California’s Teacher of the Year has a message for students.
“Go ahead. Dare. Dare to be different. Dare to be the first one. Dare to sound smart, to get caught doing something kind, to be respectful to adults, to help someone in need, to stand up to a bully. Dare to be everything that you think makes you ‘not cool.'”
Lovelyn Marquez-Prueher is one of the five to receive the prestigious award from the California Department of Education, reports the Inquirer.
When she was a young immigrant growing up in American schools, she was bullied because of her foreign accent. Her teachers mistakenly thought she had a learning disability.
“Those challenges have made me a strong advocate for immigrant students who are English learners,” said Marquez-Prueher, the first Filipino to become a California Teacher of the Year.
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