(WSVN) - All teachers bear the great responsibility of teaching children the skills they need to succeed in life, but five teachers from Broward County Public Schools are in a class of their own, as they are the finalists for the 2025 Caliber Awards Teacher of the Year.
They’ve come to the profession in different ways.
“I found substitute teaching and found that was where I was meant to be, in the classroom,” said Matthew Feiler.
“So I substitute taught in a class. and I thought to myself, ‘This is something I want to do for the rest of my life’, so she definitely inspired me to be a teacher and the way it’s evolved,” said Dr. Jennifer Mehu.
“I fully intended to be a lawyer, but over time,” said Lillie De Castro.
Each finds it a calling that has its challenges and rewards.
“He was a struggling student, but he was able to rap the whole story, and that sticks out in my head as such an amazing moment, because he made that connection with a very difficult text and was truly able to understand it,” said Deanna Waters.
“I had a student who was never truly mine that came after school for tutoring. Even though he wasn’t enrolled in my class, he came every day to get help in reading and writing and math for the SAT,” said Richard Lamarre. “I helped him improve his score so much that he got accepted into college. He never really saw that for himself.”
Lamarre is a science teacher at Miramar High School.
This year, he’s teaching his students chemistry, and after 10 years of being an educator, he said he’s learned that it is important to cultivate with students, not just teach.
“And because I’m kind of a jack of all trades. I’m an athletic person ,but I’m also kind of a nerd. I like reading books. I like being outside with nature,” said Lamarr. “I always try to find something to connect with the students to make it more engaging.”
De Castro is the Magnet Coordinator at William T. McFatter Technical College and High School in Davie.
After 31 years, she’s no longer in the classroom, but she says her role keeps her on her toes.
“So I’m oftentimes in middle schools talking to eighth graders to see if they want to come to school here. Also, when it’s time to make technical decisions, I am talking to students who are unsure of what they want to do in 11th and 12th grade,” said Castro. “So the day could be I’m in a classroom, the day could be I’m at the auditorium, the day could be I’m working on the master schedule.”
In Pembroke Pines, Feiler has seen his computer programming classes at West Broward High School transform over the last two decades, just three girls out of 150 students in his first year. Now, things are different.
“Whether they come in with lots of computer background or very little, they’re able to grasp the concepts and also get to feel welcomed in my classroom, and know that just ’cause they’re not experienced, they can still succeed,” said Feiler.
The students Waters teaches at Sawgrass Springs Middle School aren’t just new to Coral Springs; they’re new to the United States.
She offers the following advice for new teachers
“It can be a very isolating thing, because you’re just in your classroom, by yourself, all day long, but do the best you can not to isolate yourself and to learn from the teachers around you, because college can only prepare you so much,” she said.
Dr. Mehu teaches first grade at Park Lakes Elementary School in Lauderdale Lakes, but her little ones aren’t the only ones getting an education.
“I have a master’s in reading, and I continue with a doctoral degree in reading at Nova Southeastern University, because I wanted to make sure to grow my profession, because things change daily, monthly, yearly, so you need to be able to stay current with the trends,” she said.
Each one of these teacher of the year finalists said they’re humbled by the recognition.
“It’s an amazing honor, it really is,” said Waters.
The 2025 Caliber Awards ceremony for Broward’s Teacher of the Year is set for 6 p.m. Friday at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center, also being recognized are the Principal of the Year, Assistant Principal of the Year and School-Related Employee of the Year.
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