National Teacher of Year to Speak at Kent State

Michelle Shearer, who was recognized by President Barack Obama as the 2011 National Teacher of the Year, will present a Gerald H. Read Distinguished Lecture at Kent State University at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 24 in the Kent Student Center Kiva.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Shearer teaches advanced placement chemistry at Urbana High School in Frederick, MD. Previously, she taught high school chemistry and mathematics at the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick.

As the daughter of two teachers, Shearer said that education was so central to her life that she recognized from a young age that she wanted to become a teacher. While studying at Princeton University, she had the opportunity to learn sign language and volunteer to teach a deaf fourth-grade class.

From that point on, she knew that she had to become a teacher. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Princeton University and a master’s degree in deaf education from McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. She is also certified in special education.

Shearer is an advocate for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education for all K-12 students and successfully reaches those who have been traditionally underrepresented in scientific fields, including students with special needs and those from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Her teaching methods rely heavily on real-life applications of scientific concepts. “When students feel connected not only to the teacher but to the subject itself, they quickly become eager to explore,” she said.

For more information, contact Dr. Linda Robertson, director of the Center for International & Intercultural Education in the College of Education, Health and Human Services at Kent State, at lfrobert@kent.edu or call 330-672-0563.