SKOWHEGAN — Tammy Ranger, the 2016 Somerset County Teacher of the Year, has been picked as one of three state finalists for Maine’s 2017 Teacher of the Year award.
The three finalists were chosen by the Maine Department of Education in partnership with Educate Maine from this year’s County Teachers of the Year, who were named in May at a celebration at the State House Hall of Flags.
Ranger, a reading intervention teacher at Skowhegan Area Middle School, said she is thrilled at the honor and looks forward to working with the other county teachers of the year in a collaboration next year.
“It’s quite an honor,” Ranger said by phone Friday. “I’m humbled. I’m honored.”
The other two state finalists are Becky Tapley, at Brooklin Elementary School in Hancock County; and Cherrie MacInnes, at Brewer Community School in Penobscot County.
The process of selecting the 2017 Maine Teacher of the Year includes personal interviews with the finalists and school site visits where they work. Review panels during the selection process consist of past Teachers of the Year, school administrators, department staff members, and members of professional education organizations and the business community. The 2017 Maine Teacher of the Year will be announced at a surprise all-school assembly in October.
The Maine Teacher of the Year is a program of the state education department administered and managed by Educate Maine, a business-led organization working to ensure Maine’s students and workers are the best educated and highly skilled in the world, according to a department news release. The program has received longtime support from the Maine State Board of Education and the Maine State Teacher of the Year Association.
Maine’s Teacher of the Year program receives financial support from Bangor Savings Bank and the Dead River Co., Geiger and Hannaford.
Teachers from the middle school have been named Somerset County Teacher of the Year the past three years. Reading intervention teacher Jennifer Dorman later went on to be named Teacher of the Year in 2015. Last year, Debora Tanner, a mathematics teacher at Skowhegan Area Middle School, was the 2015 Somerset County Teacher of the Year.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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