ESTES PARK - Just spend five minutes in his classrooms, and you'll see why the kids love him.
Terry Leija is engaging, a great storyteller and inventive. Students and parents both agree that it's hard to not have a smile on your face when you're around him.
Mr. Leija is one of the 9Teachers Who Care winners. He's been teaching at Estes Park Elementary for 17 years.
Mr. Leija calls his students "third-grade thinkers." It's part of an oath the students take in the beginning of the year and repeat every morning that simply states, "I come to school to learn."
"Work hard, pay attention, have fun. That's kind of how I run my class," Mr. Leija said.
He wasn't solely nominated on his creative teaching abilities in class but also for the heartfelt things he does outside of school for his students.
During the September 2013 floods, he personally called every one of his students to make sure they were safe and dropped off his personal electric skillet and crock-pot for one family who lost their home and was staying in a hotel.
A few years ago, he also had a student with severe disabilities who lost her mom. Mr. Leija and his wife would pick the student up every Thursday and take her to dinner to help her father get some much needed down time and as a great way to show the student love and support.
"I try to build really good relationships with my students, get to know them so they feel the trust relationship," Mr. Leija said.
He really has a way of getting his kids to engage. Perhaps it's his Mario costume he wears for Halloween or the blue pajamas he wears for Polar Express Day.
Mr. Leija has a fun but structured class, and in the nearly two decades he's been teaching, he's turned hundreds of those "thinkers" into third-grade success stories.
Congrats to Terry Leija!
If you would like to nominate a teacher, visit http://on9news.tv/1HJ9ZhI.
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