Second-grade teacher Carol Young-Podmore integrates learning across multiple subjects to help students make connections at Gilford Elementary School in Gilford, New Hampshire. Looping with her students from second through third grade, Young-Podmore creates an atmosphere of community in her classroom while differentiating instruction to meet every student's academic needs. Her engaging, student- focused teaching approach fosters respectful collaboration among students in small and large groups, and she helps make learning engaging through real-world activities, from moviemaking to holding a yard sale where proceeds are used to budget, shop for, and prepare a meal for their families. Young-Podmore provides extraordinary outreach to parents, making frequent phone calls, recruiting weekly parent volunteers and sending weekly report logs and a newsletter highlighting classroom events. Her students consistently show significant growth on Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) tests in math, language arts and reading, and her class average is consistently above district and state averages. Leader of the second-grade team, Young-Podmore has participated on numerous committees, including the school's Technology Committee and the districtwide Professional Development Committee. Last year, she and her third-grade team members helped design and apply the district's Tech Paths curriculum mapping model. Young-Podmore has served as a mentor to colleagues at nearby schools and is a cooperating teacher with student teachers at local universities. She was featured in the Boston Globe for her use of technology in the classroom and has had her ideas published on award-winning children's author and illustrator Suse McDonald's Web site. Young-Podmore is also adjunct faculty at Plymouth State University where she co-directs the Arts in Education Summer Institute.
1993 University of New Hampshire, B.A.
