ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The USD 480 2027 Teachers of the Year have officially been announced.

This year’s Elementary and Secondary Teachers of the Year were Rosi Estrada from Meadowlark Elementary School and Josiah Smiddy from Eisenhower Middle School. While both have multiple years of experience working with the district, their paths toward working in education were rather different.

“It was the 1992 Olympics, and I heard the Olympic fanfare by John Williams being played by the US Army Herald trumpets, and they were also on TV again in January 1993 when President Clinton was getting inaugurated, and I was amazed,” Smiddy said. “All through middle school and high school, I was playing solos and ensembles and going to the honor bands. If there was call for anything that required my instrument, I was there. Growing up in Texas, I had also been on the Music Memory team with UIL, and I remember falling in love with the piece ‘Pictures at an Exhibition,’ particularly the promenade movement, which is very brass heavy. After all of that, I was thinking I wanted to be a trumpeter. I’d had an older brother who was in the army, and whenever I saw the Army’s Herald Trumpets, I was thinking ‘I could be a soldier and a trumpeter.’ As I got a little older, I discovered I had some medical issues that wouldn’t allow me to partake in service for the U.S. Army, so I was wondering what else I could do. I did manage to go through music school, but I didn’t graduate right away. I needed a job and ended up being a police officer for a while, and I ultimately got to this route.”

“In kindergarten, I was an ESL student. We lived in Deerfield, which is a very, very small school, and I think I was probably the only ESL student,” Estrada said. “I didn’t know any English, and I remember my kindergarten teacher, she was so supportive of me while I was learning English and trying to learn everything else at the same time. So since then, I think she was the one who kind of inspired me to get into education, and I’ve liked education since then.”

Both Smiddy and Estrada said they were extremely surprised by the honor.

“It was near the end of one of my classes one day, and I was telling the students something, and then all of a sudden, some guy I’ve never met comes into my classroom with a camera, and he’s like, taking action photos of me while I’m explaining these things to these flute players,” Smiddy said. “I through that was a bit weird, but I kept doing my thing, and then I saw some other heads gathering in the hallway, which isn’t entirely uncommon since we can get loud. I recognized one of the principals was out there and then I was thinking ‘Okay, well, this can’t be too bad if they’re there.’ After a bit, my assistant principal, came in with a couple of other gentlemen from the district office and they told me ‘We want to let you know you’re the Secondary Teacher of the Year for the school district for 2027.’ It didn’t immediately sink in and I was thinking ‘That’s nice, but can you wait until the passing period? We’re kind of in the middle of stuff. I had heard of it before and I know some of the people received it, but it wasn’t something I had every really thought that much about, but it turned out to be a big deal and I was honored to get it.”

“At the beginning of November, my principal told me ‘Hey, we’re going to be doing some walk-throughs,’ which we’re used to because we have walk throughs all the time,” Estrada said. “It was not too long ago when shortly after lunchtime, they just showed up and gave me my certificate and told me ‘You’re the Elementary Teacher of the Year.’ At first I thought it was just for Meadowlark Elementary School, and it took a little bit for me to actually process it was the district’s Elementary Teacher of the Year. It took me a little bit to process all of that, but it was really exciting and I was truly humbled.”

Smiddy and Estrada agreed receiving such recognition is inspirational for their future work.

“I come in every day, and I know I make mistakes whenever I’m here, and I try to do the best that I can. And whenever I make the mistakes, I do my best to fix it, or I say to myself ‘That was clearly the wrong approach or the wrong thing, how can I do that better?’” Smiddy said. “I do that with everything. When I showed my award to the students, I told them ‘This has my name on it, but this is you too, because without you, this doesn’t happen.’ Apparently, somebody thinks I’m a pretty decent teacher, but I’m just trying not to mess up too bad. It was really nice getting to see some of the things that some people had to say about my teaching and what I do here. There are things I want to see happen with the band and everything else, but I also realize I’m not getting younger, so I’m kind of giving some thought to the things my principal has talked to me about in the past in regard to some administrative possibilities, which doesn’t necessarily mean, go be a principal. There are a lot of options there and we’ve had some conversations in the performing arts department of the district about some administrative needs that would be beneficial for our department and for the district. There are a lot of things there, but getting recognized like this does line me up to have an opportunity to affect real change in the building, in the district, in our region, in our state.”

“With my position, because I currently teach ESL and I work with my kindergartners and first graders, I really now see the importance of helping my students, and they need that language foundation that sometimes they don’t necessarily get at home,” Estrada added. “I really see myself just continuing the work I’m doing with our students. I really feel like I’m at a school where a lot of the students have that need. There’s a high need for that foundation. And so I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

Overall, Smiddy and Estrada said, they are very honored to have been recognized by the district.

“Our success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You know, we can will it into existence all we want, but we can’t be It can’t happen if we’re the only ones doing it, so we’d love to continue seeing the community’s support,” Smiddy said. “We’ve got a lot of great things we’re doing here to wrap up the year and then do it all again next year.”

“I’m very deeply humbled to get this recognition at the district level. When the other nominees came out, I knew there would be some competition, and I know a lot of the educators who were also named Teachers of the Year for their buildings,” Estrada said. “To know I was selected as the elementary out of all of the elementary teachers, that’s a big honor.”