{"id":205641,"date":"2026-03-25T16:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/205641\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:10:08","slug":"martin-county-high-biology-teacher-honored-as-districts-2025-overall-teacher-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/205641\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin County High biology teacher honored as district\u2019s 2025 overall Teacher of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Teacher Feature is sponsored by Kogan & DiSalvo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After 28 years in the classroom, Chanda Leon says her favorite part of teaching is helping students discover they can do hard things.<\/p>\n

Leon, who teaches ninth- and 10th-grade pre-AICE biology at Martin County High School, has spent 13 of her 28 years in education at the school. This year, her work earned her the Education Foundation of Martin County\u2019s overall Teacher of the Year award.<\/p>\n

Leon said she enjoys teaching students as they begin high school because it is a time when they are learning how to handle more demanding academic work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not used to having to meet the demands of a high academic course,\u201d Leon said. \u201cI like the training that happens when they come in as inexperienced high school students, and I give them my Miss Leon-isms to help them, put them on the path to success, and then they go on and excel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her classes focus on more than memorization. Leon said she wants students to understand how to apply what they learn and build what she calls a \u201ctool belt\u201d of knowledge they can use throughout the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo what I\u2019m asking you to do,\u201d Leon said. \u201cDo all the assignments with your brain turned on, and at the end, I promise you, you will surprise yourself with the learning that you experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

See also: Teacher Feature: Okeechobee educator’s lessons leads to 21% higher learning gains in math<\/a><\/p>\n

Leon said the honor means the most because of her students\u2019 success, both in the classroom and on state exams. She recalled former students returning to tell her they had earned their highest test scores in biology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what motivates me to continue to push them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After nearly three decades in education, Leon said her students continue to teach her, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey inspire me to keep learning,\u201d she said. \u201cI have seen generations and trends change, and so I have to continue to change too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her message to students is simple: be a problem-solver, use your resources and believe you can succeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Teacher Feature is sponsored by Kogan & DiSalvo. After 28 years in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-205641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205641","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=205641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}