Congratulations to Kelly Chacon, Jill Marquez & Jazmine Silver for being named DBHS Division Teachers of the Year for their dedication and service. Each year, teachers in the three academic departments of Diamond Bar High name a teacher of the year within their divisions. From these three, the entire staff votes which teacher will be Diamond Bar High School's Teacher of the Year.
KELLY CHACON - Communication Arts
The Communication Arts Division Teacher of the Year is Kelly Chacon. As a co-PLC leader, Kelly currently guides the English Department to achieve the WASC goals regarding career-related common assessments. She keeps us focused on cultivating benchmarks that will help our students build toward 21st century skills and career readiness. She is always prepared and organized with interactive docs that encourage collaboration among colleagues and ensure that we have access to the resources we need in order to get the job done. She is organized on a level that surpasses The Home Edit team. In addition to this, she has also kept us mindful of vertical alignment across the benchmarks. Because of Kelly, we feel empowered, not just enabled, to accomplish these goals for our school wide vision for DBHS. But this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Kelly's role in the English department.
Kelly spearheaded the positive changes in our department starting with the opportunity we had, with our recent textbook adoption, to purchase texts that were more diverse in reflecting our student body. She inspired us in making these texts accessible to students as the starting point to making literature more engaging and meaningful as they learn to see themselves reflected in these characters. Kelly also enabled us to have a space dedicated to accessing these resources and was Herculean in her efforts so that we might have a way to make them physically available to our students. Kelly is phenomenal when it comes to turning ideas into reality.
She is always the first to speak up for the needs of students and her colleagues. Kelly's straightforward approach, incisiveness, and sense of humor have helped to inspire collaboration across the district through her representation on the ELA Curriculum Council and in the most recent, and long-awaited, textbook adoption for AP Literature and Composition. Her organization, leadership, and trust in us as a department is demonstrated through her compassion and professionalism toward all.
JILL MARQUEZ - Global Foundations
The Global Foundations Division Teacher of the Year is Jill Marquez. Jill is extremely hard-working, creative, and innovative. She continuously seeks to find the best curriculum, program, and technology to make learning fun and applicable. She is a phenomenal leader, mentor, and educator. She uses social emotional learning while emphasizing academic excellence to her students and takes immeasurable amount of time to help her colleagues be successful. She has taken on a leadership roles serving as Data Team Coordinator, as well as the Social Science Department PLC Lead, helping guide her colleagues efforts towards improving instructional practices for supporting all students. She serves as an Induction Mentor, supporting new teachers and has provided guidance and support to her AP Economics colleagues new to the curriculum. Congratulations, Jill!!!
JAZMINE SILVER - Developmental & Technological Foundations
The Math, Science and Special Education Division Teacher of the Year is Jazmine Silver. Jazmine has built great relationships with students, staff and parents. She puts her students first and makes her classroom and inclusive environment for everyone. Jazmine is very organized and actively involved in campus events. Jazmine has shown over her entire time here at DBHS that she really cares about doing what is right for students. She has tons of energy, is great to work with, and is always thinking of ways to make our school better. Jazmine is constantly working to provide students with relevant, interactive and creative lessons . She is very organized and extremely dedicated to her students and the school. Jazmine is consistently finding ways to improve her teaching. Additionally, she has improved the overall climate of the school by her involvement in various school activities (prom, homecoming, theater, department/divisional events) as well as getting the Inclusivity Action Team and the Student Action Team going. Jazmine is an amazing and caring teacher and represents what it is to be a Brahma.