Jean Dery should definitely be considered for TRG teacher of the year. She is a teaching machine.!!! She has consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty. One of the things we really drilled into our teachers head was differentiating their instruction last year. She absolutely mastered this and it was evident in her teaching. On numerous occasions the administration was blown away by the activities that were going on in her room. She had tremendous gains in her scantron scoring, and on the MEAP her students from last year had the best scores in the school(94% ELA 92% Math).

She also knows that since she teaches at a small school that her job does not end in the classroom. She volunteered to help out at numerous after school functions . She has been on the school improvement team for three straight years, she is on a peer coaching grant writing team, and she instructed an after school Fitness Club that she did without pay that quickly became our most popular after school function. It was amazing seeing fifty students in the middle of January all doing aerobics in unison to the song from Rocky “Eye of the Tiger.”

I could go on and on about Jean! However, the last thing that I want to mention that makes her an unbelievable teacher is the way her peers look at her. She is a natural born leader. She is like the “mom” of the group. All of her peers including myself love talking to her and getting advice about school related matters and real life situations.

Words can not explain the difference she makes in the lives of everyone around her especially her students. For all these reasons plus a thousand more that I won’t go on and on about it is without reservation that I recommend Jean Dery for TRG educator of the year!!!!!

Nate Seiferlein,
Merritt Academy Principal