Rosa Floyd, 2023 Oregon Teacher of the Year, stands at the front of her kindergarten classroom at Nellie Muir Elementary in Woodburn
On National Teacher’s Day in October, the Oregon Department of Education announced Rosa Floyd as the 2023 Oregon Teacher of the Year. She is a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Nellie Muir Elementary School in Woodburn, and an alumna of Portland State University’s Bilingual Teacher Pathway Program at the College of Education. This is the second year in a row that the Oregon Teacher of the Year has been an alumna of the teachers college at PSU.
“We are extremely proud and honored of Rosa, and this award is for her excellence and dedication as a teacher to her students and their families, sharing her cultural heritage inside and outside of the classroom. She represents the great work being done by our alumni throughout the state in dual language schools and classrooms. More bilingual and bicultural teachers are needed in Oregon, and this highest award honors and places importance on this,” said Dr. Jose Coll, interim dean of the College of Education at Portland State University.
On a sunny day in October, between parent-teacher conferences, kindergarten teacher Rosa Floyd sat down for an interview in her classroom. Nellie Muir Elementary School in multilingual Woodburn School District is a dual language immersion school with both English and Spanish speaking students. Her classroom is full of vibrant colors, little tables and chairs, the alphabet in pretty pictures, and books, posters, and first words in Spanish. For her 20 students, of which nine are English speakers and 11 Spanish-speaking only or bilingual, this is where it all begins. It feels very welcoming.
“The children teach each other,” she says. “They acquire the language very quickly at this young age. This is their first experience, so you open a lot of channels for the future. It is an honor to work with these students and families, and it is a big responsibility, transforming lives. When they learn a second language, they learn to see the world in a different way.”
School principal Oscar Belanger strides into the classroom with great energy. He has just arrived at school on his motorcycle. “Hola,” he says with a warm smile, posing for a photo, then giving her a big hug. “We couldn’t be more proud. When we celebrate, we celebrate as a team, and also celebrate the individual’s excellence. Our success is because we are a family,” he says.
The Oregon Teacher of the Year Award was presented to Rosa Floyd on October 4 by Woodburn Superintendent Joe Morelock, Oregon Department of Education director Colt Gill and Gov. Kate Brown. As Oregon Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Floyd will be a representative and spokesperson for all Oregon teachers.
On the day she received the award, it came as a complete surprise: “The superintendent called for all of us to come to an assembly at the high school,” she says. “I had no idea I would be getting the award. My first thought when I heard was, this award belongs to all of these teachers.”
She describes the most rewarding part of her work as when the children in her classroom discover they can read or write or use the new language to communicate with others. Teaching folkloric dance lessons after school is a way to provide a community for students, parents, and faculty to join together, she says. “A lot of my kids have never been to Mexico. They don’t have experience of their culture. I want them to be proud of their roots and know they can work to make society better. Education is freedom – freedom to choose what they want to do in life,” she says.
At the University of Guadalajara in Mexico, Rosa Floyd met her husband Sherman who is also a teacher in Oregon. “I went through everything my students are going through, coming to this country and adjusting to living in another culture and language,” she says.
Working as a classroom assistant in a summer program in Hillsboro, she realized there was an unmet and vital need for Spanish speaking teachers. Later, she was hired as a public school teacher on an emergency license, and attended PSU’s Bilingual Teacher Pathway program in the College of Education while teaching.
“You have three years to get your license when teaching on an emergency license, and the Bilingual Teacher Pathway program is designed for teachers who are working. I was working full-time, had my five-year-old son, and was expecting my daughter at the time. This award is for the whole family,” she says.
The Oregon Teacher of the Year Award comes with a $10,000 prize for Rosa Floyd and $5,000 for Nellie Muir Elementary from the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Lottery. Each year, all 50 states and territories name a teacher of the year. In March, she will travel to Washington, D.C. to meet the President of the United States on behalf of Oregon teachers.
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