• Nominate a Teacher: https://honored.org/nominate/
• Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honored/
• Follow us on Twitter: https://x.com/honored/
• Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Honored.org/
• Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/honored.org

• Music by DanaMusic: https://pixabay.com/users/danamusic-31920663/
• Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/

DIANA FERNANDEZ: So going back to when I was in kindergarten, I was also the first generation from immigrant parents, and my kindergarten teacher did not take the time to figure out who Diana Fernandez, well back then Diana Arias before I got married, was and I always felt like that little excluded fish, like the rainbow fish, and I could never swim with the rest of them.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Inspiring Teachers: The Honored Podcast, where we shine a spotlight on life-changing teachers across the country. I’m Hannah your podcast host, and our podcast is brought to you by Honored, which is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring and elevating great teachers nationwide. Our mission is to inspire and retain great teachers, keeping them in the classroom as long as possible. Every month, at Honored we select an exceptional educator in the United States to be the recipient of the Honored National Teaching Award. Each Honoree, as we call them, gets a $5,000 cash reward, and we then tell the story on our website and our social media platforms of how that teacher has impacted their students’ lives. To learn more about our organization, you can go to our website at honored.org. While you’re there, if you have a teacher you would like to recognize, you can nominate them at honored.org/nominate. 

We are so excited to have you listening in on our first Honoree podcast episode. Today, we are joined by Diana Fernandez, a kindergarten teacher at Pinecrest Cove Preparatory Academy in Miami, Florida. She has been selected to be recognized for our November Honored National Teaching Award. She was nominated for this award by the parent of one of her students. In this episode, we are also joined by her student, Aidan, and Aidan’s mom, Lianet. 

Before we dive into Mrs. Fernandez’s story, we are excited to kick off our first Honoree episode with a special segment we’re calling ‘Teachers Who Inspired’. You’ll hear this segment at the start of each future episode. Here, we invite well-known individuals to share a story about a teacher who had a lasting impact on their lives. These stories remind us that behind every great achievement, there’s often an inspiring teacher who believed in their potential. Today, we’re thrilled to have the first guest on our special segment, Garrett Boone, who will tell us about a teacher who left an unforgettable mark on their journey. Co-founder of The Container Store, Garrett loves retail and his commitment to maintaining the company’s unique culture played a vital role in The Container Store being named by FORTUNE magazine to its annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” for 18 years in a row. Additionally, in 2006 he was inducted into the Retailing Hall of Fame. In 2006, Garrett Boone co-founded Texas Business for Clean Air; an effort to derail a fast-track initiative to construct 11 outdated coal-burning energy plants in North Texas. They promoted ‘clean air is good for business in Texas’. In 2007 Boone was First runner-up for Texan of the Year, awarded by The Dallas Morning News.

GARRETT BOONE: My name is Garrett Boone. A teacher who had the most impact on my life was a second-year history professor at Rice Dr. Alan Matusow, whose course I took my junior year. Dr. Matusow was passionate about teaching and understanding of American history, passionate and compassionate about being a student-focused professor. He gave thought-provoking lectures and encouraged energetic and challenging discussions. I felt it was the perfect college seminar.

The only grade in the class was the final essay based upon a question that Dr. Matusow gave when you came to take the test. Not knowing the question in advance, you had to review and prepare for anything. I spent an intense week preparing for the exam, re-reading every book, going over notes of lectures, and class discussions. I felt I knew everything about the period, every event, every major topic, every fact. However, when he announced the question, I was disappointed. It was to write a history of the period 1870 to beginning of the World War based upon the theory of economic determinism. I felt it was a boring, narrow topic for such an exciting area, and it didn’t fit my preparation at all. However, I began a reluctant effort to answer the question, to adopt a point of view I didn’t believe in. But in just a short period of time, I suddenly began to realize that the explosion of the industrial revolution after the end of the Civil War, was indeed the major driving factor of American history during that time.  realized I’d been so lost in all the facts, events, sideshows, I’d failed to understand what those facts meant. And when that understanding came to me, I felt like it was the first true learning experience of my life, a true “aha” moment. Excited by this new understanding, I wrote furiously, even concluding quoting the relevant line I remembered from Robert Frost, “A Cabin in the Clearing” –  “with fond faith, the accumulated facts will of themselves catch fire.” – exactly what I had been doing before Dr. Matusow’s question challenged me to go beyond that. I made the only A-plus in the class. That was the highlight of my undergraduate career.  

