Goals of the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Awards program include honoring and rewarding outstanding K-12 educators for the quality of their teaching, their professional leadership, their engagement with families and the community, and their potential for even greater contributions to the healthy development of children. Goals also include focusing public attention on the importance of excellent educators and encouraging able, caring and creative people to choose the challenge, service and adventure of teaching as a career.
Based on guidelines established by the Foundation, participating states' departments of education appoint blue-ribbon committees that recommend candidates for selection. Identification and selection procedures are confidential, and the program does not include a formal nomination or application procedure.
In the room where Margaret Hersey teaches ninth grade English, a different team of students runs the seminar-style discussions each week, and books reflect the diversity of the classroom. Yet her work in English language arts is only part of what she does at Springfield Honors Academy at the High School of Commerce.
Ms. Hersey has drawn on her experience teaching Advanced Placement Art History to offer a class called "Demystification of the Arts", and her work outside of the classroom includes running the Adventure Club, taking students hiking in the Berkshires and on visits to art museums, and working on curriculum development and student discipline policies with her colleagues.
Ms. Hersey, a Northampton resident, received a bachelor's degree in social thought and political economy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2012 and is pursuing a master's in education with a focus on social justice. She has worked at Springfield Honors Academy since it opened in 2017.
Margaret Hersey English Teacher Springfield Honors Academy
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Last Updated: January 22 2020
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