Passion for teaching

Writer: Theresa Campbell Photos: Fred Lopez

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The star of the classroom is the teacher.

Andrea Vineyard is passionate about teaching. It has been her love for 20 years, and the Tavares High School teacher of special needs’ students has been lauded as one of best in the state: “A teacher who goes beyond the basic job description to continue positive growth in her students.”

Lake County’s 2015-16 Lake County Teacher of the Year also won the Magic of Teaching Award from Macy’s, a statewide honor.

“I was really humbled,” she says. “I am just doing my job and I love what I do…It has been the most wonderful experience in my life actually, because I have experienced more than just being recognized, but learning that I am more than just a teacher. I am a mother to these students and also a friend to them.”

For many of her 13 students, she is their teacher from the time they are in the ninth grade, at ages 14 or 15, and until they “age out” at 22.

Special needs’ students thrive in a consistent and structured environment, she says. Most are frightened and meek as freshmen.

Her goal is to help them gain self-confidence and life skills they can use after high school. They learn to work jobs around campus, ride the city bus, cook, and create a monthly budget.

“Watching my students become adults is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job,” Andrea says. “The strongest evidence of success is when I see that same distraught ninth-grade student walking across the stage at graduation with his peers sporting a huge confident smile while yelling, ‘I did it!’ That’s the exact moment when I know I succeeded as a teacher.”

Her love for teaching was instilled at a young age. Andrea’s 94-year-old grandmother taught second grade. “I always tell her, ‘I am who I am today because of you,’” she says. Andrea also had a set of late grandparents who were professors at the University of Wisconsin.

While in high school in Ripon, Wisconsin, she was in the gifted program where she was able to choose different fields to study and work in the afternoons.

“I chose to work in a facility with mentally challenged adults,” she recalls. “I did that every day and absolutely loved it. I went camping with them, and I just fell in love with it…Now I realize [special education] is where I am supposed to be.”

After receiving her undergraduate bachelor’s degree from the University of North Alabama, marriage, and two daughters later, she endured challenging times when her youngest was diagnosed with leukemia.

“We lived at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for more than two years,” Andrea says, recalling the family was provided a trip to Disney World through Make-A-Wish Foundation. The experience inspired Andrea’s family to move to the Sunshine State in 2004. She taught at Treadway before going to Tavares High School.

Her grown daughters appear to be following Andrea’s footsteps. The oldest, 24, works at a group home for adults with disabilities, and the youngest, 21, is in school in Georgia to become a special education teacher.

Andrea now devotes many weekends as the Lake County Schools District Coordinator for Special Olympics. She works with the state Special Olympics office in coordinating events, and was thrilled when Tavares was honored to host the State Special Olympics last year and again this year. Basketball championships took place last month at the Big House, across the street from Tavares Middle School.

“I had over 70 kids from Tavares High come volunteer last year,” Andrea says. “They absolutely loved it.”

She credits Special Olympics for fostering friendships, positive experiences, and self-esteem in her students as well as the volunteers, many of whom are part of Best Buddies at Tavares High School. Best Buddies is a club of mainstream students, each paired with a special needs’ student as a mentor.

Andrea was touched when one of the Best Buddies wrote her a letter of appreciation, which read in part: “Your job is the hardest but the most needed. Thank you so much for being just who you are.”

The teacher hopes lifelong friendships are being forged through Best Buddies. “I want them to come back 10 years from now after they graduate high school and say I’m still talking to so and so,” she says.

Andrea credits her students for also inspiring her to pursue more in the educational field.

“I have learned that I am more capable of accomplishing things that I didn’t think that I could ever do,” says Andrea, who has gone back to school obtain a specialist degree in leadership. “I want to continue on to the next chapter; my ultimate goal is that I would love to be a principal and have my own school.”

She was chosen by the Florida Department of Education to take part in workshops filled with evidence-base strategies, tools, and resources to bring back to share with fellow Lake County teachers.

“They raised the bar now for teachers in the state of Florida and they made it really hard because they want the best and brightest, however sometimes not always the best and brightest are the best teachers,” Andrea says. “You have to have the heart and love for the students.”

Her advice to prospective teachers is to go into the profession for the right reasons.
“It’s not for the money, and it’s not for the three months off because we really don’t have that all the time,” she says. “I teach during the summer too, but my main thing is you have got to love what you do.”

She knows some teachers experience burnout early in their careers.

“I have never had that feeling at all,” Andrea says. “Hopefully, I will become principal one day, but until then, I won’t go anywhere else. I love these kids, and I am blessed because I have known the parents of my students for so long. We have developed friendships.”

She considers herself an advocate for special needs children. “I will stand up for my kids,” she says. “I will go against anybody that has anything [negative] to do with my kids because the students come first.”