Daniel DeShon teaches special needs students at Treadwell Middle School, an Innovation Zone school within the Shelby County Schools district. Dan turned to teaching after a thirty-year career as a horticultural buyer. He was a member of the 2009 Memphis Teaching Fellows cohort, and began teaching that fall. Dan has found a special niche working with middle school students with significant learning disabilities, and has focused on forging meaningful relationships with his students and their parents, families, as well as community organizations. He has helped organize the Treadwell Campus Improvement Coalition, which has secured almost $6000 in grants to work with the community to improve the outdoor spaces on his school’s campus. The projects are designed to create a nurturing learning space for students, teaching kids to take charge of their environment and serving as a model for standing up to blight in the neighborhood. Dan returned to the college classroom after 30 years to earn his MA in Teaching from the University of Memphis.
