SKOWHEGAN, Maine — A longtime special educator at Skowhegan Area Middle School is Maine's Teacher of the Year.
Education Commissioner Jim Rier presented the award to Jennifer Dorman at a surprise assembly at the school on Thursday.
The Farmington resident is a seventh-and-eight-grade special education and reading intervention teacher. She says she always wanted to be a teacher and that she's "using what teachers once taught me to improve the lives of my own students."
Rier's office says that Dorman's students have experienced more than three grades of reading growth on average over the last three years. Over the next year, Dorman will serve as an advocate for students and teachers throughout Maine.
Last year's honor went to English teacher Karen MacDonald at Portland's King Middle School.