WASHINGTON — Beloved Aiton Elementary School teacher Alejando Diasgranados is having a pretty great 2021. He'll continue his winning streak on Friday when he throws out the first pitch at the Nationals game.
Diasgranados, affectionately known by his students as Mr. Dias, is a fourth and fifth grade teacher at D.C. Public Schools. He was named the 2021 Teacher of the Year.
“Outstanding educators like Alejandro Diasgranados help students connect what they learn in the classroom to the world around them and inspire them to be life-long learners,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said when presenting him with the award last October.
Mr. Dias has taught at Aiton Elementary for his whole career.
"Aiton is a magical place," Diasgranados said. "So many people at Aiton really work hard and really believe in the students and I'm just a small piece of this beautiful masterpiece that Aiton is."
Earlier this year, Mr. Dias and two other teachers got to sit down and talk with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
The four talked about a variety of topics, including teaching in a pandemic. The conversation caught the eye of President Joe Biden, who tweeted out the whole video saying, " Like the First Lady says: Any nation that out-educates us will out-compete us."
We'll be watching to see how Mr. Dias does. At the very least, he can't do any worse than Dr. Anthony Fauci, right?
The Nats play the New York Mets starting at 7:05 p.m. Friday.
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