Remembering when she was hired as a pre-kindergarten aide in 2013 at Little Flower School in Great Mills, Josephine Keeton said, “I just felt like I was home, (that) I’m supposed to be here.”
Keeton, who is originally from Virginia Beach, was back in Southern Maryland, where she had moved with her family and graduated from St. Mary’s Ryken High School in Leonardtown.
But teaching at Little Flower School was also a natural fit for her, because she had a special devotion to the school’s patron saint, Saint Thérѐse of Lisieux, who is known as the Little Flower. When the school in rural St. Mary’s County opened in 1927, it was named for that saint, a Carmelite nun from France who had been canonized two years earlier.
St. Thérѐse saw herself as a Little Flower of Jesus. Before that saint died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in 1897, she said, “After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses. I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth. I will raise up a mighty host of little saints. My mission is to make God loved…”
After graduating from Salisbury University in Maryland with a bachelor of arts degree in 2007, Keeton found a job through AmeriCorps teaching fifth graders at St. Francis of Assisi School on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in New Mexico, and during that time she became drawn to St. Thérѐse, known for her “Little Way” of following Jesus in everyday life.
“I just prayed to her all the time. She gave me the strength I needed,” said Keeton.
Later after she began serving as a pre-kindergarten aide at Little Flower School in Great Mills, Keeton – who played field hockey and softball at St. Mary’s Ryken – served as a PE teacher for the PreK through eighth graders there during the 2015-16 school year. During that time, she worked to complete her certification for teaching elementary education from Notre Dame of Maryland University.
Then in 2016, Keeton gained her dream job at Little Flower School, teaching the second grade there, which she has done for the past eight years.
“When I was little, I wanted to be a second grade teacher. I loved my second grade teacher,” she said.
On April 18, Keeton’s skill as a teacher – and her dedication to St. Thérѐse – took center stage, when during a surprise school assembly, it was announced that she is one of 10 Golden Apple Award-winning teachers in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington for this school year. And as part of the ceremony, her 11 second graders lined up one-by-one to hand her a rose – the symbol of St. Thérѐse – and they were gold-colored roses, to reflect the award she would be receiving.
The Golden Apple teachers, who will be honored at a May 16 dinner, will each receive a golden apple and a monetary award of $5,000 from the Donahue Family Foundation, which sponsors the annual award for teaching excellence and dedication to Catholic education.
The school’s 150 students had yelled “surprise” and waved pom-poms when Keeton entered the assembly, and she started crying when she realized what was happening.
The guests there included her husband, Will Keeton, who teaches history and math at St. John’s School in Hollywood, Maryland. He is the brother of Caitlin Keeton, Little Flower’s principal, and he met his future wife and fell in love with her after she was hired to teach there. After the announcement that she is a Golden Apple teacher, Josephine Keeton hugged her husband, who held their baby daughter Grace. Their daughter Marin is a PreK3 student at Little Flower School.
Asked about his wife after the ceremony, Will Keeton said, “Her patience is unprecedented. She’s just pure love. Everything she does is done from love.”
Also attending the ceremony was Father Paul Nguyen, the pastor of St. George Parish in Valley Lee, where Josephine and Will Keeton and their two young daughters are parishioners.
“Her love for the children, that’s her strength,” said Father Nguyen. “The children understand, listen to her and respect her, because they know she cares for them… She’s an amazing teacher.”
At Little Flower, a regional school, Josephine Keeton is known for preparing her second graders to receive their First Holy Communion and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and then attending each one of their First Communion Masses. Her students have come from seven Southern Maryland parishes, including St. George, Holy Face in Great Mills and Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Lexington Park which co-sponsor the school. She is also known for playing basketball with students at recess.
Those nominating Keeton for the Golden Apple Award included several parents who said she makes learning fun and engaging for their children, and one of her former second graders, who wrote, “when I was in her class, I did not want to leave.” One parent wrote that Keeton shows her students that “the love of Jesus is alive, and we can easily share it with another person.”
At the ceremony where it was announced that Josephine Keeton is a Gold Apple Award-winning teacher, before posing for a photo with her second graders, she wanted to pose for a photo with all of her former students, which include nearly the whole student body there.
“I wanted to take a picture with the whole group. I feel like I have a deep connection with all those kids,” she said, adding that, serving as a Eucharistic minister at school Masses, she is moved to give Communion to her current and former students. “My heart is with them,” she said.
After celebrating their teacher’s honor, the Little Flower students got to enjoy cupcakes with gold-colored sprinkles.
Little Flower’s principal Caitlin Keeton praised the second grade teacher, saying, “I really think she cares about each of her students as if they’re her own children. She works so hard to foster a deep faith in them.”
The principal added that Josephine Keeton embodies the “Little Way” of St. Thérѐse for her students and for her colleagues. “She just is so loving,” she said.
After the surprise ceremony, Josephine Keeton returned with her students to their second grade classroom, and taught them about math arrays and counting by twos.
Later when asked how she felt about being a Golden Apple teacher, Keeton said, “I just feel very happy and overwhelmed. I feel this is my journey God wants me to do. Every day, I feel inspired by the students.”
Keeton said she tries to dedicate each school day to God and to the children in her class, “and it just flows.” She said that when students leave her class and move on to the next grade, she hopes they learn “you can do anything with God behind you,” and to always “work hard, be kind and put God first.”
Later that afternoon, she posed for a picture standing next to a statue of St. Thérѐse near the school’s entranceway. Reflecting on the school’s patron saint who is also special to her, Keeton smiled and said, “She’s my girl!”
