Education Alumna Wins Prestigious Award
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| Deanna M. Nadeau ’92 |
USM alumna Deanna M. Nadeau '92 was one of two recipients in Maine of the Milken Family Foundation Educator Award, which comes with a $25,000 prize. Deanna, who earned an M.S.Ed. at USM and is a part-time faculty member at Lewiston-Auburn College, received the award at a surprise ceremony in October at Montello Elementary School in Lewiston.
According to a newspaper account of the event, the second-grade teacher broke into tears at the announcement and called teaching a “magical profession.” She will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., in addition to the prize money.
Deanna earned an elementary education degree at the University of Maine in Farmington in 1987 and started her teaching career at Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls. She taught sixth grade for one year, then transitional first grade for six years in Mechanic Falls before moving to Lewiston. She has worked at Montello School for 11 years. She teaches what is called a first- and second-grade loop, meaning that she alternates between teaching first grade one year and second grade the next. She and a colleague first piloted this “loop” concept at Montello and today there are four teams of teachers in similar loops.
Deanna, who also works as the school's literacy laboratory instructor, says her passion for literacy comes from her own experiences growing up in a household where her father could not read. Outside of her work in the classroom, she taught “Reading to Your Child,” a literacy program through Lewiston Adult Education before beginning to teach literacy courses at USM's Lewiston-Auburn College. “I'm always looking for ways of connecting with families,” she says.
Deanna regularly invites parents and grandparents into her classroom because she feels they play an integral role in their children's education and literacy. “If they aren't doing their part, only half of the job is getting done,” she says, noting that students in her classes are required to read nightly.
She and a colleague have also worked to assist children, who are placed in Title 1 reading programs, to obtain the reading skills they need to get out of the program, with concentrated time in the language lab. “It used to be that kids placed in Title 1 were given a life sentence,” she noted. “They would stay in Title 1 programs for the six years they were in elementary school.”
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