What I learned from that test and Dr. Matusow challenging question was how to critically think and as well, use my intuition to see beyond and behind facts and events. When I decided to open my own business 15 years later, I used the same critical thinking I had used on that test, but this time, understanding the essence of all the interesting industrial products I had found while searching for inspiration for a new store. I suddenly realized in another “aha” moment that they were all products that helped businesses organize their stuff. Crates, transfer boxes, shelving, etc, and that customers needed to have a resource like businesses to find products to help them organize the stuff for their home. That insight became the basis for a new category of retail store – storage and organization called The Container Store. As it turned out, Dr. Matusow’s history course was the best business training I could have had. Without the understanding of this “aha” moment, I would not have developed the mental skills to come up with the idea of The Container Store. That thought process has been central to all I’ve done since and I’m profoundly grateful to Dr. Matusow for that lifelong gift. 

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: We are so grateful to Mr. Boone for sharing his incredible story for our first ‘Teachers Who Inspired’ segment. Throughout the rest of the episode, we’ll share Mrs. Fernandez’s story and the incredible impact she has on students and parents. To start us off, you’ll hear from Mrs. Fernandez, who shares a bit about her journey to where she is now, as she reflects on her innate qualities as a lifelong learner with a passion for helping others.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: Ever since I was little, I always felt like I wanted to know who exactly each person was, and get to always try to understand them. And then, for some reason, I always had something to talk about, or I wanted to teach them in some way or another, even as a child. And then I would find myself always wanting to learn more so that I was more knowledgeable to teach others. And then I was like, wait a second, these are teacher characteristics. So I would tell all my teachers, even in primary grades, I was like, “I want to be a teacher. I think I like this.” I like the whole feeling that you see when someone is grasping what you’re saying, when they’re understanding, and you can make that individual connection.

So then I started working, especially with younger children around 16, and I started realizing that I can connect to them, and I had a way of they almost tell me like telepathically understand, the most timid child, but also the most hyper child. And I have this sensibility to understand every child that I was working with, no matter how different they were. And then I was like, wait a second, I think I want to study this. So then I went ahead and studying this. And now I’m currently on year 16 as a certified teacher, but I’ve been working with children longer than that, for over 20 years. Even on vacation, like I’ll be on a subway and I see someone’s trying to read a book and a parent’s trying to help in a bilingual way. And I’m like, wait, wait, maybe you can try this. And my husband’s like, you’re on vacation, like you don’t have to be a teacher. And I’m like, but that’s not just my job. I guess it’s more of a calling for me.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: To learn more about Mrs. Fernandez’s impact, we heard from Lianet, who shares the remarkable transformation her son, Aidan, has experienced since the beginning of the school year. Lianet recounts her own story, how a special teacher once nurtured her passions and had a pivotal influence that shaped who she is today and guided her path into public relations. It’s this same nurturing spirit that Lianet now recognizes in Mrs. Fernandez, a teacher whose care and commitment are evident through every lesson and every interaction with her students. 

LIANET SARDUY: I think that one right off the bat would be the shift that I saw in my son. But I think that she also – and I was thinking about this the other day when we did the photo shoot – I had this one special teacher, her name was Mrs. Wright and she was the only teacher that ever nurtured my love for writing. And that’s the reason why I went into PR because I love the nature of storytelling as well. And she has so many of the same characteristics in the way that she doesn’t only help you educationally, but she nurtures you. And it’s like every single special child in her class. I mean, I’m her class mom this year, and I think that’s what made me so privy to everything in such fine-tuned detail.

I’ve seen just such a shift in such a small period of time within these kids, from Ethel learning to just breaking out of their shell. And it reminded me so much of like I got a four in my Florida Writes, and then I got into it, then I got a six, when that was a thing back then, and that was because I was also poured into. And it’s just the way that my son came back the first day of school very unheard of, like, “Mommy, I love it here. I can’t wait to go back tomorrow.” And I was like, “what?” But he loves it. He loves the environment and I’ve gotten to see this group of kids become a small little community.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: In a heartwarming conversation with both Mrs. Fernandez and his mom, we were lucky enough to hear a little bit from Aidan himself, who shares what excites him most about being in Mrs. Fernandez’s classroom. Through his stories, it is clear that Mrs. Fernandez’s impact goes far beyond academics. In a fast-paced world, she is teaching her students essential emotional intelligence skills like how to slow down, get their bodies moving, rest their minds and take a moment to breathe. 

DIANA FERNANDEZ: What are things that are like your favorite that when it happens, your heart just explodes with happiness?

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: The Brain Breaks. 

DIANA FERNANDEZ: Brain Breaks. What do you do in Brain Breaks? 

LIANET SARDUY: What’s a brain break? 

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: You dance.

