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Jason Taylor Named Pasadena Unified Teacher of the Year
Education May 19, 2017
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Jason Taylor Named Pasadena Unified Teacher of the Year. – Courtesy photo
Jason Taylor, who teaches math and robotics at Wilson Middle School, has been selected as the Pasadena Unified School District’s nominee for the annual 2017 Los Angeles County Teacher of the Year, an honors competition that spotlights excellence in public education. If selected as L.A. County Teacher of the Year, Mr. Taylor will be in contention for state designation.
“I would like to congratulate Jason as our Teacher of the Year and thank him for the impact he’s making on the lives of our students,” said Superintendent Brian McDonald. “Jason is representative of the remarkable and dedicated educators who are preparing our students to be successful in college and in the workforce that will lead us into the future.”
Taylor is a product of Pasadena Unified schools, and attended Cleveland Elementary, Don Benito, Audubon Elementary, and Marshall Fundamental. After graduating from Syracuse University with a degree in Science Marketing Management, he worked as a medical practice management consultant. He began volunteering to help a friend coach high school football. That’s when his passion for teaching was sparked.
“I realized that working with students was something I had to do,” says Taylor. “It was my way of giving back to the community that gave me so much.”
He began his teaching career at Marshall Fundamental. It was then that he developed a passion for teaching math and using technology in the classroom.
“I saw two trends developing in secondary education – online distance learning and robotics – that both were engaging and relevant to today’s middle and high school students,” says Taylor. So he prepared himself to be a better teacher and he earned a Master’s of Art in Educational Technology from Pepperdine University. He is currently working on completing a Master’s degree in Educational Administration from California State University, Los Angeles.
Today, Taylor teaches math and robotics to Wilson Middle School’s sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. He is the Chair of the school’s Mathematics Department and was the school’s Math Field Day coordinator.
“I’m grateful for the school administrators who have not only given me an opportunity to grow as an educational leader, but have supported my passion to learn so that I can continue to grow as an educator,” he says.
The Los Angeles County Office of Education Teacher of the Year competition is the largest of its kind in the state and is part of the oldest and most prestigious honors contest in the U.S. for public school teachers.
Sixteen teachers from a field of 73 district-level nominees are selected by a LACOE judging panel as County Teachers of the Year, educators who have shown exemplary dedication, compelling classroom practices, positive accomplishments and professional commitment. They serve as standard-bearers for the teaching profession and their 72,000 classroom colleagues countywide.
