TEACHER OF INTEREST
The LANGUAGE INSTRUCTOR
Nereida Steele gives her students of all ages a fresh start by teaching them how to speak English as a second language.
BY DONNA CRARY
Talk to Nereida Steele and you can’t help but get
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impacted by her love for teaching. Her enthusiasm is
contagious. Teaching is a special calling, she shares,
a Godly mission for her life.
“Every morning before I go to work, I pray, ‘God, I want
to be your hands, your eyes, your mouth … I want to make a
difference to these people and actually help them out,’” she
says. “I’m hungry to help someone who really needs it.”
Steele instructs English as a second language at the Martin
County Adult Learning Center in Indiantown. Her students
range from ages 16 to 70. At the school, she opens up a whole
new world to those who want to learn English.
“Her work does not accomplish one big thing; there’s not
one student who went on to become a surgeon or something
like that,” explains husband Judge Darren Steele. “What it
is are a thousand small good things … so it might be where
somebody who otherwise couldn’t get a job, can now get a
job and is a foreman because he speaks English. And the look
in someone’s eye when they attend the conference at their
kid’s school and understand what is really going on. Or when
ANTHONY INSWASTY PHOTOS
they go to the doctor and comprehend what’s going on, or do
all the things that we do in our normal day-to-day life.”
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Nereida moved to the
United States when she turned 14. She credits her elementary
school teacher in Puerto Rico for giving her an appreciation
for Spanish literature as well as a foundation for effective
note taking.
“Miss Victoria, she showed me how you should always
have your paper neat,” Steele says. “If it’s not neat, how can
you write? You don’t want to look at it again. And that’s a
simple concept that I show my students.”
After moving to the U.S., she attended Taravella High
School in Broward County. There the hard-working student
was greatly influenced by Edith Smith, an English teacher
who taught her the basics of English grammar and how to
write essays. Smith was awarded Florida’s teacher of the year
in 1985.
“This lady, I loved her to death,” recalls Steele. “It was my
second year of high school and she made an announcement,
‘If you need any help in English, come and see me after >>
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