LIANET SARDUY: You dance and when do you get a brain break?

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: When you do all your homework.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: When you do all your work, and then your brain starts to get what? Tired. And how do we get our brains to get more energy? We have what? We start dan- 

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: -cing.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: Dancing because it warms up our brain again, right?

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: Yeah.

LIANET SARDUY: Yeah, and it gets exciting. 

DIANA FERNANDEZ: And what happens on Fridays? What’s something so special about Fridays? What do we dance on Friday? What song?

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: Uh, our Friday song.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: What is it? The Minions and they sing, what? The happy song.

LIANET SARDUY: The happy song, because it makes you feel what?

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: Happy.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: Because what’s almost here? If Friday’s here, that means, what’s the next thing coming up, the week-

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: -end.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: The weekend. Then we start dancing, right? What is it that we do when we’re working super hard? Who comes on the screen? What is the fish called, the one that helps us when we’re we feel that something is so hard? What is it called?

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: Breathing fish.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: And what does breathing fish teach you?

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: To to 

DIANA FERNANDEZ: To pause and take a deep 

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: Breath.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: Breath. And he puts his cheeks really puffy. Let me see. Do breathing fish. And then you hold it and you hold it so we get oxygen in our brain ready and release it like breathing fish. 

LIANET SARDUY: Wow, I need a breathing fish.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Listening to Mrs. Fernandez, Lianet, and Aidan, I think we can all agree that these skills are vital for children’s growth and emotional development. To be instilling these practices in kids at such a young age is truly an inspiration.  Another practice in Mrs. Fernandez’s classroom is celebrating yourself and others. She does this by awarding gold medals to students who are working really hard. In celebrating moments of success, she is instilling confidence and camaraderie in her students and teaching them that some days will be better than others, while allowing them space to accept those highs and lows.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: And what happens when someone has a really, really good day? Where do they go in the behavior chart? What is that called? They go all the way up to what? 

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: Gold.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: And what do you guys do when someone gets gold? 

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: Cheer.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: You cheer for each other. Why? Why do we cheer for each other? Because we’re a, what a classroom?

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: Team. 

DIANA FERNANDEZ: We’re a classroom team, and everyone’s gold is part of the whole team, right? 

AIDAN CASTELLANOS: Yeah. 

DIANA FERNANDEZ: I love that. They even get on their chairs. They get super excited.

LIANET SARDUY: They look like they just won a championship game. I think that it’s beautiful to see them all just cheer for each other. It’s such a cute, like camaraderie. They really are, like a basketball team, or like a soccer team, like a football team, they go ham at each other when it’s like.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: Like jump on the chairs cheer, someone got a gold medal. And when I introduced the gold medal, we were recently, at the beginning of the year, going through the Olympics. So I explained to them, I’m like, you know, even if you’re not the one standing at the podium, but someone from your own team is you cheer for them. How many of you are in sports? You know. Are you the only one that wins or the whole team wins? And they’re like, no, the whole team. And I go, exactly. So they’ll go, they’ll get picked up. And they’re like, did you know so and so and so got Gold today? Did you know? Did you hear? I’m so happy and proud.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Mrs. Fernandez has a gift for cultivating a safe space where kids feel comfortable and encouraged to be themselves. She creates an environment of acceptance and understanding where it’s okay to make mistakes and try new things. We’ll hear from Lianet about how she has seen this in the classroom. And we’ll also hear from Mrs. Fernandez on why fostering this environment is so meaningful to her.

LIANET SARDUY: I think it’s important that you give them a space to be themselves and feel accepted. And I’ve gotten to see that a lot with, we have a foreign student this year who wasn’t very comfortable in her own skin in class, everything was very, very new. And I say that as a daughter of immigrants, I came when I was seven myself, and I saw so much of myself in her at first because it is very, very intimidating to go into a place where you don’t see your understand or anybody kind of looks like you. And then we thankfully live in Miami, where that’s less seen. It’s more community in the sense that everything is Spanglish. But she gives each individual little seed such a space to like bloom and blossom and flourish. And that little girl is, I think her mom even said to me on a group chat for the first time, jumping and dancing.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: She is finally joining in the Brain Breaks. She used to sit them out. She’s like, oh, I’m not dancing.

LIANET SARDUY: Like, that’s like, I’m not supposed to be doing this. Like, this is not what you do in class, kind of. So it’s kind of also culturally, teaching them that there are so many things with the shifting environment of like, where we live and where we are, that it’s okay, but I think that just it sets her aside.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: So going back to when I was in kindergarten, I was also the first generation from immigrant parents, and my kindergarten teacher did not take the time to figure out who Diana Fernandez, well back then Diana Arias before I got married, was and I always felt like that little excluded fish, like the rainbow fish, and I could never swim with the rest of them. Like I always was different. Why didn’t she know English? Why doesn’t she pronounce correctly?

