2025 Teachers of the Year

Meet the 2025

Teachers of the Year

My name is Meera Ramanathan and I am the Project Resource teacher for visual art at Zamorano Fine Arts Academy for students in grades UTK to 5th. I have a Master's degree in History of Fine Arts, drawing and painting with a specialization in textile design and a Single Subject Teaching Credential in Visual Art.

I grew up in Chennai, India and developed an appreciation for art at an early age. I was surrounded and inspired by the motifs on silk sarees, sculptures in temples and Kolam designs that my mom taught me to create with rice flour. My parents and two sisters instilled a lifelong appreciation for the arts by taking me to music and dance concerts, displaying my artwork proudly at home for everyone to see and encouraging me to pursue art in college.

After moving to San Diego from India, I worked in an early childhood setting with 31/2 to 41/2 year old students and loved it! Working with our young students gives me joy and I truly believe that the elementary level is where art starts so it’s important to give students multiple opportunities in art making. Students at this level are open to learning and embracing different media and techniques and have the mindset to embrace things that are new and different.

In my art class, I like to introduce my students to artists from different parts of the world while giving them the opportunity to create, present, respond and connect with different media and techniques while finding inspiration from their own life experiences. My goal is always to see how I can make my lessons accessible to all my students while keeping them challenged, motivated, and engaged. I strive to foster a love for art while teaching students the value of tolerance, compassion and empathy. I also bring in working artists for workshops with students. Every year my 5th grade students design and paint a mural in our school campus which fosters the value of community among students.

I am the current chair for the VAPA Advisory council for San Diego Unified School District and was also the chair for the California Art Education Association, San Diego area K-8 art show. I have participated and presented workshops at the National Art Education Conferences (NAEA) and I am currently the Pacific Region Elementary Division Director. In 2022, I was awarded the Outstanding Elementary Visual Art Educator award by the California Art Education Association (CAEA) and my art program was awarded the Exemplary Program status. In 2023, I was awarded the Artistic Innovation award at the VAPA Spotlight awards and also received the CAEA San Diego area Ruth Jansen award.

I started an art podcast titled “Elementary Art Talk” in 2022 featuring my students at my school site. You can find the link to the podcast in my art teacher website below https://sites.google.com/sandi.net/msrsartclass/home?authuser=0

Kevin T. White is a professional educator at De Portola Middle in San Diego Unified School District, where he teaches Gateway to Technology, a College and Career Technical Education course. With a wide array of content specialization spanning primarily the Social Sciences and, more recently, STEM education courses over his past 17 years in the classroom, he demonstrates mastery across a broad spectrum of K-12 disciplines. Through his resourceful funding and partnerships with Toshiba and Taylor Guitar, he has recently launched a capstone project that allows his second-year students to design and build custom electric guitars that employ advanced CAD software and digital manufacturing. As a faculty member of the Learning Design Technology Master's Program at SDSU, he also shares his vast specializations in 3D technologies, where he teaches a course each spring: LDT 525 - Virtual Reality, Imaginary Worlds, and the Future of Learning.
“Regardless of what Mr. White is teaching, he always provides multiple access points for all his students… He has high expectations for his students, he holds them accountable with rigor and structure, and his students leave his classroom feeling empowered and acknowledged,” Principal Jamey Jaramillo said. “There really isn’t anything Mr. White can’t do.”

Growing up with a Deaf cousin, learning American Sign Language fascinated me. When I had the chance to learn Spanish in middle school, I was excited to add another language, but my classroom experience left me unable to actually speak it. My junior year, my dad signed me up for a Rotary Youth Exchange in México. This small glimpse into the wider world was intoxicating, and at 16 I decided to become a Spanish teacher. I was fascinated by the variations in dialects, the linguistic differences from English, and the fact that I was an entirely different person when I conducted my life in Spanish.

When I was accepted into the credential program in 1992, I chose the Crawford-Mann Block because it focused on multicultural education. And then, about a week before school started, I realized that I was probably going to be teaching Spanish to students who spoke it better than I did. What had I done? How would I possibly be able to offer the students anything of value?

One week later I reported to Crawford High School and my life was changed forever. Many of my students were native speakers of Spanish, but they still had a lot to learn about syntax and grammar. I enjoyed learning from them as they learned from me. I also had the opportunity to work with students who had just arrived in the United States. The variety of cultures in one classroom was fascinating. We all had different cultures, languages, and religions but were still able to find common ground and work together.

I enjoyed six years of teaching English Language Development to students at all levels. Then our district began to offer three-hour English classes to ninth graders. The opportunity to work with students in readers’ and writers’ workshops formed life-long relationships. Through this work, I was able to see how truly talented our students were. As someone who had to learn to navigate higher education in my non-native language, I appreciate how hard they had to work to find success.

