Student teacher created a welcoming environment for Sherman students

Jaylyn DeLeon will wear a very special accessory when she walks across the stage on May 19 to receive her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Rhode Island’s Feinstein College of Education.

In addition to the traditional commencement decorations, she will wear a white sash with the handprints of her third-graders at Warren A. Sherman Elementary School in Warwick, where she taught this spring semester.

“You will all walk with me when I graduate,” she told her students on her last day as a teacher.

DeLeon, from New Milford, New Jersey, came to URI undecided about a career path. It was the Introduction to American Education (EDC 102) course that convinced her to become a teacher.

“I liked the class, I liked what I learned about the education field, so it validated my decision,” she said.

The transition from student to teacher was an experience that DeLeon found exciting, especially applying college courses to an actual classroom, writing lesson plans and putting them into practice.

“Jaylyn is uplifting and grounding at the same time. She sees what needs to happen for schools to equitably serve all children, and she knows the wisdom, creativity, and energy the work will require. But she also sees so much hope and potential in herself and in her peers. We need that in teachers,” said Virginia Killian Lund, assistant professor of elementary education.

Creating a welcoming environment for her students so that they want to come to school is of great importance to DeLeon.

“So many of these kids need so much more than just a teacher. They need a role model, they need a friend, they need a parent,” she said. “This is what I had to do.”

DeLeon was honored with the Teaching Excellence Award in Elementary Education at the Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society induction ceremony on April 9.

She is the first in her family to earn a college degree and wants to be an inspiration to her two younger brothers and other first-generation college students. Her advice to them is: “Stay present in the moment and take each challenge as it comes. And go to class.”

Her educational journey does not end with Commencement. The next day, she begins URI’s 4-Plus-One master’s program in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and has accepted a long-term substitute job in Bergenfield, New Jersey, teaching high school math courses while they have a full-time job as a teacher.

“We are all always students at heart because no matter how old we get or how many degrees we obtain, we never stop learning,” she said.