Henrico's Top Teachers – Denae Griffin

Denae Griffin’s dreams of becoming a fashion designer died a cruel death when she reached a simple realization: She couldn’t draw.

Fortunately, her mother, grandmother and aunt all were teachers, and her future fell into place.

“There really wasn’t any other option,” she said with a laugh.

This option has worked out swimmingly. Griffin, who moved to the region from her home near Rochester, New York in 2006, has taught at Skipwith Elementary School since 2013. She’s taught kindergartners all but one of those years and works with students for whom English is a second language.

At a school whose students speak some 30 languages, her class is a true melting pot. Their mere presence as kindergartners amazes Griffin.

“I can’t imagine walking into not just a classroom but an entire building or world where I can’t understand what anyone’s saying,” she said.

So she makes it her responsibility to nurture the students and reach them in whatever way works best for each one. For one student who loves sea animals and dinosaurs, she’ll find way to use the creatures in a lesson he might otherwise not understand as clearly, for example.

“You just have to have a bag of tricks,” she said with a laugh. “An endless bag of tricks – Mary Poppins-style.”

Griffin’s bag seems to be overflowing.

“Mrs. Griffin has a positive attitude with her students and all the staff members,” a colleague wrote in a nomination letter. “She goes above and beyond to to help every- one in the Skipwith community.”

The colleague recalled one student who only spoke Spanish when he arrived in Griffin’s classroom.

“Over time, his English really improved, his confidence rose and he matured greatly in just one year in her class,” the colleague wrote. “She was compassionate when he did not understand what was going on in class, and she took the time to love on him when he would burst into tears and cry, ‘Mama.’

“She was his ‘mama’ at school.”

Griffin sent simple English books home with the student so he could practice his English, and in turn he taught his mother some English words. Griffin also had a bilingual parent come to class to work with the student.

In Griffin’s family, the lore of cardinals – which some say are representative of lost loved ones – resonates.

Skipwith’s mascot? Cardinals.

It is, therefore, no surprised that Griffin has appreciated her time at the school.

“This is what it’s supposed to be,” she said. “In the past I’ve been in schools where I didn’t feel like I fit. [But here] it just clicked – I really feel like I fit here.”