2006 IMLA Region 6  Educator of the Year

Mary Werremeyer

    It isn’t often you have an opportunity to meet someone from another school or another school district let alone someone who impresses upon you the importance of the middle school adolescent.  For the past ten years, Mary Werremeyer has stood out as an individual teacher who truly believes in helping the students at her school become life-long learners. 

    Having had several occasions to work with Mary in her role as a coach, an athletic director, as a math teacher, and through contact at middle level workshops, I have marveled at her foresight and thoughtfulness and her desire to help her students learn conceptual as they apply what they learn from her to their lives.  She knows what middle school students either “get it” or “struggle with it” when it comes to math. Mary believes that it is important to meet her students where they are at in their understanding and then further that understanding, challenging them, but guiding them through their frustrations.

     Mary teaches more than math.  Often she is seen teaching her students good sportsmanship, patience, acceptance of difficult decisions, and the ability to handle unforeseen consequences.    She teaches them to learn to accept others, to cheer for the underdog, and to celebrate each other’s strengths.  Mary gives her students opportunities to discover the rewards from intrinsically motivated desires and the joy of a job well done.

    Mary is wholly dedicated to the students she works with.  She teaches math with a passion; coming up with innovative strategies for the classroom, staying current on developments in curriculum and best methods, and pushing for district-wide improvements.  She commits numerous hours beyond what is expected to her classroom and extra-curricular activities.  She is appreciated by her students and colleagues for her positive outlook and willingness to do what it takes to get the job done – in the classroom, on a committee, on any project or assignment she is asked to or volunteers to carry out.  She is an outstanding teacher!

 Congratulations Mary on being chosen as Region VI Educator of the Year!