LEADERSHIP WINNERS
MORGAN CASTILLO
Woodgate Intermediate School Waco, Texas
Leadership Elementary “I encourage you to keep taking chances, make mistakes and do the best that you can for your students, which you are already doing if you are at this level.” Morgan Castillo was inspired to become a teacher by the many extraordinary educators she encountered as a student, and the expectation that every child deserves to have passionate, creative, and driven teachers. Castillo strives to be just that, inspiring her students while also motivating, encouraging and leading other educators to continue developing and innovating to provide the best educational experiences.
“We owe it to our students, as well as the education profession, to take risks because playing it safe serves no one. By teachers stepping out on faith and embracing the possibility of failure, students will gain so much more beyond the content knowledge. Students rarely remember that specific lesson you spent hours perfecting and preparing, but they forever recall the permission you gave yourself to be authentic in front of them.”
The 2020 Region 12 Secondary Teacher of the Year, Castillo is actively involved in all areas of education including research-based best practices, curriculum development, 21st century skills and teacher mentoring, and has experience as a classroom teacher at both the primary and secondary levels.
PORFIRIO ZAMORA
Veterans Memorial High School Corpus Christi, Texas Leadership Secondary “Our profession is an amazing profession.
No other profession would give you the kind of job satisfaction this one does and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I just want to leave everyone with this one last thought — it is a great day to be a teacher.” Porfirio Zamora was instilled with the importance of education from a young age by listening to his father’s stories about having to drop out of school in the seventh grade. Becoming a teacher was the best way he could find to honor the sacrifices his father had to make and help motivate students to keep them in school.
“My goal for every student I come across is to have them leave my class with not only an understanding of the subject matter but more importantly, they should leave my classroom with an understanding of how that subject matter fits into their own lives. I believe that if a student leaves my class with this understanding then they are more likely to become not just lifelong learners, but critical thinkers.”
Zamora believes that a good teacher takes the classroom with them wherever they are, understanding that lessons do not always have to occur in class. He is an active extracurricular advisor at Veterans Memorial High School, sponsoring the challenge team, science fair team, senior class council and coaching soccer.