MICHEL FORTIER / Staff

Bonita Springs Middle School teacher Joseph Cofield was chosen as the State Educator of the Year 2008 by the Professional Educators of Florida. Cofield teaches college prep courses as well as history.

MICHEL FORTIER / Staff

Bonita Springs Middle School teacher Joseph Cofield was chosen as the State Educator of the Year 2008 by the Professional Educators of Florida. Cofield teaches college prep courses as well as history.

MICHEL FORTIER / Staff

Bonita Springs Middle School teacher Joseph Cofield was chosen as the State Educator of the Year 2008 by the Professional Educators of Florida. Cofield teaches college prep courses as well as history.

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Bonita Springs Middle School sixth-grader Peter Serendensky may know why Joseph Cofield was chosen by a national teachers organization as their Florida Educator of the Year.

It’s his grades.

Since signing up for Cofield’s college preparatory class at the school in February, Serendensky said his grades have gone from Fs to Cs and continue to climb. He got an A in Cofield’s class and said he has stepped up his effort to get straight As.

“He’s a really good teacher,” Serendensky said. “He always tries to explain it fully. He’s always trying to persuade you to do good and try to get a college scholarship.”

Serendensky said Cofield’s class, which prepares the many low-income students at the school for scholarships offered by the Foundation for Lee County Public Schools, helps him improve his grades by getting community volunteers to help him meet grade-level standards and stay there.

“If I’m having trouble in a subject, I have tutors to help me and it doesn’t cost any money and that’s good, because I’m not the richest person in the world,” Serendensky said. “But stuff isn’t always going to be handed to you. You have to go and try to get it.”

Cofield said he believes he was chosen to receive the Professional Educators Network of Florida State Educator of the Year award not only because of his hard work in the classroom, but because of his work with the community outside the school.

“I think everything revolved around the improvement of the students and making everyone a better student. I work just as hard in the classroom as I do out of the classroom, and it just goes back to the students,” Cofield said Thursday after he arrived home at about 9:30 p.m. “That’s why I’m getting back so late, because I was with the students. I love that. If you want the good results in the classroom, you have to go beyond the 40 minutes they have in the class.”

Cofield has been teaching for nine years. Cofield’s career started when he left the U.S. Army through the Troops to Teachers program. Bonita Middle Principal Joe Williams said Cofield’s military experience shines, especially when he teaches social studies.

“He brings the military experience in and he can kind of relate that to the classroom lesson that’s being applied,” Williams said.

Outside of the classroom, Cofield has started a Florida Future Educators of America program at the school, helped form an annual Walk for Education to raise scholarship money for burgeoning teachers, participates in several community organizations and dedicates much of his time to helping students.

Williams said Cofield has also been trying to start a school-based Leo Club, which is associated with the Lions Club.

“He’s very active within the community,” Williams said.

For his college preparatory class, Cofield helped secure some 30 scholarships. Many of the scholarships are administered through the College Reach Out Program, which awards students who maintain good grades and stay out of trouble funding for four years of higher education. It has a 99 percent success rate in Lee County, according to the foundation.

Cofield will be presented his award, which includes a check for $2,500, in a ceremony at the school Tuesday.

“I found that to be very exciting, the way teachers get beat up these days,” Cofield said of the award. “With that budget crunch, I think teachers need to be out in the front at every moment, because you know teachers in general do a great job everyday.”