Excellent Educators is a WAVY-TV 10 initiative to celebrate local teachers who have gone above and beyond for their students and communities during the last academic year. These Excellent Educators were nominated by their school divisions. Congratulations to these educators for all of their hard work and accomplishments!
Name: Mary Catherine Saunders
Division: Gates County Public Schools
Position: Second grade teacher at T.S. Cooper Elementary School
What the school division said about this Excellent Educator: Mary Catherine Saunders is an excellent teacher who works with all her students in a variety of ways to make sure they are demonstrating grade-level proficiency. Additionally, she is currently in a situation this school year where she is and has been the only second grade teacher for the students. Rather than complain, she decided to take on the responsibility of teaching all the students.
She constantly writes lesson plans for the substitute teachers, administers tests to all the students, brings all students into her classroom to work with them in stations, solicits outside academic support, advocates for all students, searches for research-based instructional strategies to use in class, treats all students as if they were her own children, collaborates with other teachers and support staff to provide appropriate resources to all students, and maintains open communication with all parents.
She’s determined that all the second grade students will be academically successful, despite not having a permanent teacher. She has a teacher’s heart and centers her instruction around them.
