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Johnathan Motta
Courtesy of the Osceola County School District
In recognition of his accomplishments as an outstanding educator and his commitment to the success of each and every one of his students, Jonathan Motta has been named as Osceola School District's 2021 Teacher of the Year.
It is through his dynamic personality and dedication to building relationships with those around him–whether they be students, peers, parents, or others in the district– that he has been able to capture the attention with all those whom he works.
In his rather short tenure as an educator, Mr. Motta has accomplished so much. After his very first year of teaching, Mr. Motta’s passion for the career drove him to begin growing his role as a leader in our schools and our district. He became an AVID teacher and coordinator for his school, which led him to building partnerships and opportunities for collaboration with many surrounding schools. Mr. Motta opened his classroom doors to teachers, administrators, and other district leadership to demonstrate and share his instructional practices and strategies.As his career in education returned to mathematics, he continued to grow his leadership role in a number of ways. He has led professional development at both the school and district levels, as well as presented project-based learning to all district math coaches. In 2018, Mr. Motta was selected as one of the seven teachers to help open the district's new STEM-magnet high school, NeoCity Academy. It is here Mr. Motta has truly been able to flourish as a leader in his craft. Tasked by his principal to create a project-based learning curriculum for the student-driven learning environment the school prides itself on, Mr. Motta ensures the series of open-ended, application-based projects for his Geometry and Algebra II classes are real-world scenarios that cover finance, design and manufacturing, health, architecture, and more. This school year he is working with many of the new staff members across all content areas to develop and create projects for their classes as well.Mr. Motta has achieved Highly Effective Teacher status since 2014. All Geometry students at NeoCity Academy are under his instruction with 91% mathematics achievement attained, including 90% of the lowest 25% of students making learning gains.
Mr. Motta will now represent Osceola County at the state level in the Florida Department of Education's 2021 Teacher of the Year judging.
