HOMESTEAD, Fla. – The majority of the student body and staff at Air Base K-8 Center in Homestead knew their top teacher, Jennifer Diaz, was selected as a Local 10 Tribute to Teachers Honoree.
They didn’t say a word to her until Local 10 Community Relations Director Mayte Padron visited the school last week and broke the news.
Padron and Local 10 photographer Jason Weitzman did it in Diaz’s classroom as the assistant principal escorted her inside.
“Did you suspect this?” asked Padron.
“No. Absolutely not,” replied Diaz.
For more than two decades, Diaz has been a teacher.
At Air Base, she teaches language arts to third grade gifted students. She’s also the school’s environmental liaison and kindness ambassador.
She’s created a vegetable garden outside the classroom, organized beach clean ups and implemented the Dream and Green initiative. This is all in an effort to teach her students to be good stewards of planet Earth.
“She just magnifies a simple lesson plan and makes it ten times more interesting and engaging and fun for the children,” said room parent Auriana Bequer.
“She deserves this by teaching us the things that we deserve to know,” added student Isaac Orrego.
With the recognition came a reward.
Publix Supermarkets gave Diaz $1,000 in store gift cards.
When Padron made the announcement, Diaz and her students erupted with excitement.
It was too much to contain to one classroom, so the party was taken outside to the school’s main corridor, where Diaz was met with dozens of students chanting her name and waving congratulatory banners.
“Ms. Diaz is just one of those gem teachers that no one can speak highly enough about, and I’m grateful that she’s been in my daughter’s life for these past two years,” said parent Jennifer Messemer-Skold.
All agree that Diaz deserves the extra credit.
“She is selfless, and she will go above and beyond for our school and for the students at Miami-Dade County Public Schools,” said Angela Carvalho Air Base K-8 Center’s Assistant Principal.