MIAMI (WSVN) - Miami-Dade County Public Schools has announced four finalists for Teacher of the Year.
The winner of the district competition will be announced Thursday night and will go on to compete for the state title.
One of the finalists is seventh grade language arts teacher Adrienne Burrows.
After graduating from Miami Killian Senior High school, Burrows received her first teaching job at Miami Edison Senior High.
Burrows recalls her time at the school saying, “The system had pretty much given up on that school and were on the verge of closure, and I wanted to go to place to let them know that these kids do have the ability to learn, because I was once the type of student that they were.”
She now inspires students at Young Women’s Preparatory Academy and has been recognized for her career of teaching for 12 years in Miami-Dade.
“I’m not one who boasts about accolades and things like that, but to see everything that I have done within my career come to fruition in this magnitude is absolutely incredible,” said Burrows.
She said her teaching philosophy is to just empower, inspire and motivate her kids to be amazing.
Another finalist, Ray Parris Jr. has been teaching for the past 22 years, 18 of them in Florida.
Parris is currently a digital media teacher at Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior High School.
“We kind of do a lot, from robotics, from app development, from digital media certification process,” said Parris, “but my class is more like kids walk away with a skill set, from entrepreneurs to building and coding, that they can apply the skills in the real world industry.”
He said he is glad to be recognized and loves teaching students skills that go way beyond the classroom.
“Honored, I’m really honored. It’s been a roller coaster,” said Parris.
The third finalist in the district competition is Cope Center’s English teacher Hope Grant.
“At a very young age, at 8, I realized that I loved the craft of teaching and as a little girl I would be teaching the bushes and the trees in the backyard,” Grant said. “It is a humbling feeling, because as a teacher, you don’t usually look for accolades. Most of the time what you get is from the student’s successes.”
The final finalist in the running to represent Miami-Dade County Public Schools in the competition is Oliver Diez.
Diez has been working as a music teacher at Palmetto Elementary with almost 20 years of experience.
He wants to make sure other art teachers get the recognition they deserve, since he is the only special subject teacher in the running.
“It’s a true honor, especially to be at this level, county-wide, to be one of the four finalists. I’m very humbled,” said Diez. “I would love for it to be an inspiration to other teachers in the field of music and art.”
The winner will be announced at a dinner Thursday night at the Double-Tree by Hilton Hotel Miami International Airport and Convention Center and will then move on to compete against the state-wide finalists.
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