story by Claire Miller
Sometimes, it just takes one teacher to inspire a student.
This was the case for Daisha Denson (B.S.Ed. ’22), who remembers having several teachers who didn’t believe in her potential if she showed any trouble with her classwork.
But one high school teacher gave her the support and encouragement she needed to succeed – and to consider becoming a teacher herself.
“I just learned to play the game of school, which was to get the grade and not retain the knowledge. It wasn’t until a teacher saw me and my ever growing potential that I felt that I was more than capable,” she said. “My high school law teacher, Ms. Perry, saw me, and it made me want to do that for others.”
Denson applied for the College of Education & Human Development’s CREATE Teacher Residency program, a federally funded initiative that trains and supports educators across their career trajectory. Students participate in a year-long student teaching experience in a local classroom and receive support from CREATE during the first few years after graduation.
She appreciates the teacher residency’s collaborative nature and how her fellow classmates would help each other when issues arose in their classrooms.
“I got a chance to voice my problems to my CREATE peers and they all worked and planned together to help me come up with tangible solutions,” she said. “There was no judgment – it was solution-oriented, and they showed up for me in my time of need.”
Denson graduated in 2022 and is now a second grade English language arts and social studies teacher at Kindezi at Gideons Elementary School. She works to ensure her students see themselves in the literature they’re reading and introduces her class to other cultures and peoples.
She’s also learning from her mistakes and giving her students the kind of support and encouragement that her high school teacher gave her.
“I found myself fighting not to do anything wrong or make a mistake, because I thought it made me a failure. But mistakes are just perfect opportunities to grow and learn,” she explained. “A quality teacher is one who loves the communities they serve, sees value in children and sees students as whole beings deserving of respect and autonomy. A quality teacher is also one who is considerate, kind and ever evolving in their craft.”