SAN ANTONIO – Every month during the school year, the KSAT team works to recognize our outstanding local educators.
Susanne Martinez is the current recipient of the KSAT Educator of the Month award.
She’s a seventh grade English-Language Arts teacher at Brooks Collegiate Academy, who is described by her colleagues as “always going above and beyond” for her students.
Susanne shared that she’s been battling Stage III colon cancer ever since she was diagnosed two years ago, but Susanne says she loves her students and she loves teaching, so she says she’s going to be there for her students as long as she can.
Susanne said she was surprised and overwhelmed when she was presented with KSAT’s Educator of the Month Award.
“I don’t think about awards,” said Martinez. “I just come in and do what I love and I’m just shocked and thrilled. I’m so thrilled.”
And, to everyone who knows “Coach Martinez,” it’s obvious she loves what she does and that she loves teaching her students.
Brooks Collegiate Academy Assistant Principal Sarah Riojas said she’s not surprised that Susanne is being recognized.
Riojas said Coach Martinez is considered one of their star teachers and that she got to see that firsthand after her son took her class.
“I actually had my son in her class and he came in and he he didn’t like reading and he came out and he actually is like passing all of his his tests,” said Riojas. “And, so that’s my personal testimony, but she does that for all of her students.”
Susanne Martinez has a passion for reading and that carries over to her love for teaching, which she says started when her kids were younger.
“I have three kids and they’re now adults,” said Martinez. “And, when they were younger, I would volunteer at their school all the time. And, the principal, said, you know, you’re here like every day, so maybe you should go back to school and, you know, be a teacher. So, I did.”
Susanne Martinez tells us she’s been teaching for about ten years now and she is going on her sixth year at Brooks Collegiate Academy.