In 2004, Crawford was divided into four small schools. Working in the School of Community Health and Medical Practices (CHAMPs) was transformative. We began with an incredible principal who trusted the staff to design an instructional program that fit our students’ needs. Within just two years, our students made incredible gains in test scores and college-going rates. We had a committed staff that continued to advocate for students even after our beloved principal left. We put our AVID training to work and made sure that every student took classes that ensured college eligibility, and that those classes were challenging enough to prepare them for future college success. Then they applied in their senior years. Many students who never thought about going to college did so simply because they were accepted.

In 2011, the district decided to collapse the small schools at Crawford. Our students organized, protested, spoke at school board meetings, but to no avail. Crawford CHAMPs ceased to exist in 2012. Many colleagues chose to leave after having their dreams dashed or were excessed. I couldn’t bring myself to do this. Our students didn’t have the choice to leave, and I was determined to be of service in helping them finish their high school education successfully.

I focused on ensuring that my students would have a college-preparatory education. I worked with like-minded colleagues to create curricula that would challenge our students. I continued to use AVID strategies in all of my classes, and my students and I engaged in efforts to “beat the College Board” as we strove for higher pass rates on the AP Psychology exam.

In 2013, I was selected as a Carlston Family Foundation (now Above & Beyond) Outstanding Teacher. This organization provided me with a professional learning community that truly changed my practice. Together, we plan and host a Teacher Leadership Academy each summer where we engage early-career educators in active learning experiences that they can take back to the classroom. When we are not leading workshops, we learn with the new teachers. The strategies that I have acquired through this experience have revolutionized my teaching.

I strive to make my classroom a place where students can feel safe and accepted while working hard to master rigorous content. I take my responsibility to educate students very seriously, especially since so many of our students face additional challenges. If you come to my classroom, you will see students interacting with each other, talking about what they are learning, using their bodies and their brains, and forming relationships that last a lifetime.

Teaching and learning from the students of Crawford for the past 33 years has been my blessing and my privilege. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to share the lives of thousands of incredible young people and the amazing staff who not only teach them but truly love and support them. Thank you for this opportunity to shine a light on the amazing community of Crawford High School.

Runners-Up

In my second grade classroom, learning is an adventure where curiosity grows and laughter abounds. It’s easy for every day to be the “best day ever” as we get to celebrate new discoveries and learn from our mistakes. My name is Adrielle Ayers and I teach second grade at Sherman Elementary. This is my fourteenth year teaching second grade at Sherman and every year is a new and exciting challenge. I’ve taught for twenty years in San Diego Unified, starting as a special education teacher for students in K-6 and transitioning to a general education teacher. General education is where I found the sweet spot of providing high quality instruction as well as being an advocate for every student and family in my classroom. I graduated from the University of Wyoming with dual degrees in Special Education and Elementary Education with a minor in Early Childhood Education and from San Diego State University with a Master of Arts Degree in Special Education.

My parents taught me from a very young age about the importance of education and community. They have shown me with their lifelong dedication as public servants in education and social work with children and veterans how to be both passionate and compassionate in everything I do. I strive to be an engaged and active community member in my school by leading enrichment clubs, tutoring, providing case management, leading site-wide professional development, serving on several committees and working groups, piloting family teacher teams and positive home visits, mentoring pre-service teachers, as well as maintaining our school website and publishing our school’s family newsletter. I am the community school coach for our school and that has given me the opportunity to work with community organizations and district staff to build a better school for our students, families and staff. I really enjoy capacity building and thinking through logistics as we take on community based learning projects as a school.

I am proud of my ability to adapt to challenging situations and keep on centering students as the focus of my daily work. I work incredibly hard to meet the needs of my students and their families as well as connect them with the supports and resources they need to be successful both while I have them in my class and long after they have all their adult teeth and outgrow sitting on a rainbow rug. The relationships that I’ve built in the Sherman community are the reason why I can show up for my students even when it’s difficult. I get to work with an incredible group of educators and staff who inspire me every day with how committed they are to providing the best education for every student as well as how they empower students to think critically and show kindness. My students come to school every day with an unwavering enthusiasm for learning. I feel incredibly fortunate to get to learn from them and with them as they show so much compassion to others, joy in the ordinary, and curiosity for the world around them. The families I work with and for are incredible examples of prioritizing their children, resilience, and unrelenting work ethic. When not teaching 7 and 8 year olds, I enjoy traveling with my husband, Damon. We have been to over 35 states and plan on getting to the rest as soon as we can. Camping, gardening, swimming, quilting, crocheting, knitting, painting, and paddleboarding also fill up my evenings and weekends. You can find me during the summer puttering around the garden with my two dogs, Tater and Bill, on a road trip looking for fossils with my family, camping with great friends, or swimming in the ocean looking for turtles and sharks.

