For Educator of the Year Mrs. Laura Dougherty would be my choice. A great educator is someone who knows what a student is capable of and how to help him or her succeed. They need to be experienced in their field, organized in their lessons, and help students to look at their work in many different ways. Great educators also create good relationships with both their students and the parents of their students. Mrs. Dougherty has been teaching for over seventeen years, and in my opinion she deserves to be honored as the Educator of the Year.

Mrs. Dougherty works at The College School in Newark, Delaware. This school is a very special place that helps kids overcome any learning issues that they may have. Mrs Dougherty has had many roles at The College School. While I attended school there, she was a math teacher, Head of Admissions and now she is the school’s Director. In all of these roles she was smart, caring, and helpful; she brought a lot of energy to her job.

As my math teacher she would always push me to do better, and she would never assign anything that I couldn't do. She taught us many different methods for compleating certain math tasks like multiplication and division. Her teaching style is that she gets involved in what we know and how we learn. She would make sure everyone in the class knew the material before we moved on to the next topic. About once a month Mrs. Dougherty would take us out to Main Street for bagels and doughnuts. She would do this after we finished each section in the math book. It was nice to have a break between the lessons.


A few years ago Mrs. Dougherty became the school’s Director. While she has a lot more administrative responsibilities she is still very involved with the students and the parents. Often times, she has kids visit her office so she can check up on them and ask them how they are doing. She did this with me many times my eighth grade year asking me if she could help to make things easier. She worked with me on ideas and tips to help with school work during times when my schedule was very busy. It was really nice to know that she could help me when I needed it. I know that Mrs. Dougherty was very helpful to my parents as well. She would meet with them during all the teacher conferences and any other times that we were working through learning problems.

I think that Mrs. Dougherty should be Educator of the Year because of all the work that she does to help kids like me. Even though she is now the director, she is still a great teacher. She works really hard to keep the school running. She should be rewarded for all the work she does getting her students through middle school and preparing them for high school. I think she deserves this award because without her I probably wouldn't be attending the Delaware Military Academy. Hands-down, she’s the best of the best. There’s no better nominee than Mr. Dougherty for Teen Ink’s educator of the year.