Congratulations Sarah

Hancock County Teacher of the Year Sarah Doremus

The Maine Teacher of the Year process is extensive which includes writing, interviewing, and sharing about what is most important to teachers. It provides an opportunity for teachers to consider every aspect of the details of teaching. The 2021 county teachers of the year were recently announced and art teacher Sarah Doremus was named the Hancock Teacher of the Year. Sarah, along with the other 15 county teachers are eligible for the 2022 Maine State Teacher of the Year. Maine Teacher of the Year is a program of the Department of Education and is administered by Educate Maine.

Sarah teaches at Sedgwick Elementary School and recently provided her story in an interview for the Maine Arts Education blog. I’m sure you’ll join me in congratulating Sarah and once you read this will understand why Sarah was selected. Included in this post are amazing examples of student work as well as Sarah’s own art. I’m so proud that an arts teacher has been selected and I know that Sarah will represent us well in her role.

WHY SARAH LOVES TEACHING

I love the fact that it is different every day. I love that I work with little people who have yet to see limitations in what they can do and are eager to try anything. I love that my job allows me to make a living doing what I love to do.

Making trophies – “Loan Shark”

TEACHING STORY

One of my favorite stories was a decade in the making. My first teaching position was in Massachusetts at an alternative middle school for kids who had a difficult time mainstreaming into public school. I taught jewelry and had a student who was fascinated with metal, fabrication and design. He took every art class offered and I was able to hire him as a work study (a practice common at the school). When he graduated he applied for and got accepted at Mass College of Art (my alma mater). After graduation he went to UMASS Dartmouth and earned his MFA in metals. I teach adult learners at a jewelry school outside of Boston and during his training in college he served as a Teaching Assistant for me. Recently I took a class at the school taught by him. I love this story because it is an example of “teaching full circle”. I taught him and now he is teaching me!  

I realize where I teach now (elementary school) I learn as much from my students, if not more, as they learn from me. Student interest and curiosity informs our curriculum development. Our school works to integrate curriculum between subjects. 

Voodoo dolls of the teachers and staff

STEM/STEAM CONNECTION

There is a connection to STEM and that is STEAM. Which includes art in the equation (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math). My own art work addresses a wide range of subjects; from phobias to politics. My work is narrative so I want there to be a message which also works well with my teaching. I like using what the students are learning in their other classes to inform what we do in art. Having an added class of STEAM allows for even more integration.

• Example 1: Students made whirligigs that represent non-violent world leaders and displayed them in front of the school. In science class they were studying force and motion and in social studies class they were studying civil rights leaders. It made sense for them to use what they were learning in other classes to create a whirligig installation.
• Example 2: Students learned about plastic pollution and its effect on our ocean (many of our students have parents who make their living by fishing). We teamed with Haystack Fablab to teach the students  Scratch (a coding program) which they used to tell a story about the problem. We teamed with Alison Chase Dance Company to create a performance piece about ocean plastics and had scheduled an environmental artist from North Carolina to come up to create a pot warp (lobster bait rope) sculpture with the school and community. (Unfortunately Covid tabled the plan.) 
• Example 3: Learning about what challenges face those who are differently abled we invited a blind alumnus to talk about braille and made copper braille alphabet plaques. We cast student hands in American sign language. Both were exhibited in our school lobby. 
• Example 4: We invited a naturalist to come to talk to students about our vernal pool and right now I am preparing a class to investigate the caddisfly- Nature’s Engineers. The larval stage builds cases around themselves out of the detritis from pool floor for protection. At the conclusion of our study students will be asked to become caddisfly larvae and will use strips of cardboard, twine and egg cartons to build a larvae case around themselves. As much as possible I try to bring the community into the school to share their expertise. What we teach in school is so greatly enriched by having those that DO what we teach come and tell about it.

