Ms. Dziak, an English teacher at Coronado, was chosen to be a Diamond Award winner, which is a student-nominated award at our school.
Ms. Dziak has a lot of experience in different fields. She has been teaching middle school students for 8 years. Previously she worked in Cleveland, Ohio as a social worker after which she decided to move to Pueblo, Colorado with a “Teach for America” program. Then during COVID-19, Ms. Dziak decided to move to Colorado Springs in order to be closer to her friends, which is when she applied to work at Coronado. Since then she has since been teaching freshman and sophomore English, which is her first time teaching high school students. Mr. Philipsen, an English teacher at Coronado, mentioned that Ms. Dziak was “a breath of fresh air in the English Department when she joined us. I can definitely see why students like her.”
The award is so special to Ms. Dziak because “it is student-nominated,” which means her students liked the classroom setting and assignments as well as Ms. Dziak’s teaching. As Ms. Dziak mentioned in her interview, “winning the Diamond Award means that there are certain things that I am doing right in the classroom.” She will keep integrating texts that are interesting to students which will help them be more involved in classroom discussions and activities.
As for Ms. Dziak’s plans for future, she thinks she is not going to “step out of that role [of a teacher] any time soon” and is not planning to leave the school any time soon. She will, however, have a change to her teaching schedule as she is planning to direct the yearbook class next year instead of Ms. Ambroz who is the current yearbook adviser. She decided to take the yearbook team because she has an interest and experience in design and photography, which are very important for yearbook. Ms. Ambroz was a previous year winner of the Diamond Award as well. Ms. Ambroz mentioned that she knows “[Ms. Dziak] reaches out to students and builds great relationships which is very important to yearbook, where we are trying to get everyone seen and heard.” Ms. Dziak is very positive about the next year’s yearbook team, and is excited to work with them.
Coronado is very fortunate to have Ms. Dziak working with our students and staff, and we hope that she has found a long-term home away from home.
