modifications throughout that unit, she stated, and he or she needs to construct on the engagement she sees when her college students are studying about those that appear like them.  

Fleming stated she submitted for the award not as a result of she does one thing particular, however as a result of she needed recognition for Faculty 43. She’s spent all 5 years of her profession there and thinks it’s a particular place. So, she knew she needed to end placing collectively her portfolio, even after her shedding her father just a few weeks earlier than it was due.

“I actually needed to place our faculty on the map,” she stated, “as a result of I do consider that we do a variety of nice issues right here.”

Name IndyStar schooling reporter Arika Herron at 317-201-5620 or e-mail her at Arika.Herron@indystar.com. Observe her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.