With Sights Once Set on NASA Career, Briarlake Elementary Educator Found Purpose Working with Special Education Children While In College
Let’s be honest: It can’t be easy to select just one educator to be the DeKalb County School District (DCSD) Teacher of the Year, with so many exceptionally qualified educators from which to choose.
But choose the Teacher of the Year Committee must, and another superbly talented educator has been selected, and as it turns out, the Georgia Department of Education is equally impressed.
In February, Ms. Veena Black, a 2nd Grade teacher at Briarlake Elementary School, was announced as the 2022-23 DCSD Teacher of the Year at the District’s 9th Annual Academy of Educational Excellence Awards.
The accolades didn’t end there. On March 23, she was revealed as a finalist for the 2024 Georgia Teacher of the Year (GaTOTY) in a surprise visit by State Superintendent Richard Woods at her school. She will now be judged along with nine other educators for the state honor.
The 2024 GaTOTY, expected to be announced by June, will serve as an ambassador for education, traveling the state and speaking to educators and community groups. The GaTOTY competes in the National Teacher of the Year Program, representing the Peach State at national conferences with other State Teachers of the Year.
Ms. Black also won the 2023 Don Cargill STEM Scholar Award, recognizing teachers working to integrate effective STEM (i.e., Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education into their classrooms. The honor came with a $500 award for classroom supplies.
Not bad for someone who initially had her sights aimed toward the stars. Literally.
As is sometimes the case, her initial career ambitions took an abrupt detour into education after working part-time with autistic children in the college daycare center while at Rutgers University.
At the time, she was majoring in engineering with dreams of pursuing ceramics engineering and landing a satisfying career with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
“It is a great honor to be recognized among other passionate and talented educators with a heart and love for teaching,” Ms. Black said. “I attended Emory University and received my Master of Divinity in 2004. In my last year of seminary, I took child advocacy classes and decided to return to my first love: Teaching.”
With that fateful decision, Ms. Black has spent 15 years of her 24-year teaching career with DCSD. She has been a special education paraprofessional and an elementary homeroom teacher. She has also co-taught in a public Montessori classroom in a multi-grade setting for students with special education, gifted, and English and Second Language students. She also has experience teaching self-contained special education students with behavioral disorders and severe and profound intellectual disabilities.
For the last five years, Ms. Black has been at Briarlake Elementary, where she spent most of her years as a STEM Specials teacher and the STEM Lead. This school year, she returned to the classroom to teach second grade but remains the STEM Lead for Briarlake. She is also the advisor of the First Lego League Robotics and Girls Who Game after-school programs.
Briarlake Elementary Principal Camille Jones said Ms. Black is an incredible teacher and role model for her students and peers.
“Seeing Ms. Black in action is phenomenal! To compete and win the District Teacher of the Year speaks volumes of her professionalism and the incredible impact she has with the students, her peers, and the Briarlake community,” Principal Jones said. “In addition to her regular teaching duties, Ms. Black has gone out of her way to continue to support our STEM programs at the school since we don’t have a teacher to oversee those responsibilities yet. If there is a need, she helps find a solution.”
Since the announcement of her DCSD TOTY selection, Briarlake Elementary and the community have celebrated Ms. Black. The news has been shared across social media. Briarlake Baptist Church bought food for faculty and staff to celebrate. The nearby Chick-Fil-A restaurant even celebrated her by placing her name on its marquee.
Also, Herff Jones is making a ring for her that will say “TOTY 2023” on her birthstone. Ms. Black said she is honored and excited that her coworkers chose her to represent Briarlake Elementary as its teacher of the year.
“I am very proud to be a part of Briarlake,” she said. “It is a very loving and supportive school community. I love being an educator at Briarlake.”
Ms. Black said that what she loves most about being a teacher is building students’ self-confidence. Her teaching philosophy is that all children can learn and feel proud of their accomplishments if they try. To reinforce this, she often reminds her students that knowledge is their superpower.
“As an educator, we are role models who provide our students the motivation and desire to learn,” she said. “How we show up every day provides our students the excitement to come to school and learn.”
And, yes, Ms. Black is a big believer that learning is a lifelong pursuit.
“My advice to new teachers is to keep challenging themselves and discovering new things as a way to keep up the positive energy,” Ms. Black said. “I always challenged myself to try different fields of education, which keeps me learning and growing. The inspiration I get comes through in my everyday teaching.”
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DCSD celebrates the teacher and two education support professionals of the year from each school and allows them to compete at the regional level, which results in seven regional winners. Each regional winner competes for the district’s highest honor, the “Eddy Award” for Educational Excellence.
Open link to see pictures from the DCSD TOTY gala
Open link to view the video of the DCSD TOTY gala