Maggie Mabery brings her love of teaching into her science classroom on a daily basis. She states that with teaching, your hard work pays off the day you do it. Maggie strives to provide her students with “that booming experience” every day. She enjoys giving her seventh and eighth grade science students opportunities to work collaboratively to solve scientific problems or to create projects that demonstrate a scientific principle. Maggie believes strongly in using data to inform her instruction. She often collects exit tickets from her students at the end of each class on which the students answer a few specific questions about the day’s lesson. She examines this data and adjusts her instruction based on whether students need reteaching or are ready to tackle the next concept.

Maggie does a phenomenal job using tablet technology to enhance her instruction. Students use their iPads to access assignments on a paperless platform, eBackpack. Typically they complete those assignments paperlessly and submit them back to Ms. Mabery. She grades and returns the assignments to students using the same vehicle. Maggie implements the iPad into her instruction in very innovative ways. She may conduct a demonstration lab that her students film using their iPad. The students then create a “voice over” to the video that explains, in the students’ words, the scientific principles at work. Her students have also used iPad apps to create online books featuring the life or physical science concepts they are studying.

Maggie’s leadership extends well beyond the classroom. During the 2012-2013 school year, she served as a Teacher on Special Assignment supporting colleagues with the 1:1 iPad implementation at MBMS. She also founded a teacher-centered professional book club which reads and discusses three different books per year that emphasize educational themes we wish to introduce at MBMS. She and her fellow science teacher James Locke have presented twice at the National Science Teachers’ Association annual conference on “Invasion of iPads in the Science Classroom.” This year Maggie and James also presented at a national STEM Forum. The two of them wrote a successful grant that funded a trip to the Galapagos Islands where they studied numerous scientific principles and brought their newfound knowledge back to their science classrooms.

Maggie Mabery is a tireless advocate for her students and for making science education exciting and relevant for them. Manhattan Beach Middle School is proud to honor Maggie Mabery as the Teacher of the Year.