2012 - Regional Teacher of the Year - Jaime Silva

Jaime has taught in Pasco for the past 17 years and is beginning his second year as a 1st grade bilingual teacher at Longfellow. Jaime grew up as a migrant worker and began teaching at the age of 11 when he started tutoring his siblings. He attended night school for grades 9 – 12 and eventually went on to earn his teaching certificate and later master’s degree.



For Jaime, teaching is about learning from each other and keeping students engaged throughout the day. He believes his joy in the accomplishments of his students is magnified by his own experiences and that enthusiasm translates to the students. They know he understands because he’s been where they are.



Jaime is also very involved in bridging the gap between Spanish speaking and non-Spanish speaking parts of the community. For the past eight years he has helped to plan and teach in the district’s annual Spanish camp for teachers, staff and administrators. He also presents at the annual conference for his district’s migrant and bilingual Parent Advisory Committee.



Jaime sees teaching as an inherently collaborative profession and thrives on the sharing and evaluation that happens on a daily basis through lesson studies, classroom observations and group work. He is keenly aware of the impact his work has on the teachers who will have his students the next year, and for this reason he believes strongly that master teachers play an important role in teacher evaluation. Like most teachers, Jaime is confronted daily with the push to achieve more with less even as poverty and class sizes increase. “But,” he reminds us “we are in the business of educating children because we have a passion to transform lives. We teach because we believe in the powerful impact that a well-educated child can have on the future.”