T S E B E H T Y L P SIM
A look
eacher and T ’ S H C C o int
Non-Instr
r aff Membe t S l a n o i t c u
of the Year
Hard work, dedication and a sense of community. All three of those are things valued by CCHS’ community of Cowboys, and all three of those are traits embodied by this year’s Teacher and Non-Instructional Staff Member of the Year. In October, Misogi Abe and Idania Rodriguez were named this year’s Teacher and Non-Instructional Staff Member of the Year (respectively). The Lariat talked to both of them about their time at CCHS and what it means to them to be awarded this prestigious honor.
Misogi Abe
2021 Cooper City High School Teacher of the Year Misogi Abe is this year’s Teacher of the Year. She is in her fifth year as a mathematics teacher at CCHS and her third year as math department head. After changing her major three times, Abe graduated from Florida International University (FIU) with a bachelor’s in art history and photography. She traveled after her graduation expanding her photography portfolio but realized she was destined for a different course. “I got offered a grant and scholarship to get my Master’s in Fine Arts to then teach Fine Arts,” Abe said. “I decided that I would rather be teaching in a high school level and middleaschool level.” In 2010, she began teaching at Attucks Middle School in Hollywood and taught at middle schools for several years before she realized she wanted to teach high school students. After applying to a handful of high schools, she chose to work at CCHS. “Ms. [Michelle] Alvarez was really the teacher that kind of pulled me in to Cooper, 14 features