Cast hands in American Sign Language

TEACHER OF THE YEAR PROCESS

It is weird to be talking so much publicly about what I do in the classroom and at first I was a little embarrassed and shy but then I thought this could be a platform to advocate for what I believe in: project based learning and curriculum integration. I watched a Netflix show titled Abstract About Artists, Designers, Etc. and one episode was featuring a toy designer. She created these amazing toys and talked about a Chinese School where a new method of learning was being tried. It’s called Anji Play, where students are given building materials and set loose to explore, invent and create. It was fabulous! That probably would not fly in American public schools yet but I would like to see more inventive approaches to education. The Teacher of the Year process allows one to talk to other teachers and share new ideas and learn from the ideas of others. We don’t get much of that in our day to day teaching.

Solar cars

BECOMING AN ART TEACHER

I never intended to be a teacher. I don’t really think I ever knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. First, a nun, after watching “The Sound of Music” but then a firefighter. My career seemed to hop around like that until I started teaching at Sedgwick. I never could decide because there are so many options. I started college as a nursing major switched to chemistry and ended up with a BS in Art History. I got my Masters in Environmental Studies and went back to college and got a BA in Fine Arts. I started teaching when a friend  on the school board suggested I apply.  Initially I thought I would rather gnaw my arm off then work with little kids all day but summers off and health insurance were really appealing and I thought it could be a fun challenge. Now I can’t think of anything I would rather do. I have a very understanding wife and we have 3 amazing grown kids. We live with 2 dogs on Deer Isle up a mile long dirt driveway where I have a studio. 

empusta ugitfa or tempus fugit or time flies – Kinetic ring

ARTIST STATEMENT

As a sculptor, I work with my hands and in all honesty I think with my hands too. The texture, density, consistency and malleability of a material are its language and that language is what I find rewarding in the use of mixed media. I look to the inherent qualities of a material and try to manipulate them to my end.

I like to use my work to create a sort of tongue in cheek play on the human condition. Using words, puns or expressions in combination with physical representation of form I want to poke fun at our collective angst-ridden human condition: Not to minimize or diminish its impact but rather put it in perspective and by doing so remove the perceived anxiety; Basically, to render it impotent.

Most recently I have been interested in kinetic art especially kinetic jewelry. My work suggests sculpture that is ostensibly meant to be worn. Using found objects, doll parts and metal I make small scale pieces that are intended to comment on body adornment and ornamentation, both functional and otherwise. I’ve noticed that cell phones, and personal electronic equipment have become so commonplace that they are taking on the mantle of jewelry; jewelry that has a function and perceived necessity. My work questions this norm by functioning in a way that is both absurd and completely unnecessary.

 Barbie meets Sisyphus – Kinetic ring

 Hands up, don’t shoot

Fur lined wedding rings

Thank you Sarah for taking the time to share your amazing story. Sarah can be reached at sdoremus@sedgwickschool.org.

YAHOOO for Arts Educators!

Congratulations art teacher Sarah Doremus

Sedgwick Elementary School art teacher Sarah Doremus has been named Hancock County’s Teacher of the Year.

Sarah Doremus

I’m sure you’ll join me in congratulating Sarah for representing her school and arts education in her role as Hancock County Teacher of the Year. Sarah will be considered for the Maine Teacher of the Year for 2022. Sarah has been teaching for 9 years, grades PreK-8 and was nominated by her principal Carla Magoon who said:

Sarah is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic teachers I have had the honor to work with. She is excited about learning and helps her students to become excited right along with her. She spends incredible amounts of her own time and money to plan activities where the students will be engaged and have fun while they are learning. She works with all the other teachers in the school to create integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) lessons that are aligned to their curriculum and the standards that the students are working on. She is always ready to help with any special ideas like Maine Day, or Screen-Free Week, and she finds community resources, such as local artists and places where students can get first-hand knowledge. Sarah also partners with community organizations such as Haystack and Blue Hill Heritage Trust to bring opportunities that otherwise our students would not have, such as using a laser cutter, or screen printing. She always goes above and beyond and her love for learning and for her students is always at the forefront of everything she does.

