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April 16, 2008 The Virginian-Pilot by Ida Kay Jordan
Sometimes the kids slip and call her "Mom," but that's OK with Miguela Kuizon Weiseman, Portsmouth's Teacher of
the Year.
She loves her 4-year-olds at the Mount Hermon Preschool Center, where she is a Bright Start teacher.
"You should hear them read," she said.
Weiseman said most of the kids don't know letters or numbers when they arrive in her classes in the fall.
"By this time of the year, they can read," she said. "They're like the flowers that bloom in the spring."
Portsmouth has two preschool centers. The other is in Emily N. Spong. Mount Hermon has 280 pupils, who stay one year before
going on to kindergarten in the elementary schools.
Weiseman, 54, has taught in Portsmouth for 11 years. "Portsmouth has a lot of good teachers and it's on its way up,"
she said. "I'm blessed and humbled to receive this award."
She started teaching in Bright Start at Westhaven Elementary in 1996. Then preschool programs were centralized four years
ago in two former elementary schools.
More than 500 children are enrolled in the two schools exclusively for 4-year olds. Several elementary schools also have
classes for 4-year-olds, and registration for any child who will be 4 by Sept. 30 is now going on. Helen Taylor, Bright Start
supervisor, said information is available at every school in the city.
Weiseman, born and raised in the Philippines, first came to this country in 1986 on a family visit, which included a journey
to her father's sister and family, the Mizals, in Norfolk. On that trip she met Harry Earl Weiseman III, a Portsmouth man
whose grandfather - H. Earl Weiseman - served on the City Council in the 1960s, including as vice mayor.
A long-distance romance began and, Miguela Weiseman said, her future father-in-law told her husband-to-be "it would
be cheaper to marry me than to pay the phone bill."
Miguela Weiseman, sometimes called "Meg," was an English teacher working on her master's in linguistics at Ateneo
de Manila University when she married in 1987. She then earned a master's in early childhood education at Norfolk State on
a Project EMBRACE scholarship.
While completing her teacher certification, she worked at First Virginia Bank of Tidewater before getting back to teaching.
Her husband works in material management for Sentara Leigh Hospital.
His dad, H.E. Weiseman Jr., worked at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard after he returned from duty in the U.S. Army during World
War II. He was among the first group ashore in the Leyte Gulf landing.
Her father Filemon Kuizon, was a Philippine army officer during the same war. He received the message by Morse code from
Gen. Douglas MacArthur that he was headed for the Philippines.
Weiseman's path to teaching was circuitous.
"When I was a child I wanted to study piano," she said. Now she puts that love of music to good use, participating
in music activities at Aldersgate United Methodist Church and playing with a Weisman family group called "Share."
They will perform at the Prentis Park reunion on April 26.
By college, she had decided to become a doctor, but majored in English during her pre-med days. "I went to med school
for two years and changed my mind," she said.
Weiseman is bilingual and teaches her 4-year-olds a bit of Spanish - greetings, colors, numbers and other basics.
It's a good time to introduce them to another language, she said, because "their brains are like sponges."
When Weiseman realizes that parents are not very active in a child's life, she encourages them to become involved with
the school.
"Then the children are more interested" she said. "The parents must respect the teacher."
Whatever the reason, most kids in her class want to go to school every day - "even when they're sick," she said.
Although she has no children of her own, she lays claim to hundreds of youngsters and their parents who have passed through
her classroom.
"I'm blessed," she said. "It's very rewarding."
Portsmouth Teachers Receive Annual Honors
March 19, 2008 The Virginian-Pilot by Cheryl Ross
Mount Hermon Preschool Center teacher Miguela Weiseman was named Portsmouth's Teacher of the Year at an awards ceremony Tuesday
night.
A selection committee of five current and former Portsmouth Public Schools employees unanimously selected Weiseman for
the award, said Dr. Margaret Buxton, the school system's director of human resources.
Weiseman's attributes include teaching 4-year-olds how to read and involving parents in the classroom, said Buxton, who
was not on the selection committee.
Other teachers were singled out for top performances as well.
John C. Brown, a history teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, was named the city's High School Teacher of the Year,
Buxton said. Marie Parrish, a seventh-grade English teacher at Cradock Middle School, was named Middle School Teacher of the
Year, and LaKicia Sallee, a special education teacher at Brighton Elementary School, was announced as the Elementary School
Teacher of the Year.
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