Eighth-grade math teacher Janet Bernard has had quite a career in education, especially when you consider that teaching wasn't her original plan.
“My dream was always to have a home where children who need help just come and they live,” Bernard explained. “I thought I'd be like a Mother Teresa kind of a thing is what I had in mind.”
It didn’t quite turn out like that. But Bernard has made an impact on countless kids.
She was born in Antigua and started teaching in the Virgin Islands back in the 1980s. Life took her all over the islands south of the United States and to all sorts of classrooms along the way.
Eventually, in 2018, she moved to Florida and came to Harns Marsh Middle School in Lehigh Acres. In all, she’s now been teaching for nearly 40 years.
“My teaching is not a job. It is my vision. It is my life. It is my ministry,” Bernard told Gulf Coast News. “I came from having little, but because of education, I am able to be where I am today. And so I want to see that for my students.”
For Bernard, the teaching never ends.
Principal Alex Dworzanski said she’s one of the first at the school in the morning and the last to leave.
She even tutors former students who are now in high school.
“If you look at Ms. Bernard, she's a very slight lady from the islands, but she demands respect,” Dworzanski explained. “She's just powerful. Powerful in a way that you don't want to disappoint her."
“I think that she's one of the best teachers that I've had,” Eighth-grade student Kalia Boston said. “No matter what happens, she'll still feel the same love toward you.”
That impact has led to a Golden Apple after decades in the classroom. Fittingly, Bernard is dedicating it to the very students who keep her coming back.
“Their success is my Golden Apple. That's what the Golden Apple means to me. The success of my students,” she said.
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