{"id":1235,"date":"2020-12-15T21:34:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T21:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=1235"},"modified":"2020-12-15T21:39:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T21:39:51","slug":"former-gang-member-wins-missouris-teacher-of-the-year-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/former-gang-member-wins-missouris-teacher-of-the-year-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Gang Member Wins Missouri\u2019s Teacher of the Year Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MO<\/strong> \u2014 Darrion Cockrell, who had a rough childhood and became a gang member before he turned 10-years old, turned his life around and has now been named as Missouri\u2019s 2020 Teacher of the Year. As a child, Cockrell said he took education for granted and joined a gang when he thought he had no other choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were just already in it because of our family,\u201d he told Good Morning America<\/a><\/em>. \u201cI didn\u2019t care about books. I had to go home and figure out what I was eating. I had to figure out if my lights were going to be on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He didn\u2019t have a stable home then, transferring between a foster center and some relatives. When his grandmother lost custody of him, his counselor, principal, and teachers fought in court to let him stay at school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, his 7th-grade football coach and his wife took him into their home, where he lived until graduating from high school. A few years later, he earned a degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Cockrell works as a physical education teacher at Crestwood Elementary in St. Louis County\u2019s Lindbergh School District. Aside from teaching, he also helps to discipline and guide his students with empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school district\u2019s superintendent told the St. Louis American<\/a><\/em> that the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education chose Cockrell as their Teacher of the Year because \u201che has this ability to bring a smile to your face and connect with people and he does amazing things in that building and with his kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPE is just as important as social studies and science and math,\u201d he told GMA<\/em>. \u201cAs long as you understand those building blocks of fitness and health and taking care of yourself, then you can do anything you want in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MO \u2014 Darrion Cockrell, who had a rough childhood and became a gang member before he turned 10-years old, turned his life around and has now been named as Missouri\u2019s 2020 Teacher of the Year. As a child, Cockrell said he took education for granted and joined a gang when he thought he had no Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[56,40,1],"tags":[374,372,370,371,373],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1236,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions\/1236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}