“My professional goal is always to make my students feel welcomed, respected and loved,” Taylor Nunez, 37, tells PEOPLE
NEED TO KNOW
- Taylor Nunez, who has taught in Worcester, Mass., for more than 10 years, was diagnosed with ALS last September
- On May 6, she learned she was named Educator of the Year by the school district
- “To have the respect of my colleagues… there is no greater feeling,” she tells PEOPLE
Taylor Nunez, an English teacher at a high school in Worcester, Mass., was surprised when the district superintendent and the school’s principal unexpectedly walked into her classroom last month. At first, she was nervous, but then she saw her husband was there too, holding flowers and recording what was happening.
“I thought, ‘Ok, what is going on here?’ ” Nunez, 37, recalls to PEOPLE.
Nunez wasn’t in trouble with her superiors or being served bad news. Rather, they came in to announce that she had been named Educator of the Year by Worcester Public Schools, which left the Gerald Creamer Center teacher both shocked and confused…