TROY – Jason Zepeda Maclin believes in the young people he teaches, and his community believes in him.
Maclin, a fourth grade teacher at Silver Creek Elementary in the Triad School District, is competing for recognition as America’s Favorite Teacher. He is currently in first place for the group division, and he hopes to eventually take the title and share his story with people from Troy and beyond.
“It’s been really amazing, the support from my district and from members of the community and friends that I’ve made throughout my career,” he said.
Maclin didn’t always aspire to be a teacher. He was planning to become a nurse when he fell in love with education at McKendree University. He got his emphasis in science and joined the Triad School District, where he himself had grown up.
Over the past ten years in Maclin’s teaching career, there have been several powerful experiences, but one student especially stands out to him. This “amazing” student had a “great personality” but struggled with math, which led to low self-esteem. One night, his mother walked in on him attempting to take his life.
When Maclin learned what had happened, he immediately jumped into action. He made a deal with this student: If the student tried his best, Maclin would come over to his house and eat pizza with his family.
“I tried to give him those moments of encouragement, letting him know that this is not the end-all,” Maclin remembered. “Doing long division, doing fractions, that’s not the end of the world, even though it feels like it whenever you’re 9 or 10. I tried to work with him as best as I could on figuring out a plan. What’s something that we can do to help you move forward and to help you see that even though this is a struggle, this is a right now struggle? This is not a forever struggle, or it doesn’t have to be a forever struggle.”
With encouragement, the student “totally did a 180,” and Maclin couldn’t be prouder of him. This story illustrates Maclin’s drive to see his students succeed and — most importantly — to be motivated and happy.
“I was trying to continue to motivate him and other students who were like him, who had that same outlook, that felt like they just weren’t good enough,” Maclin said. “I want to make sure that these students know that there’s more than just what people label you as and what box they put you in. You have the control of that, but you also have to want to have the drive to do that.”
Maclin goes out of his way to look out for his kids. As his students deal with the growing pains of fourth grade, he is a steady presence in their life, armed with advice and encouragement and always pushing them to do their best.
In addition to his daily teaching duties, Maclin assists in the special education department, and he coordinates the Coding Camp for fourth and fifth graders at Silver Creek Elementary. He has also served as the director of the Edwardsville YMCA Summer Camp for the past five years.
As the America’s Favorite Teacher competition continues, Maclin is hopeful he will take the win, mostly because of what it will mean to his students. The winning teacher receives $25,000, which Maclin said he will put toward his student loan debt, and a trip to Hawaii.
While all of this would be great, Maclin is especially excited about the prospect of meeting Bill Nye the Science Guy. Nye will conduct a virtual assembly at the winning teacher’s school. Maclin said this would be “life-changing” for him and his students.
Community members from Troy and beyond can vote for Maclin online. Voting is free, or you can donate to Teach Across America for additional votes. Voting continues until May 1, 2025, but Maclin needs continued support to stay in the running.
He emphasized that he loves teaching and this recognition would simply be a reminder that he is on the right track. As Maclin supports his students, he hopes the community will come together to support him, too.
“It would validate that all of this was worth it. The struggle is worth it,” he added. “On certain days, the hard bombshells that are dropped on you about education that you have to then figure out how to just navigate through that — all that is worth it. I’m doing the right thing. I’m on the right path. Even though I know I’m on the right path, this will just let me know even more that people see that…This would let people know that, hey, there was a Mr. Maclin out there, and there’s a lot of other Mr. Maclins out there whether they’re male or female, and we’re doing amazing things.”
Click here to vote for Jason Zepeda Maclin as America’s Favorite Teacher.
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