So I took that as a challenge my entire life, even all the way up to getting a master’s in reading, to make sure that no one ever felt that they struggled coming from another language, English being their second language; pronunciation, how to teach a child to read even the sign of McDonald’s, oh an M, like anything that could help them with their reading journey and to become avid readers. Because after the whole experiences I had as a child, and I’m currently with three books on my nightstand, I love to read. I’m a very big avid reader, so it’s getting them to understand from such an early age, that if you have a strong love for reading and a foundation, and even if the pronunciation comes off a little bit different, but you still have the interest and you still have that will to learn it, then I’m going to be here to coach you through it.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Beyond creating a safe environment for her students, Mrs. Fernandez is dedicated to building strong connections with parents. As the mother of child in kindergarten right now, Mrs. Fernandez is able to connect with parents on a deeper level, to share her own experiences and insights.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: And I love even like helping parents as well. You know, since I also have a child in kindergarten the same grade level that I’m currently teaching, so I can bring my own strategies. Look, this works with my child, maybe you can try it. Even if it’s sight words on a wall, and they love Nerf guns? Perfect with a Nerf gun, try to get the sight word, you know, anything. Lights off with a flashlight, anything you want to jump rope? They’re active? Perfect – ku, ah, tu – anything, anything kinesthetic. A

nd then it’s like learning with the parents now this year because now I’m like, wait, I’m on this side too now. So it’s become a team and I think that’s what’s helped our class come together. They’re like, not only can I go to Mrs. Fernandez as the teacher of my child, but I can also be like, “Hey, can we talk like moms now, you know, is yours a little hyper too? Does yours have a little trouble focusing with that same homework?” I’m like, yes, my child does the same homework as the homework that I’m giving. So it’s been such a beautiful school year, and it’s only October, so I can’t wait to see where it’s going to end, with a lot of gold medals. 

LIANET SARDUY: I know. I ask questions like you wouldn’t believe and I’m also very much like her so I’ll share everything. And she just has this unique way. And like Aiden started recognizing sight words the other day we were, I don’t know what we were reading. I think it was like, a random magazine, a catalog. And I think it was like, the or they. And he’s like, “mom a sight word.” And I was like, “What? What?” Then the tips of the story time, right? Because my child is hyper. Before this, he was running around. You put him on camera, and he’s like, “more things that I have to do.” And it’s like, but then how do you turn that back into wanting to be active, like listening to stories. So we’re always in the car. She sent me these Spotify playlists from story time. I mean, I didn’t even think of that. I listen to audiobooks all the time. We listened to the same books on Spotify.

DIANA FERNANDEZ: There’s Halloween ones of Mickey and he loves Mickey.

LIANET SARDUY: So it’s like that mind’s eye psychological coordination is so important because it also, and I think that just having that connection outside of the classroom has also helped a lot of parents, because she’s also sharing them as a mom. And over the weekend, you get how many pictures of like kids wanting to do homework?

DIANA FERNANDEZ: And at the beach she was writing her side words on the sand, and she goes, “take a picture, send it to Mrs. Fernandez because I might get a success sticker. So send it to her. I want to get a success sticker because I’m being successful on my time off.”

LIANET SARDUY: Look at these little like entrepreneur thinkers, right?  

DIANA FERNANDEZ: And her mom got a success sticker the other day. She was helping with something. I’m like, you mom are getting a sticker, and her daughter picked it. She goes, “hey, I’m putting it on my planner. I got a success sticker from the kindergarten class.”

LIANET SARDUY: I love it. I love it so you see it’s not just fostering a safe environment for kids, but also like, parenting is tough and you navigate so many challenges. And I think that having that unique perspective that you have this year will not only go for years to come, but I think that it’s shown everybody on the other end, not how easy it is to be a teacher. But how much you have to go so deeper into actually loving what you do to be able to find things that daily are effective enough to help other moms that are on the go, other moms that may not like and I will call myself out, there’s so many things that I am not privy to do, and they just they don’t come top of mind, because it’s not the way I think. So it’s unique that she can also help us shift our perspective and our thinking and to kind of like leveling down to our little toddlers and our kindergartners. So it’s just a mix of so many different things, but I think that it’s just fed by so much passion and so much love, because it takes a long time to find these little avenues, not just for her own kids, but like for a parent.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: At Honored, our work is rooted in the significance of recognizing teachers, and the research that shows how effective recognition keeps educators engaged and in their classrooms. Mrs. Fernandez expresses how these moments of acknowledgement have reignited her passion for teaching, motivating her to extend her influence and legacy to as many students as possible. By fostering meaningful connections and creating safe spaces, Mrs. Fernandez helps students grow and flourish long beyond her kindergarten classroom,

