Worcester

Mary-Margaret Mara

Mary-Margaret Mara is a preschool teacher at Chandler Magnet School in Worcester and has been an educator for 27 years. She holds a B.S. degree in Early Childhood from Fitchburg State University and M.Ed. degree +30 in ECE and Special Education from Worcester State University. Throughout her career, Mary-Margaret has served on numerous curriculum committees in Worcester and has written and received several mini-grants. At Chandler Magnet, Mary-Margaret serves on the Innovation Governance Board, School Site Council, Instructional Leadership Team, PBIS Team, has co-planned an implemented Professional Development to peer educators and planned and implemented Parent Workshops. She was chosen to collaborate on a research project with Worcester State University. In 2015, Mary-Margaret and Dr. Sue Fan Foo presented their research on how to enhance language acquisition in young children at the North American Chapter-World Council for Curriculum and Instruction (NAC-WCCI) conference in Nashville, TN.

For the last seventeen years, Mary-Margaret has worked with student teachers each semester, mentored teachers in her building and throughout the district, and is now a mentor trainer for the WPS district. In 2014, Mary-Margaret was named Worcester Public Schools Teacher of the Year and received the Massachusetts State Universities Educator Alumni Award from WSU. In 2016, Mary-Margaret was named a Massachusetts Teacher of the Year Finalist. She serves as a member of the 2016-18 Educator Effectiveness Teacher Advisory Cabinet and is a 2016-17 Teach Plus Commonwealth Policy Fellow. In February 2017, Mary-Margaret was named to The Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice Honor Roll.