WESTCHASE \u2014 Melissa DeGusipe set up her first chalkboard in first grade, teaching math facts to neighborhood kids in Cape Coral.<\/p>\n
Thirty-three years later, she’s still at it \u2014 and now she’s a finalist for Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n
“I was genuinely stunned,” said DeGusipe, who has taught at Davidsen Middle School for 15 years. “I never imagined I would make it that far, especially knowing how many incredible, hardworking educators we have in our county.”<\/p>\n
DeGusipe is competing against four other teachers: Francesa Doran, a third-grade teacher at Westchase Elementary; Tracy Moore, a math teacher at Ben Hill Middle; Christi Atkinson, a marine science teacher at Wharton High; and Rochelle Phillips, a kindergarten teacher at Kenly Elementary. The winner will be announced Jan. 22 at the Excellence in Education Awards at the Straz Center.<\/p>\n
As Davidsen’s math subject area leader, DeGusipe coordinates professional learning communities and coaches the school’s Math League. A Florida State University graduate certified in middle grades mathematics with endorsements in gifted education and ESOL, she was named Davidsen’s Teacher of the Year in 2022.<\/p>\n
Last year, 100 percent of her algebra and geometry students passed their end-of-course exams.<\/p>\n
“My favorite thing about being a teacher is getting to be part of my students’ journeys,” DeGusipe said. “I love the moments when a student finally ‘gets it,’ when we celebrate their accomplishments, or when they start thinking like problem solvers on their own.”<\/p>\n
That one-on-one approach stems from her own experience as a high school student struggling with math teachers who made the subject feel “confusing and disconnected.”<\/p>\n
“Math had always come naturally to me,” she said. “That experience convinced me how important it is for students to understand the why behind the what.”<\/p>\n
If chosen as Teacher of the Year, DeGusipe said the recognition would validate her daily efforts.<\/p>\n
“It would mean that the passion, care and effort I put into my students every day is truly making a difference,” she said. “Most importantly, it would remind me why I became a teacher \u2014 to help students grow, believe in themselves and reach their full potential.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WESTCHASE \u2014 Melissa DeGusipe set up her first chalkboard in first grade, teaching math facts to neighborhood kids…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[209,113,276,46268,135,137,136,18072],"class_list":["post-84043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-cape-coral","tag-education","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-hillsborough-county-teacher-of-the-year","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-westchase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84043","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=84043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}