I knew that I wanted to be a teacher around age 5. While my classmates played with legos and dinosaurs, I taught Bear-Bear how to read the word, "cat." School was my happy place and I was constantly challenged and empowered by my amazing teachers. When it came time to choose a college, I decided to trade the foggy Bay Area for sunny San Diego in order to reach my goal of becoming a multilingual K-8 educator.

I graduated from UC San Diego with a major in Sociology and double minors in Education Studies and Ethnic Studies. I went on to obtain my Master's degree in Education, Multiple and Single Subject Credentials, and Bilingual Authorization through their graduate program. During this time, I developed my philosophy of teaching and began to understand the importance of creating different access points to learning through social-emotional work, arts-integrated lessons, full inclusion, bilingual education, and project-based learning.

For 11 years I have taught in all kinds of educational settings. I have taught 3rd-6th grade students in Seoul, South Korea and K-8th grade students in San Diego, California. I've taught in bilingual classrooms and English only classrooms, elementary classrooms and middle school classrooms, virtual classrooms, hybrid classrooms, and in person classrooms (Oh My!). No matter the setting, I strive to ensure that my students know that I care about them, I believe in them, and will work hard to give them every opportunity to be successful. When a student walks into my room I hope they learn to make mistakes and grow, to honor and share their voice, and to love and respect themselves and others.

Outside of the classroom, I enjoy exploring other ways to deepen my connection to education. At my school, I organize social events for our staff and also on the School Culture Committee, High Reliability School Committee, and Instructional Leadership Team. I am pursuing my National Board Certification and my Ethnic Studies Micro-Credential so that I can expand my practice and learn new techniques. In my spare time I enjoy reading at the beach, traveling with family and friends, and throwing on the pottery wheel.

I never dreamed of becoming a teacher, it wasn’t something I wanted to do from a young age. Actually my first real memory of a career dream was to be the first female president from Hawaii. So… “Aloha!” I’m Jennifer Oakes. I was born and raised in Honolulu. I left when I was 18 to attend college at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. I majored in Political Science and minored in Women's Studies. After college I spent the next three and a half years in Portland working as an Executive Assistant in a commercial real estate office. I decided “for-profit” America wasn’t where my heart lay, so I moved down to San Diego to attend graduate school at San Diego State University. I earned my master's degree in Women's Studies, while also working in the Legislative Department of Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties for four years. What I loved about my job at Planned Parenthood wasn’t the lobbying aspect or the campaigns and elections, what I loved was the education component to my job. Education is empowerment and I was hooked. I earned my teaching credential from San Diego State University, and I wholly believe I have found, not just my dream job, but my true path in life.
This will be my 21st year with the San Diego Unified School District. After earning my teaching credential, I spent my first two years as a substitute teacher because I felt I needed first-hand experience in many different educational settings. A long-term substitute position at Roosevelt IB Middle School (RMS) led to a full-time teaching position at the school for the next decade as an ELA and History teacher for 7th & 8th grades. Having been trained for over 20 years in the educational pedagogy of the IB philosophy, I believe my personality strives to embody the IB Learner Profile -- someone who is open-minded, caring, an inquirer, principled, a thinker, reflective, a communicator, balanced, knowledgeable, and a risk-taker -- someone who’s a life-long learner. About 11 years ago, I was given the opportunity to move to San Diego High School (SDHS) of International Studies to teach a theory course called IB Theory of Knowledge (TOK). This epistemology course is my passion; TOK encourages students to think critically about and reflect on knowledge itself. In an attempt to try to help students make sense of all the information out there, TOK asks questions like “What counts as knowledge?” “Who owns knowledge?” “How do we decide what to accept as truth?” and “What are the implications of not having enough knowledge?” just to list a few of the questions we get to discuss in application with the Areas of Knowledge like Math, Science, History and the Arts. Additionally, I feel even more fortunate to be able to transfer my TOK knowledge into my other classes; I teach AVID for juniors and GOVT/ECON for seniors.
When I’m not in class, I love to travel, before with my parents and siblings, and now with my husband, Aron, and my son, Wynne. Wynne is currently attending RMS as an 8th grader, and he’ll be starting at SDHS next year. Our most recent Oakes Family holiday was to Italy where we visited Rome, Florence and Venice. And before that, our last summer holiday was a month-long RV trip which spanned most of California up to South Dakota east to Georgia south to Texas and back home west. What I’ve experienced along my travels, now spanning four and a half decades, regardless of barriers (language, political, cultural), we are so much more alike than we are different, and it is about the authentic personal interactions of trust, hope and kindness we have with one another that matter and make the difference.

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