As part of the Maine Teacher of the Year Program, hundreds of teachers across Maine are nominated by a member of their school community. Through a rigorous application process, one teacher from each county is selected as the county Teacher of the Year by a panel of teachers, principals and business community members within the county.

Below is the YouTube video of the county teacher of the year announcement. During the ceremony, held earlier this week, Emily Paruk, Maine’s 2021 Poetry Out Loud champ recited an original poem appreciating teachers. You’ll find this at the 20 minute mark.

The Teacher of the Year program is organized by Educate Maine. Learn more about the program at THIS LINK.

Read the article in The Ellsworth American about Sarah.

Today on Facebook Live

Announcement of the County TOYs

Today, Thursday, May 14 at 2:00 p.m. the Maine Department of Education will announce the 2020 Maine County Teachers of the Year. Please join Facebook Live for the announcement!

What: 16 Maine teachers will be announced and honored as part of the Maine Department of Education’s annual Maine County Teachers of the Year awards. The teachers were nominated by a member of their school community, and through a rigorous application process were selected by a panel of teachers, principals, and business community members.

Maine County Teachers of the Year serve as ambassadors for teachers, students, and quality education state-wide. The Maine County Teachers of the Year are available to make presentations to local and regional organizations. Throughout the summer, they will continue to participate in an intensive State Teacher of the Year selection process.

Who: 16 Maine teachers, representing each county in Maine; Maine Department of Education Commissioner, Pender Makin; Executive Director of Educate Maine, Jason Judd; State Board of Education, Martha Harris; 2018 Maine Teacher of the Year, Kaitlin Young; and 2020 Maine Teacher of the Year, Heather Whitaker.

Where: The virtual announcement will be streamed live on the Maine Department of Education Facebook Page. The pictures and a recording of the presentation will also be available after the announcement.

When: Thursday, May 14, 2020 from 2:00pm – 3:30pm

For more information contact Rachel Paling (Maine DOE) at rachel.paling@maine.gov or Dolly Sullivan (Educate Maine) at dolly@educatemaine.org.

State of the State Address

Celebrating at the Blaine House

Look who was at the Blaine House last night celebrating with the Governor! Heather Whitaker, Maine’s 2020 Teacher of the Year from Gorham Middle School and her colleague and ours and Maine Arts Leadership Initiative Teacher Leader and Art Teacher of the Year Amy Cousins! Wonderful to know that educators are celebrating with Governor Janet T. Mills.

Amy, Governor, Heather

Maine Teacher of the Year

Nominate someone

As a longtime supporter of the Maine Teacher of the Year program through our partnership with Educate Maine, Bangor Savings Bank is pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for the 2020 County Teachers of the Year, one of whom will be selected as the 2021 Maine Teacher of the Year.

Do you know an exceptional teacher? A teacher who inspires students? A teacher who is a leader in the profession and deserves recognition for their great work with students? Here is your chance to nominate him/her for County Teacher of the Year!

Nominate a Teacher!

Teachers may be nominated by students, parents, teaching colleagues, principals, superintendents or anyone from the community who wants to honor an outstanding educator. 

Publicly recognizing outstanding teachers encourages students to think about teaching as a career, and provides the community a sense of pride and investment in their teachers who are making a positive impact on student’s lives every day

To nominate an outstanding teacher as a 2020 County Teacher of the Year click here. Thank you.

Deadline for nominations is 5:00 p.m. on Monday, February 3, 2020.

About the Teacher of the Year Program

The Maine Teacher of the Year program starts with your nomination!
To be considered, the teacher must:

• Hold the appropriate professional certification for their teaching position;
• Be employed by a Maine public school, including a Career and Technical Education center, public charter school; or be employed by a publicly supported secondary school (a private school that enrolls 60 percent or more publicly funded students, sometimes referred to as “town academies” and
• Have been teaching for a minimum of 5 years – 3 of which are in Maine.
• Be actively teaching students at least fifty percent of full-time employment at the time of nomination and during the year of recognition.
• Not have been a County Teacher of the Year within the past 5 years.  

