News Release

Teacher of the Year Highlights Responsibility, Rewards of Teaching at NEA Meeting

'We know the tremendous impact of each day and each lesson'

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Teaching is an awesome responsibility with many intrinsic rewards, National Teacher of the Year Kathleen M. Mellor told more than 9,000 fellow educators meeting at the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly (RA).

“We know the tremendous impact of each day and each lesson,” said Mellor, a middle-school teacher from North Kingstown, R.I. “Knowing that I can make a difference in someone’s life validates what I do every day.”

Mellor teaches English as a Second Language at Davisville Middle School where she has taught for 19 years. In her remarks, she spoke glowingly of her students, many of whom are recent immigrants, and talked of how her classroom blends high expectations with “tender loving care” to achieve student success.

“The program, the students and their families are accepted and respected,” said the 2004 Teacher of the Year.

Mellor is the first Rhode Islander to win the national teaching honor in the program’s 54-year history.  She is traveling the nation with the message that school success depends on educators’ work with students, families and communities.
 
“It is you as a person, not the program,” she said. “It’s the power of your rigorous expectations, coupled with compassion. It is the respect that you have earned through the respect that you have paid.”  

July 6, 2004

For more information:
NEA Public Relations, 202 822-7200

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.