ECS Educator Maggie Tedder Receives Prestigious HCOE Excellence in Teaching Award
May 7, 2024 - Eureka, CA - Eureka City Schools (ECS) is pleased to announce that Margaret (Maggie) Tedder of Grant Elementary has received the Humboldt County Office of Education's (HCOE) Excellence in Teaching Award for the 2023-2024 school year.
Tedder was honored by HCOE at its annual Excellence in Teaching ceremony, on May 1, 2024, at the Sequoia Conference Center in Eureka. HCOE recognized 7 teachers, with a combined 112 years of teaching experience, for their exceptional work in the classroom. These educators were joined by more than 200 colleagues, friends, and family members to celebrate their achievements.
Maggie Tedder has been a longtime, dedicated teacher with Eureka City Schools and an educator for 31 years. She has taught a variety of grade levels, K-5, at the Jefferson, Lafayette, Lincoln, Washington, and Grant school campuses, worked as a reading intervention specialist, and is currently an English Language Development (ELD) teacher at Grant Elementary.
Tedder is known across Grant as someone who goes the extra mile to develop positive relationships and provide additional support for students and staff when they need it most.
"I believe that I am able to successfully engage and support my students by taking the time to get to know them, their interests, strengths, and areas in need of improvement. I work hard to earn their respect and demonstrate my genuine interest in them as individuals, building a level of comfort and trust needed to elicit their best efforts," said Tedder.
When it comes to developing instruction, Tedder notes that collecting and examining student records, assessments, goals, language proficiency, and cultural background information is incredibly important.
"I use any-and-all data available to help me in assigning students to differentiated groups for English Language Development. Having an educational background in developmental psychology has strengthened my understanding of the needs of children at the different stages in their development and also helps to inform my instruction," she added.
Tedder serves as Grant's EL Coordinator, which entails several responsibilities: planning, organizing, and facilitating the site ELAC meetings; representing Grant at the DELAC meetings; and planning, scheduling, and administering Initial and Summative ELPAC testing. She is a member of the School Site Council and has served on that committee for over ten years. She previously served on the Academic Leadership Team and the Culture Club Committee.
She is also a fluent Spanish speaker and takes pride in her ability to help and accommodate many of the school's second-language families.
Grant colleague and teacher Michelle Merideth-Sutke says, "Along with teaching, Maggie does many other things to support the Grant community. Because Maggie does not have the need to stand out, much of what she does is quiet and "behind the scenes." You will always spot Maggie at every Grant event, running stations, setting up, and cleaning up. Wherever she sees a need at school, she does what she can to help fill it in, which might mean helping in a classroom during the first few weeks of school, serving on our Site Council, helping to run a small group when the classroom teacher may not have support, or translating for families at a moment's notice."
Tedder also takes pride in her commitment to continued professional development. Over the past several years, she has attended many English Learner and Constructing Meaning trainings, most recently the EL Achieve Symposium in San Francisco. The goals of the training included furthering the understanding of Systematic ELD, engaging as a community to support implementation, and reflecting on and planning for how to respond to our system's current needs.
"In addition to my ongoing goal of improving my Spanish language proficiency, I look forward to learning more about Culturally Responsive Teaching and how it impacts the level of equity and accessibility in the classroom," added Tedder.
She has also participated in the Arts Integration Grant, a couple of year-long Teacher Academy series highlighting a variety of teacher-related professional development, Kim Sutton Math workshops, and several classes through Cal-Poly Humboldt (previously Humboldt State) in social studies and technology.
As Tedder looks back on her journey, she firmly believes that her growth as an educator is a lifelong process, one that will continue to evolve even after her retirement. Her unwavering commitment to others, student education and experience, and her own learning and development are a beacon of inspiration for us all.
Congratulations to Maggie Tedder on the 2023-2024 HCOE Excellence in Teaching Award.
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Press Contact:
Sierra Speer Dillon
Communications and Marketing Coordinator
Eureka City Schools
[email protected]
707-441-3373