From those nominees, one exemplary teacher from each of the 16 Maine counties will be selected as a 2020 Maine County Teacher of the Year. From the 16 County Teachers of the Year, 8 semi-finalists are selected. The field is narrowed to 3 state finalists, one of whom will be announced as the 2021 Maine State Teacher of the Year at a surprise school assembly in the fall of 2020.

The Maine Teacher of the Year program is administered by Educate Maine in partnership with the Maine Department of Education.

The Maine State Teacher of the Year represents Maine at the national level and becomes eligible for the National Teacher of the Year award.

Please contact Dolly Sullivan at Educate Maine if you have questions or want more information on the process.

NOMINATE

Please don’t miss this opportunity to honor and recognize a great Maine Teacher!

Maine Teacher of the Year – Kaitlin Young

Announced today at a surprise assembly

Kaitlin Young when she was recognized as the 2017 Piscataquis County Teacher of the Year

CONGRATULATIONS to Kaitlin Young, 2018 Maine Teacher of the Year. Kaitlin teaches music to elementary and middle school students and is a proud member of the SeDoMoCha teaching staff. She loves teaching, her students, and her community. When she joined the staff at SeDoMoCha Elementary and Middle Schools there were 4 students in the chorus and today the chorus has 175 members. WOWZER!

Today is a special day for Kaitlin! In a surprise assembly each year the new Maine Teacher of the Year is named and today is the day!

Kaitlin is a teacher leader with the Maine Arts Leadership Initiative and her project this year is Showcasing the Learning Process Through “Informance”.

Kaitlin was named the 2017 Piscataquis County Teacher of the Year in the Spring and spent the summer on the next step – being considered for the state honor. She spent hours putting together her teaching history, answering questions, and presenting in front of peers.

Along with Kaitlin two other state finalists were selected. Jennifer England, an English teacher at Noble High School in North Berwick, developed a program for at-risk students at the school and oversees senior projects. And, Kasie Giallombardo is a social studies teacher at Nokomis High School in Newport. Principal Mary Nadeau said her work there represents the “art and science” of teaching, with effective strategies for student learning.

In September a team visited the three finalists schools for a site visit. They visited Kaitlin’s classroom, interviewed her colleagues, administrators, community members, and students. Maine’s selection process is long and tedious, unlike most other states.

The last music teacher who was selected as Maine Teacher of the Year was Charlie Seymour. Charlie was teaching at Camden Hills Regional High School and the year was 1986.

I am sure you will all join me in CONGRATULATING Kaitlin – she will do a wonderful job representing educators from across the state as she travels in and out of state during the next year. Soooooo excited for Kaitlin Young, especially since she speaks our language – ARTS education! YAHOOOO!

Consider Running for Office

Who knows better?

Teachers across the country are using their voice and experience as a teacher to run for public office. Many of them have been teaching for several years and representing their state as the teacher of the year. The fact is, who knows better than a teacher about the realities of education at the school level.

Read the article in Education Week on the topic by CLICKING HERE.

Influence of a Teacher

Teachers have the real power

This is a blog post from the Beautiful Junkyard, the blog of Ashley Lamb-Sinclair, the Kentucky 2016 Teacher of the Year. Ashley is the Founder and CEO of Curio Learning www.curiolearning.com.  Curio Learning is a start up creating an app for teachers for professional development and resource sharing and being launched in January. Thank you Ashley for the permission to re-post your thought provoking and important piece.

I stood in the henna tattoo line with my 4-year-old at a local festival listening to the high school girls behind me debate the merits of getting a zodiac symbol or a Chinese character. I chuckled to myself as I eavesdropped, having become very wise to teenage psychology over the past decade as a middle and high school teacher. Then something amazing happened.

One of the girls’ teachers walked by holding hands with her boyfriend. She screeched, “Here comes my teacher!” I couldn’t help but turn to look myself, and I watched as the teacher smiled kindly and waved, and the girl turned back to her friend to gossip.

“Isn’t she pretty?”

“That’s my social studies teacher.”

“She just got engaged. She told us all about it.”

