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LAKELAND  By the time Maude Graham was just 9 years old, she had lost both of her parents and struggled to read. She decided to go into teaching to help students who were like her in school. 
“I learned that teachers were progressing me because I was young and fragile, wide-eyed, eager to learn and very obedient,” Graham told Polk County Public School officials. “Knowing this, I always wanted to become the teacher who taught students who struggled as I had. I always dreamt of teaching students reading strategies, no matter the circumstances that stood in their way.” 
Now 40 years old, Graham was named the Polk County Public Schools 2021 Teacher of the Year on Thursday night at a scaled-back ceremony at the RP Funding Center.  ....

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