COLUMBIA, S.C. — “Maybe it's because I'm a kid at heart. It helps me to stay young. But I mean, I've always gravitated towards hanging out with kids, because it's my comfort level, I guess,” says Mr. Duke Folda, our next New19 Teacher of the Week.
Mr. Folda teaches 5th and 6th grade ELA students at Pace Academy. His passion for learning can be seen throughout the public charter school in Columbia.
“He embodies pretty much a lot of things teachers are. Just brings a different teaching style into the classroom," says Adrian Peay, Mr. Folda's teaching assistant. "You know, he's very open with his students. He’s comical, so he brings that comical spin to kind of break the ice a little inside the classroom. But yeah, he's a stand up guy.”
Mr. Peay nominated Mr. Folda to be our latest News19 Teacher of the Week.
“Overall, he's a great teacher. I've learned a lot from him, and his students especially learn so much from him,” says Mr. Peay.
Mr. Folda began his teaching career out west before making the move here to South Carolina. It's a move he says his family made to better help his kids.
“A couple of my kids have dyslexia and were struggling in schools. So, it was just a struggle to find resources and to help them be successful. And then this school opened up and my wife saw it on Facebook," says Mr. Folda. "She said there's a school that's focused for kids who have learning differences like dyslexia. I interviewed, got the job, and moved here.”
A father of five, Mr. Folda now has three of his children enrolled at Pace Academy, including 9-year-old Evanie, who will be taught by her dad next year.
“He's awesome. Because he's crazy. I think that's how a good dad is,” says Evanie Folda, Mr. Folda's daughter.
Pace Academy focuses specifically on students with learning disabilities and dislexia. Something Mr. Folda understands.
“I noticed kids have differences. And we tried to help out, but it didn't really affect me until my own kids had it. And then I really became aware of, you know, these kids who are really struggling," says Mr. Folda. "And then it really makes me focus on my kids. Instead of slipping through the cracks, we make sure that they're not."
Now in his third year teaching at Pace Academy, the academic director says Mr. Folda has never taken a day off.
“Get all these students ready for not being here. Going to the mainstream classroom in high school. Getting to that next level. Going to a college, or whatever career that they want to be successful in," says Mr. Folda. "Some of these kids came in illiterate. Now they have college aspirations and that's it. That's all we're doing. Help them to be successful in whatever they do.”
And as they get ready to take their final exams of the year, Mr. Folda wants to make sure to keep the energy up.
“You can feel it right away, you know? Teachers just going through the motions or reading from a book, that's boring," says Mr. Folda. "So it's the energy that gets them going, you know, push beyond their limits. That's kind of what we tried to do.”
If you know a teacher like Mr. Folda who deserves to be recognized for their hard work in the classroom you can nominate them by emailing us at TOW@WLTX.COM. Tell us what that educator is doing every day to go above and beyond in the classroom.