- April 28, 2024
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Vanessa Ajayi has believed that teaching is the highest calling since she was a child.
“It is what I always aspired to be, and has been a part of my identity for as long as I can remember,” she wrote in her application for the Teacher of the Year award. “My mother was a teacher; an amazing one at that, so I always believed that teaching is the highest calling and one steeped in respect.”
Ajayi, Belle Terre Elementary School's Teacher of the Year, began teaching in 2001 at Wadsworth Elementary, then shifted to Belle Terre Elementary School in 2005 as a second grade support facilitator in 2005. She began teaching at Belle Terre Elementary in 2007 and taught various grades at the school until 2023, when she became a reading interventionist.
I am especially proud when former students come visit me and state that my classroom was the one that made a difference. They share that they felt loved, safe, respected, free of judgment and able to take educational risks. That is the evidence that means the most to me.”
— VANESSA AJAYI, Belle Terre Elementary School Teacher of the Year
She worked with children with learning disabilities for 18 years, teaching a general education class to students with an individualized education program.
“Seeing a child’s face light up when they read for the first time, the look of confidence when they realize their own potential, or that initial resolution when students work out conflict independently, drives me,” she wrote. “I love the joy of learning and sharing that excitement with children. Reading a book aloud, filled with voices and expression, while a child eagerly raises their hand because they have a connection, fills me with happiness.”
As a classroom teacher, she used data from iReady diagnostics to inform her instruction. Her students in the 2021-2022 school year entered her classroom achieving only 63% of their typical growth as measured by the iReady; by the time they left her classroom, they had achieved 184% of their typical growth, she wrote.
“She possesses an innate ability to connect with students on a personal level, fostering a sense of trust and respect,” Principal Jessica DeFord wrote in a letter of recommendation for Ajayi’s Teacher of the Year application. “She has the ability to connect and build relationships with students, even the toughest ones.”
As an interventionist, Ajayi looks for patterns and groupings in data and then shares that data with students’ classroom teachers to identify learning gaps.
“She possesses an innate ability to connect with students on a personal level, fostering a sense of trust and respect. She has the ability to connect and build relationships with students, even the toughest ones.”
— JESSICA DEFORD, Belle Terre Elementary School principal
This year, Ajayi created and implemented a reading intervention program that reaches every kindergarten through second grade classroom.
“Our goal is to fill in academic gaps through explicit, small group instruction so students can be successful and independent readers,” she wrote.
Teachers have seen great increases in students’ confidence, she wrote. A total of 73% of first-grade students in the program are now on grade level — up from 4% when the year began.
“Where Vanessa really shines in my eyes and in my heart, is her exceptional ability to instill a love for reading in students,” Teaching and Learning Specialist Kristin Frank wrote in a letter of recommendation for Ajayi’s Teacher of the Year application. “She understands that literacy is the cornerstone of academic success and dedicates her time and energy to ensuring that every student learns how to read and comprehend with confidence.”
