Charisse H. Robinson, 3rd grade, Cleveland Elementary School
Charisse Robinson still remembers the moment in high school when she decided to become a teacher, as she watched a 70-year-old man struggle to fill out a registration form for his grandchild. She saw the humiliation on his face when he asked a staff member to read the form to him, and knew, “I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to teach children to read.”
As a 16-year veteran teacher, Mrs. Robinson has no doubt that teaching is her calling, but her fire is ignited daily by her students’ eager curiosity and honesty. “Children will give you the harsh truth,” Mrs. Robinson says. “The last thing I want to do is disappoint any of them.” Now in her sixth year at Cleveland after 10 years teaching in neighboring Prince George’s County, Mrs. Robinson builds a safe learning environment for her students. “I constantly encourage them to take risks, to make mistakes and learn from them,” she explains. “We create a family of learners in my classroom. We support one another.” Even in the first weeks of school, her students can be observed reminding one another of classroom norms and collaborating on group assignments. Her third graders respond to her energy and love. As a former student writes, “Mrs. Robinson makes me more excited to come to school – just seeing her smiling face makes my day. She puts the ‘learn’ in ‘learning.’”
Among her many leadership positions, Mrs. Robinson has served as Teacher Lead and on her school’s Academic Leadership Team, while also advocating for her students as a member of the 2013-14 Chancellor’s Teachers’ Cabinet. Mrs. Robinson credits much of her success to her colleagues at Cleveland, who work cooperatively with a genuine focus on student achievement. Mrs. Robinson’s students have shown incredible growth each year. Last year, 95 percent of her students met or exceeded grade level standards in reading, even though a quarter of her class started the year significantly behind. She measures her class’s success in many ways beyond this data, however, insisting that the most rewarding part of teaching is seeing their overall, holistic progress. Her principal, Dawn Feltman, remarks, “Mrs. Robinson is an amazing teacher! She meets students where they are so that she can take them to the next level and beyond.”