A Fall River educator is a semi-finalist for Teacher of the Year

FALL RIVER — A Fall River teacher has earned a special recognition from the state for her work, especially for educating students who are learning to speak English.

“I want them to see that the material they’re learning in second grade is going to help them for their whole life,” said Samantha McKee. “Once they see how important it is, it makes them more motivated to learn.”

McKee, a North Attleboro resident, is a teacher at Atlantis Charter School. She started there as a first grade teacher through the Teach for America program, which trains and places new teachers in schools in low-income communities. She has been at the school ever since.

Now, she’s been selected as a semifinalist to be named the 2023 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. Every year, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education honors a Massachusetts public school teacher who “exemplifies excellent teaching in the Commonwealth” among areas including “student achievement, educators’ commitment to the profession, innovations in education, and teacher leadership,” according to DESE’s website.

At Atlantis, McKee teaches mostly students who are English Language Learners. Some of her other students who are not considered English Language Learners speak a language other than English at home, she said.

McKee speaks Spanish and is currently working on earning a master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages.

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She says she gets creative to help her students improve their English skills. This means tactics like planning lessons that have students with various levels of skill with the language interact with each other, physical movements that help them remember a specific word and bringing in the physical representation of a word to help students understand it, like a bug, coins or even an old cell phone.

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“I can talk about it until I’m blue in the face, but until they can hold it in their hands and are like ‘oh I know what this is in my language’ it’s not the same,” she said.

McKee says she strives to have students focus on “progress, not perfection.”

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Sometimes students don’t learn as fast as they would like to, or get discouraged because they see other students pick up on something faster, she said. So, she helps students focus on ways they’re actually improving.

“That’s really the core of my teaching,” she said.

Audrey Cooney can be reached at acooney@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Atlantis Charter teacher is a semifinalist for Teacher of the Year