Madelyne Jones is a science teacher at Tulsa's Street School; she has been an educator for two years.
Lizeth Olivares, a 10th-grade student at Street School, tells us, "She always cares, she asks about our weekend, she'll leave little notes in our notebooks to like encourage us, like really nice words. She just tells us good work, good job, at the beginning of the year she writes I'm so glad to have you here!"
Ms. Jones gave up a medical career because she really wanted to be around kids; she says teaching is her calling.
She tells us, "every day when I wake up, I want to come to work, and I miss the kids when I'm gone."
A big part of her classroom is trout raised from eggs by her students.
Trout are the rivers way of saying we're healthy or we're not", Jones says, "If you have freshwater trout in there, then you have good clean water. If the trout can't survive, then you don't".
Her secret to success is getting to know the students, their personalities, and their needs.
Juan Able, a 10th-grade student at Street School, says, "man the things she does for us, it's unbelievable! She helps us with what we need. And if we can't learn it, she helps us and teaches it
"At Street School, we're able to build those relationships because we have such small classrooms as you've seen", Jones says, "so we really get to take the time to figure out the individual needs of each student."
Tatton Manning with Patriot Auto Group says, "on behalf of Patriot Auto Group we just want to say congratulations. You're doing great work, and it's exciting to be here. Thank you so much!"
Patriot Auto Group presented Jones with a $200 check for being an Excellent Educator.
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