Then she pulled out her cellphone and called a friend, who was presumably also at the festival. “Hey, if you see a tall woman with red hair holding hands with a tall guy, that’s my teacher.”

I waited for the inevitable discussion about the teacher’s private life. But what I really wanted to hear is what all teachers want to hear, I just love her class. She has taught me so much.

Yet neither topic arose, to my surprise. The entire time we were in line – it was a long line – the girl kept bringing the teacher up in conversation. She wondered where she was, she kept thinking she saw her coming back toward her, and she wondered if her other friends had also spotted her.

This was a fascinating experience for me to be a fly on the wall as students discussed their teachers in a social setting. We all wonder what impact we have on students when we’re not around. The fact that the student never brought up the teacher’s work in the classroom led me to a surprising conclusion: The influence teachers have in the classroom is mostly about who we are, rather than what we do.

Teachers are larger than life to students — and good, bad or ugly — they are fascinated by us. We are the face of education for them and their entire attitudes about school lay in our hands.

Now, as I end my tenure as Kentucky’s Teacher of the Year, I realize that even in 10 years of teaching, I never really understood my influence as an educator. But having worked with people at the Kentucky Department of Education, state legislators, national education organizations and even a conversation or two with Secretary of Education John King, I have a very clear understanding now that, as my dear friend and colleague Brad Clark of Hope Street Group often says, “There is a big difference between leadership as positional power and leadership as influence.”

As teachers, we can often feel as if we are not masters of our own or our students’ fates. Yet, the teenage girls I overheard at the festival didn’t discuss the teacher’s lessons or the policies the teacher was required to implement. They talked about her. They admired her as a person, and to them, she was so influential that they were willing to start a lookout chain just to spot her. She was literally like a celebrity to them.

And she probably had no idea that it was happening.

Here’s probably what happened next: She prepared her lesson plans later that weekend, maybe caught up on some grading. She went to school on Monday, saw those same students who probably smiled and said hello. She taught her lessons, gave some encouragement and even some reprimands. She went home after school and worried about those words of encouragement, the reprimands, the implementation of the lessons she so thoughtfully constructed and the products the students had turned in that week. She worried whether they got it, whether she was effective, whether she mattered.

Then she went to a meeting and someone gave her a task to do, a hoop to jump through, another worry to add to her list. At some point in the week, she felt overwhelmed, stressed and tired. Maybe she even wondered if she had any positive impact at all, never once knowing the influence she wielded over those students at the festival. Never once recognizing that she was the person with the true power, the one who stood in front of kids every day and was the face of education for them.

Having been blessed with the opportunity this past year to get a 30,000-foot view of education, I now see what that teacher can’t see. I see that if every teacher woke up to the awesome influence he or she bears on the educational system at large, there would be a drastic overhaul in how the system operates. Someone said to me recently, “It’s really easy to get caught up in the hierarchy of education,” and I agree. But if we change the way we view the system, it becomes less of a hierarchy and more of community.

For example, while listening to Secretary King speak at a conference in Washington, D.C., he said something that contradicted my own experiences in my classroom. Before this year, I would have made a snarky comment to my colleagues, maybe sent a text complaining about it and moved on feeling just a little bit more frustrated with the educational system.

But I recognized that I was the teacher in the classroom – the topic of which he spoke –while he was not. So after the speech, when he made his rounds speaking to the educators in the audience, I told him what I thought. I told him stories from my classroom and how the policies he discussed impacted my students. He listened, asked questions and gave me his email address to follow up with him on the topic later.

I realized then that he might think twice when speaking on the issue next time. He might take the time to ask other teachers in similar situations what they thought about the issue. I viewed him as a member of the education community, rather than someone at the top of the chain who wouldn’t appreciate my expertise. And most importantly, I recognized that I was the expert and I took the time to tell him as much.

What would happen if every teacher changed his or her perspective on the system and took the time to talk to those at the top? I think all of our educational leaders at every level would have no choice but to think twice and ask a teacher first.

