2014 - Regional Teacher of the Year - Amy Abrams

Amy teaches 8th grade English Language Arts at Northwood where she focuses on empowering both students and families. Amy says her own experience as the parent of two students who didn’t fit the traditional mold had made a tremendous impact on how she approaches working with an increasingly wide variety of learning styles.



Amy believes family and community engagement is critical to student success. She suggests schools build in opportunities to teach parents how to participate in school. She creates meaningful and long-term service projects and encourages students to explore what their community means to them through reflective writing.



Amy is passionate about Common Core State Standards and the opportunity for equity they represent. She is committed to helping bring these academic standards to life through interactive lessons. She advocates for more specific modeling and better collaboration from elementary to middle to high school to ease transitions from one set of standards to the next.



Principal Colleen Nelson praises Amy saying, “Amy exemplifies all that is great about public schools and quality teachers. She is a believer and a doer. Amy comes to work every day and is guided by her strong beliefs about the power of education and her compelling drive to serve others.”