WES Teacher Highlighted as an Extraordinary Educator in Bethesda Magazine
WES Grade 2 Teacher Sarah Poland has just been recognized by Bethesda Magazine in their Extraordinary Teachers profile in the September/October edition which recently hit the newsstands. Sarah’s work over the last four years in making her content relevant, connecting it to community service, and empowering her students to use what they have learned to truly make a difference has made her a standout educator in the Bethesda area. As you may recall, three years ago, Mrs. Poland’s class read the book Emmanuel’s Dream, an inspiring true story about Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, the Ghanaian athlete, author, and activist. Through Ms. Poland’s efforts, the students corresponded with Emmanuel via letters and Facetime. She and Trina Curtis-Belote (who was teaching Grade 2 at the time) held a lemonade stand and raised funds for Emmanuel’s Education Foundation which works on the behalf of people with disabilities in Africa. A year later, Emmanuel came to WES and presented to students in Grades 1-5 and led a PE class for second-graders. Efforts like these are one-of-a-kind. Congratulations to Sarah! The recognition is well deserved, and we could not be more pleased to know that the Bethesda community once again will see the tremendous faculty we have.
