Amy Yeager is a social studies teacher at Mahtomedi High School (MHS) and has been an educator for 18 years. She has been at MHS for three of those years, teaching classes like U.S. History, Introduction to Psychology, and Human Geography. Even though she has only been at our school for a short amount of time, she has made a significant impact on the community and, more importantly, on her students.
One of the areas of impact she has had on students in the classroom is her use of AVID skills. AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination and is a teaching tool that focuses on strong reading and writing skills, organization, and study strategies for success. Ms. Yeager brings her experience from other schools in AVID to MHS and has helped her teacher colleagues advance in their strategies as well as lead professional development training.
Ms. Yeager loves the subjects she teaches, and you can tell whenever she stands up and starts teaching. She doesn’t love “sit and get lectured teaching” and instead finds ways to help students use the AVID strategies of collaboration, ethical review of sources, and making reflections about their own lives. She shared that the joy she finds in her profession is “seeing students thrive with different methods and watching students reflect and make connections.” The way she changes things up is something I have valued when I took both her U.S. History class and Psychology 101, finding that she is really good at switching things up. We do things in groups, solo, and all together. We watch movies, read articles, and do our own experiments. I really appreciate that she's not afraid to try something new. It has made me realize I take information differently with each thing we do, and as a learner, this is helpful to know.
Through all her teaching tools and skills, she never loses sight of the little things like building connections with her students. As a student of hers, I value the way she always made it her mission to make each student feel safe and welcome in the classroom, which is something really important for all teachers to consider.
Community is really important to Ms. Yeager, both in making personal connections and showing up for students outside the classroom. She shared, “Mahtomedi is a community that shows up for each other; I embrace that.” You will regularly see her at her students’ activities and plays. She knows her students outside the classroom and in her classroom, and this has helped her understand what students need more. I will always recommend her as a teacher to anyone because her impact is something I will hold throughout the rest of my education years.