Top Teacher Dana Love-Ili Shares Teaching Philosophy

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“Teacher education is essential to the success of our students,” says Territorial Teacher of the Year, Dana Love-Ili.

She stresses that students today cannot be compared to the students of 10 to 20 years ago and adds that “a changing world requires that we, as teachers, should stay abreast with the current best teaching practices, strategies and methods.”

Love-Ili says continuing education can be accomplished through regular professional development, workshops and training, and professional learning communities.

Her basic education philosophy is : that every student is unique and capable of learning no matter the circumstances.

Her duty as an educator, she says, is to ensure that every student learns and succeeds while embracing their uniqueness.

Love-Ili is the first teacher from Special Education to be selected as Territorial Teacher of the Year.

Ever since she started teaching, she has felt compassion towards and the desire to assist people with special needs.

She recalls when she was young when her mother would take her and her siblings to Hope House to visit the children with severe disabilities that lived there.

The experience, she says, sparked her interest in teaching children with special needs.

“There is ability in every disability” is a quote that the mother of three has become fond of because in her work she finds this to be true.

She elaborates, “Every child with special needs, no matter how mild or severe their disability has their own special God given talents and abilities.”

With her selection as the territory’s top teacher, she looks forward to meeting and learning from teachers of the year from other states, and learn as such as she can from them to help students here at home.

And of course, she cant wait to shake hands with the President of the United States!

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