DIANA FERNANDEZ: Actually a very recent story, she’s now in eighth grade, and she was my student in kindergarten, and she came up to me right now while she was doing pictures for her eighth grade, and she saw me in the hall, and she’s like, “Can you go back to find kinder pictures of me?” And I was like, “Oh yeah, it’s going to be a couple years back, but I’ll comb through.” And she goes, “I still remember when I had my heart surgery that year, that you made me a princess basket, and you came and you brought it to the hospital and you told me that you missed me so much.” And she goes, “I still remember now in eighth grade”, and her mom still remembers, and she’s like, “you’ll always be that kinder teacher.” So when we were raising money for the Heart Association that year, she stood up with her little scar and her little pump that she had, and she goes, “I’m one of those kids that you’re raising money for. And my teacher has always made me feel special.” She told me I’m her heart superhero.

So any story like that. I always like to go back to like, what I always say, I always like to go to who the child is. You’re my student for 100 and something 80 days, but you’ll always, I always call them my kinder babies. I look at them, and I hug them. I’m like, this is one of my kinder babies, and one of my other kinder babies was helping me put the cap and gown on my kinders that graduated last year. And they’re like, we now get to put the cap and gown, and we remember when you put it on us. So to me, it’s always that legacy that I leave in all of them, Like we were going over the butterfly today in four different stages. And I go right now you’re completing the first nine weeks. You’re no longer little eggs, so I’m going to start letting go of your hands as your little wings start growing. But when they’re fully growing, you’re going to be graduating. They’re like, “no, we don’t want to leave kindergarten yet.” I’m like, “no, no, not yet, but we’re going to eventually get there.” But, you know, just taking the time to really get to know who the children are. 

I don’t want just to be another teacher. I want to be the teacher that always gets spoken to. I know Adele had a whole thing in a concert where one of her special teachers came out like, I want to be that teacher. I want to be at that baseball game when you become famous. I want to be someone that you need to pick someone when you’re graduating to come do your tie. I want to be that person. Like I was saying, I always wanted the passion that some of my teachers didn’t have, even at a young age, to really know who Diana was. So if I could do that every year at graduation and get all those gratitude letters, not only from the parents, but from the kids when they say, “my most favorite memory of you is”, those mean the world to me. I’ve done videos for high school graduates that I had in pre-K, and I was like, “remember me, your pre-K teacher. You were a cyber champion. I hope this makes you smile on your high school graduation.” And just going back and remembering who Kristen was in that VPK video that just warms my heart and that the parents are still contacting me so many years later. “Hey, can you help and do like, a little video of how she was in pre-K”, and that I can go into my filing cabinet and still remember her little face even though I’m seeing the high school graduate. 

It’s just passion to me. Honestly, it always wraps up into passion, and that’s why I call my students sunshine, because I just want to pour sunshine into their lives. I’ve had all types of background students, students that I didn’t know if they ate breakfast that morning so I would have like little bars for them, a child who was just going through a divorce, and I just wanted to fill in that little gap that they may be feeling at home. And they know that they could always get a hug, you know, obviously not during pandemic. That was a different era. But other than that, you know, they could always count on me, and I just want to be a safe space because as they get older, they’re always going to be like but I remember how my kinder teacher made me feel. Maybe now in middle school, I might want to talk to her about something personally that’s going. Especially society now, I feel that they’re putting so much pressure and comparing themselves to other girls, to other boys, that I want to be in the back of their minds, like, “maybe I can go talk to my kinder teacher about this. I know she’s always been so open-minded to listen to anything that I’m going through.” Because sometimes those timid smiles, there’s so much happening in the background. I always tell them, I go, you’re putting this beautiful smile on stage. But I want to know what’s happening behind the scenes. I want to know what’s happening backstage. So just open door policy even once they leave my classroom. 

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Thank you so much for listening and joining us today to learn more about Diana Fernandez, our November Honoree and recipient of the Honored National Teaching Award. To read more about Diana’s story, you can visit our website at honored.org or click the link in the episode description. If you have a teacher who you want to recognize and nominate for our teaching award, you can head to honored.org/nominate to recognize a teacher today. If you enjoyed today’s episode, you can follow us and leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening in from. Thanks again for listening, and make sure to tune in next month to hear the incredible story of our December Honoree.