'Making Learning Fun' In Orange County: Local Hero

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — When times are tough, heroes emerge. We all know someone who's making a difference right now as we live through unprecedented and changing times.

Here at Patch, we've launched an initiative to help recognize these heroes making a difference in their communities. We’re working to let all your neighbors know about these outstanding people and their stories.

This submission comes from Carrie Williams-Freitas who nominated James Counts of Orange County.

Local hero’s full name

James Counts

Local hero’s home state

California

Local hero’s Patch

Orange County

How do you know the local hero?

Work colleague

What does the local hero do?

He teaches children with special needs.

Why do you believe the local hero should be recognized or honored?

James Counts, an elementary school teacher for Speech and Language Development Center in Buena Park, is an exemplary instructor worthy of consideration for the Top Teachers Award.

James has been a dedicated teacher at SLDC for 25 years and is especially known as a gifted elementary school teacher, often working on a substitute basis. When you walk into any classroom where he is teaching, you will see students happily engaged in a variety of creatively conceived learning activities.

He makes lessons fun for kids with a wide range of ability levels — and you can see many smiles laughs and from both staff and students throughout the school day when they are in his classroom. James has a very structured classroom that is set up with much thought and planning to make it appropriate for his students.

He demonstrates consistent implementation of specialized instruction, daily/weekly behavior and academic data collection and encourages his students in reaching their highest potential behaviorally, socially, and academically.

James communicates with parents exceptionally well, and SLDC’s parents of non-verbal students really appreciate the extra time he takes as he often goes out of his way to call them at convenient times for them and they can hear about the events of the day — making them feel more connected to their child's classroom and school community.

Whenever it is shared that a teacher will be out, parents, teachers and students are always reassured that everything will be okay with him teaching the class. This friendly and welcoming nature draws James’ students to him and encourages them to feel comfortable. He also works well with his colleagues and has been able to establish positive professional relationships with them.

Above and beyond his teaching duties, James demonstrates active participation in the school’s growth by volunteering his time to attend events with a goal to share information about SLDC's programs with members of the community.

He also supports our school by consistently offering mentoring and support to new teachers and always steps in to help by providing paraprofessional support to other classrooms when needed.

What's one thing you want everyone to know about the local hero?

James makes lessons fun for kids with a wide range of ability levels — and you can see many smiles laughs and from both staff and students throughout the school day when they are in his classroom.

Thank you for all you do, James Counts!

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Know someone making a difference in town?

Nominate them here.