So my time is ending and someone else will soon have the view from where I stand, but it’s hard to close your eyes again once they’ve been opened. My mission now is to open up the eyes of my colleagues, because teachers are the rock stars to the kids. It’s time for policymakers to hear the music.

ECET2 Conference

Today and tomorrow at Colby

Starting off the Elevating & Celebrating Effective Teaching and Teachers! ECET2ME conference at Colby College was Sophie Towle, a 2016 Marshwood High School graduate. Sophie is a singer songwriter from South Berwick and a former student of music educator Kate Smith who taught her at Central School in South Berwick. Her third CD of original songs “An Ocean Away” will be released later this month. Sophie gives guitar lessons, plays tennis and likes to hike. She will attend Wesleyan University in Connecticut this fall and will pursue her interests in government and graphic design. If you are interested check out http://www.sophietowlemusic.com/.

The day was filled with positive energy and only got better as it progressed. Starting off the morning was the 2015 national teacher of the year Shanna Peeples from Texas who provided inspirational words. Shanna encouraged educators to tell their stories – “stories shape how people see us.”

Theresa presenting her SLAM! session

Kate and Theresa Cerceo, both members of the Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI), attended the conference representing MALI. Theresa provided a workshop on SLAM! Student Leaders in the Arts Movement. She created SLAM! one year ago as an outcome of attending the Teach to Lead summit in Washington, D.C. It is a student leadership group who advocates for arts education. Workshop participants were very impressed with the work SLAM! and Theresa have underway. In addition there many other workshops including Creating a Positive Adult Culture, Tweeting to Lead, National Board Certification, Advocating for the Profession, Leading from the Classroom, Leading the Way to Gradeless Classrooms, Differentiating with Students and Adults, and much more. 

Kate ‘talking’ Teacher Leadership

Kate and I were videotaped by a team visiting from the US Department of Education. The subject was ‘teacher leadership’. Watching and listening while Kate was ‘attached to her microphone and under the lights’ my heart swelled with pride as I was reminded of who we are in Maine and the work our arts educators are doing in their role as leaders.

The day was jam packed with opportunities to learn and network with the other 150 educators including 3 other music and 2 visual arts. The funniest part of the day was an evening with the improv group called Teachers’ Lounge Mafia. Four out of the five members are teachers in western Maine; I laughed so much my face hurt. If you ever have the chance to see them or are needing a group for any occasion check them out on facebook. Soooooo funny!

Congratulations to the ECET2 planning committee – a big shout out to the 2015 and 15 Maine Teachers of the Year, Karen MacDonald and Jennifer Dorman for their leadership in providing an outstanding learning opportunity for Maine educators!

Teachers’ Room Mafia

 

 

Teachers go to DC

Maine’s 2016 Teacher of the Year, Talya Edmund will represent Maine educators at the White House ceremony Tuesday

President Obama to Honor Teachers of the Year

On Tuesday, May 3, President Obama will honor the 2016 National Teacher of the Year and finalists, alongside great educators from across the country, including NAEA Art Educator of the Year Barbara Clover. Maine’s Teacher of the Year, Talya Edlund is a third-grade teacher at Pond Cove Elementary School in Cape Elizabeth will be attending as well. Talya  was the emcee earlier this year for the northern and southern Poetry Out Loud events held by the Maine Arts Commission.

Providing all children in America with the opportunity to get a world-class education is critical to their success and the success of our nation, and there is no more important factor in successful schools than great teachers. As part of the event, the President will lift up the role that great educators have played in improving our education system over the past seven years, and highlight the progress we have made since he took office.

The National Teacher of the Year is chosen from among the State Teachers of the Year by a national selection committee representing the major national education organizations organized by the Council of Chief State School Officers. As part of this year’s event teachers and educators from across the country will also join in the celebration.

WHAT: President Obama honors the 2016 National Teacher of the Year and finalists at the White House

WHEN: Tuesday, May 3 at 4:00 PM ET

The White House will be posting for the event on its social media channels on May 3 (@WhiteHouse on Twitter, White House on Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram).