Dee Muniz

Spanish

Nominator's Comments

Dee Muniz, the high school Spanish teacher, spends countless hours preparing for her classes. Students in her classes know she has very high expectations, yet they never feel threatened. Words like "dignity" and "respect" have special meaning in her classes. She demands and gets student respect while maintaining their dignity. Dee is extremely sensitive to the needs of all her students and initiates contact with the families of her students whenever she has a concern. Dee never seeks attention for herself; always, she focuses on her students. She has been found sweeping floors simply because it needed to be done when the janitor was ill. This uncommon quality is found in Senora Muniz on a daily basis. The phrase "professional, caring teacher" paints a very clear picture of her. Her enthusiasm is also very inspirational to other teachers.

Another of her outstanding characteristics is her creativity in developing lessons and projects that are not only motivational but also flexible. She is for many of the Hispanic students a link to their homeland; she works with those ESL students by volunteering her time to train K-12 teachers in basic Spanish as well as to become a mentor for the students until they become accustomed to their surroundings.