She had wanted to be a lawyer. She was just named Miami-Dade’s teacher of the year.
The past few years have been life changing for Unethia Fox, a teacher at South Miami Senior High.
Like so many of her colleagues, she adapted to a new way of teaching during a pandemic. But just three years ago, Fox, 41, also saw her family expand. Shortly after having her son, she and her husband took in her niece’s three young boys after she passed away unexpectedly.
“I went from praying for one, to getting a tribe of all boys,” she said.
After that, she saw her students through her nephew’s eyes — “an elementary school kid whose whole world was shaken” — and wondered how many others were experiencing hardships at home.
Fox’s perspective of seeing things through the eyes of her students helped earn her the highest accolade Thursday night, when she was named the 2023 Francisco R. Walker Teacher of the Year for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the top honor for the district’s more than 17,000 teachers. She’ll now advance to the statewide competition.
After thanking her family, colleagues, principals, the School Board and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Fox, who teaches math and special education students, thanked her students and their parents.
“Parents, thank you for trusting me with your children,” she said. As a parent, Fox knows it can sometimes be hard letting someone else play such a pivotal role in their child’s life. “And to my students, you are the reason I smile.”
All students, including students with special needs, can reach their highest potential, so long as they are supported and have someone who believes in them, she said.
Fox received $10,500 for winning the top prize.
Speaking to a ballroom of more than 1,000 educators, Carvalho encouraged everyone to “celebrate greatness” and “the hope you bring to the children in your classroom.” Each educator deserves to be recognized for their work, he said.
“You all represent the best and the goodness of our community, state and our nation,” said Carvalho, who is leaving Miami-Dade shortly after 14 years as superintendent to lead the Los Angeles Unified School District. “Even on your worst of days, you represent a child’s best opportunity.”
It was the first time in two years the ceremony was held in person, not virtually, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Board Chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman, Karla Hernandez-Mats, president of United Teachers of Dade and 2022 Teacher of the Year Teresa Murphy also spoke.
Fox was one of four teachers competing for the coveted title. North and south regional finalists Renee O’Connor, 49, a social sciences and African American History teacher at Norland Senior High, and Andres Cerrato, 36, a social sciences teacher at Miami Southridge Senior High School, also attended the event.
Derek Bostick, 54, an air-conditioning contractor, who teaches heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) at South Dade Technical College, was named the runner-up.
The district also recognized the 2022 rookie teacher of the year: Gabriela Goitía Vázquez, an English and ESOL teacher at Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High School in North Miami. The runner-up was Mary Martinez, a kindergarten teacher at Pinecrest Elementary.
Fox encourages her students to be confident
Fox never planned on becoming a teacher. In fact, she planned on becoming a lawyer.
But after agreeing to fill in as a girls volleyball coach and then as a math teacher for students living with a disability at her alma mater, South Miami Senior, she knew the classroom is where she needed to be.
Nineteen years later, she’s still teaching at South Miami.
Despite teaching math, the subject is often secondary to what Fox aims to impart to her students daily. Her students benefit most, she said, from gaining confidence, social skills and problem solving outside of the classroom. Mastering an equation comes naturally once they learn to believe in themselves, she said.
Students’ abilities “go beyond people’s beliefs,” Fox said. “Because when you build them up and you meet them where they’re at, they can accomplish anything you set out for them to do.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 9:44 PM.
