NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — Andrea Maltese has been teaching for 30 years at Moon Lake Elementary. She has a true passion for education.

“I love seeing the looks on the kid's faces, the adult's faces, when something finally clicks. That is probably the most rewarding aspect of this job,” said Maltese.

She is currently a humanities coach focusing on instructional training for reading, writing and social studies. Maltese helps teachers create plans to make sure the students are successful.

“I visit classrooms and do walk-throughs to see if everything we’ve planned is coming to fruition and our students are positively responding. I get a chance to still connect with my kids and ask them how things are going,” said Maltese.

Maltese also works with students in small groups, which helps her build relationships with them.

“I think it’s that trust, that connection that we have with our kids and making sure that learning is fun and I try to make it fun every day for them, but also [let them] know that I believe in them,” said Maltese.

Maltese was nominated to be featured as our A+ Teacher this week by a former student. Kiley Witfoth was in her second-grade class. She now teaches kindergarten at Moon Lake Elementary.

“She’s made such a big impact to the school, to the community, because my brother also had her as a teacher and my parents still talk about her sometimes,” said Witfoth.

“You do everything and you set them off and you hope you’ll see them again so the fact that she came back to work here but then she nominated me is just very humbling and very inspirational to others I think,” said Maltese.

“This is a pure example of when we have great education and fun learning and engaged learning that we can have our students want to come back and teach again and do the same thing for kids they have in front of them.”