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Truman Elementary fifth-grade teacher Juan Renteria celebrates winning district teacher of the year Thursday during the Norman Public Schools Celebration of Excellence at Embassy Suites. Kyle Phillips / The Transcript
Juan Renteria knows he represents something.
As he stood onstage at Norman Public Schoolsâ Celebration of Excellence Thursday, Renteria â the newly-minted district teacher of the year, a son of two parents who immigrated from Mexico, a teacher to 21 fifth graders â told the educators watching that in a difficult year, he brings something important to his students and his district.
âI am eternally grateful for the opportunity to stand in front of a classroom and offer something so profound to our teaching profession: Hope,â said Renteria, who teaches at Truman Elementary. âMe, a young man with immigrant parents, who has dark hair and caramel-colored skin, who speaks multiple languages and wh