{"id":14198,"date":"2025-10-21T17:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14198\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T17:00:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:00:28","slug":"orlando-science-teacher-cultivates-students-curiosity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14198\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando science teacher cultivates students&#8217; curiosity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A+ Teacher Gina Ortiz was once a scientist working on her doctorate degree when she discovered a passion for sharing knowledge with students.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>Gina Ortiz teaches fifth grade at Orlando Gifted Academy<br \/>\n<br \/>Ortiz was a gifted learner educated in Orange County Public Schools<br \/>\n<br \/>She said her students have made her a better person\u00a0<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/mynews13.com\/fl\/orlando\/community\/a-plus-teachers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Here\u2019s how you can nominate an A+ Teacher<\/a>\u00a0\ud83c\udf4e<\/p>\n<p>Gina Ortiz\u2019s students share her passion for science and learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese kids pick up so much so quickly that I can extend things really far with them,&#8221; Ortiz said. &#8220;Like I\u2019m sitting here with fifth-graders having a conversation about limiting reactants in chemicals, and that\u2019s something that they can grasp readily.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ortiz is a proud product of the Orange County Public School system, and she remembers being right where her students are now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want each day to be the best day ever for my kids because that\u2019s what I wanted, and that\u2019s what I needed as a gifted learner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She has earned an environmental science degree, and as part of her progress toward a Ph.D. in biology, she was conducting research in the Greater Everglades ecosystem. As a research assistant, she worked for an outreach program that collaborated with public schools.\u00a0That is when she realized she loved working with students.<\/p>\n<p>Ortiz encourages her students to be inquisitive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlways question. Always wonder,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Man, like, I want them to remain curious individuals. That sense of curiosity that children inherently have is so valuable to their academic journey, and I really want them to stay in tune to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ortiz added, \u201cI feel like the kids have helped me become a better person. So, while I work with them navigating the academic thing \u2014 the personal thing \u2014 I have also, in turn, become a more empathetic, patient person with myself and with others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She shared the reaction some have when they learn about her choice to pursue a career in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re like, you\u2019d make a lot more money writing curriculum or being in a lab or you would have to deal with a lot less stress doing curriculum or being in a lab, but being with the kids is so worth it,\u201d Ortiz said.<\/p>\n<p>She said she has no regrets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI always say that me ending up here was a happy accident. This found me,\u201d Ortiz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A+ Teacher Gina Ortiz was once a scientist working on her doctorate degree when she&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12422,12421,767,4996,9995,274,770,113,115,139,141,140,12420,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-14198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-a-plus-teachers","9":"tag-app-a-teachers","10":"tag-app-community","11":"tag-app-education","12":"tag-app-latest-education-stories","13":"tag-app-top-stories","14":"tag-community-news","15":"tag-education","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-orlando","18":"tag-orlando-headlines","19":"tag-orlando-news","20":"tag-tammie-fields","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}