Position: High School Algebra Teacher
School: Mineola High School
School District: Mineola UFSD
City, State: Garden City Park, NY
Karen Gutierrez was nominated by Nicole Moriarty, her Assistant Superintendent.
Mrs. Gutierrez is truly an inspirational educator. During this past year at Mineola UFSD, she has had the opportunity to exhibit her uniqueness, and demonstrate her professional caliber. The students in her classes consisted of newcomers to the country as well as other multilingual learners that have been in the country for less than three years--all of whom failed the Algebra Regents repeatedly. With this particular group of students, Mrs. Gutierrez saw a 50% passing rate! Compared to the previous year's passing rate, prior to Mrs. Gutierrez’s instruction, of 6%.
Armed with enthusiasm and strong convictions, Mrs. Gutierrez has been able to accomplish many great personal and professional goals. Perhaps the most important achievement was her ability to motivate disenfranchised students to take an interest in school and her class. Mrs. Gutierrez is a math teacher for her school's multilingual learners. She harnesses the students' language to enable them to understand mathematical concepts. However, she does not stop there. She is also dedicated to teaching the students English in her math class. This feat was skillfully attained through the enriching classroom experiences she strives to prepare and implement on a daily basis. She is extremely adept at infusing technology, differentiating instruction, applying learning-style theory, and executing traditional lessons.
Overall, Mrs. Gutierrez's ability to create environments conducive to learning is due to her belief that all students can learn and deserve the best education possible. She has sought the help of the district's dual language consultant to learn how to include purposeful language instruction and vocabulary development in her math class. Prior to this and upon her initial employment this school year, Mrs. Gutierrez worked with a math instructional leader and a dual language instructional leader to further her understanding of mathematical concepts as well as appropriate delivery of instruction for diverse learners. She also took it upon herself to observe several teachers during her prep periods throughout the day to see how they delivered instruction. This summer, she also attended a week-long biliteracy institute to learn TPR, Language Experience Approach, vocabulary development, and other linguistically appropriate instructional strategies.
Furthermore, Mrs. Gutierrez has demonstrated that the development of each teenager does not occur exclusively within the classroom. To enhance the learning experience of her students, she organized before school, after school, summer and weekend learning experiences for her students. Through her hard work and commitment to this endeavor, Mrs. Gutierrez has inspired new teachers to also participate in summer enrichment programs for Multilingual Learners.
"Overall, Mrs. Gutierrez has many things to offer. She is an asset to our entire community as well as a role model to all of our students. I highly recommend her for this honor," Moriarty said.
Karen Gutierrez in the News:
Mineola Teacher Earns LifeChanger of the Year Nomination