Multi-Grades (Resource)
Juanita Gardine K-8 School
Tysha St. Jules was born in the United States Virgin Islands, St. Croix, in 1975. She is the eighth of nine children born to her parents. She is the mother of three children: Tishawna, Jaleel and Kamisha Yearwood—and the grandmother of four: Jeremiah George, Simeon Poleon, K’Nia and Amora Yearwood.
Ms. St. Jules attended Ricardo Richards and Alexander Henderson elementary schools, was promoted to the Arthur A. Richards Jr. High School, then, in 1993, graduated from the St. Croix Central High School. While enrolled at the University of the Virgin Islands in 1997, she decided to join the Americorps volunteers. Americrops members were assigned to various non-profit organizations throughout the United States Virgin Islands. Ms. St. Jules was assigned to the St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA). She worked with private and public school educators to engage students with learning about environmental stewardship, conservation, and protection.
During her time at SEA, Ms. St. Jules was mentored by Mr. Olasee Davis and Mr. Rudy O’Reilly as she conducted nature hikes throughout St. Croix. Her Americorps experiences also fostered collaboration with public agencies and privately owned businesses to present two consecutive years of Earth Day celebrations at the St. Georges Botanical Garden. As a result, she received an Environmental Protection Agency Award for Environmental Awareness. The Americorps experience turned into a full-time Environmental Education Coordinator position that included grant writing.
As time progressed, Ms. St. Jules earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education from the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix, in May 2002. She transferred her love for teaching into the public elementary school system. She was assigned an elementary teacher position at the Evelyn M. William Elementary School (EMWS). The culture at EMWS contributed to her present teaching success. The culture included educators who were always willing to collaborate and lend their experiential knowledge. They were willing to learn from and share with a novice teacher.
On her first day of teaching, Ms. St. Jules was formally introduced to Ms. Patricia Browne. Ms. Browne shared her teaching expertise and co-taught with Ms. St. Jules for half of the first marking period, but remained a mentor to the new teacher as the school year progressed. During Ms. St. Jules second formal evaluation, she learned that Ms. Browne volunteered without being asked to become a teacher-mentor. Ms. St. Jules stated, “With that support and mentorship from a veteran teacher, it made the first year of teaching an invitation to another school year.” This experience is reciprocated as Ms. St. Jules volunteers her time and expertise to mentor first-year teachers within her building.
At EMWS, Ms. St. Jules was introduced to special education when a ccolleague of hers was stressed about her child’s disability and not knowing what can be done to best help him. As the child’s teacher, Ms. St. Jules wanted to make his learning experience the best. While learning about teaching strategies to support the child’s exceptional needs, Ms. St. Jules decided that special education was a field that she wanted to further explore. The closing of EMWS in 2016 was the saddest, life-changing event that occurred during her teaching career.
In 2004, while working as the activity coordinator in the Beacon School of the Virgin Islands afterschool program at Claude O. Markoe Elementary School, Ms. St. Jules enrolled members in the community of all ages to participate in the plethora of academic, cultural and physical activities offered by the Beacon School. Her duties also included recruiting gifted members of the community to host these activities. Her commitment included writing and acquiring mini grants to maintain the program until its doors closed in 2013.
At the closing of EMWS in 2016, Ms. St. Jules transferred to Claude O. Markoe Elementary School (COMS), which proved to be uplifting because COMS was one of the schools that embraced the “My Environment Nature Program” that Ms. St. Jules previously managed with SEA. In addition, her previous work at COMS in the Beacon School program afforded Ms. St. Jules to effortlessly adjust to the school culture and readily interact with everyone. While there, she worked in the 4th and 6th grade levels, and continued to expand her teaching effectiveness and cultivated her love for environmental education into core subjects to engage her students. In 2016, her colleagues at COMS bestowed her the honor of being named Teacher of the Year.
While teaching at EMWS and coordinating curricula and extra-curricula activities at Beacon School of the Virgin Islands, Ms. St. Jules earned a Master of Education degree in Special Education from Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, Arizona in April 2010.
While considering other experiences in public education, Ms. St. Jules decided to transfer into the Special Education Department in 2018. She is assigned to the Juanita Gardine K-8 School (JGK-8). It must be something about the air we breathe because the culture at the JGK-8 is phenomenal. In this learning environment, Ms. St. Jules was embraced with open arms and have been afforded countless opportunities to collaborate with all of her colleagues. As the Lead Teacher, she collaborated with grade-level para-educators and planned learning activities, which engaged students enrolled in a Therapeutic Kindergarten. The learning activities are connected to each student’s cognitive and social/emotional development, as determined by their identified disability and addressed through their individualized education plan (IEP). At JGK-8, she was asked to chair the School Garden Program, in which the school body worked alongside her to design, plan and present a fantastic First Place Agriculture and Food Fair Exhibit in 2020. In addition, Ms. St. Jules assisted the JGK-8 Quadrille Dance performers alongside Ms. Patricia Browne. In 2020, the faculty and staff elected Ms. St. Jules as the school’s Teacher of the Year.
Presently, Ms. St. Jules is a candidate for Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership from Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, Arizona. Ms. St. Jules is not sure where she will be in years to come, but she does know it will be somewhere that involves actively engaging children to meet their academic, social and emotional needs.