LIVERMORE FALLS – Diane Maurais’ English students say their teacher readily helps whenever they need help.
“She drills it into my head over and over again,” sophomore Barry Peacock said Wednesday. “She helps us go over it until we understand.”
“She likes to help us if we do need help on anything,” freshman Benjamin Stone said Wednesday.
And it doesn’t matter if it’s school-related, they said.
Maurais, a SAD 36 special education teacher, will be honored next month as the 2005 Maine Special Education Teacher of the Year.
The district’s special education director, Wendy Moreau, said Thursday that she nominated Maurais for her “outstanding contributions” to the Livermore Falls high and middle school students. The Maine Administrators of Service for Children with Disabilities made the selection from nominated teachers from around the state.
Moreau will present the award during an awards dinner on Monday, June 27, in Bar Harbor.
Maurais began her career in special education 22 years ago. Initially, she managed training for disabled adults and taught in a self-contained special education classroom in Tennessee. She then became a special education teacher in SAD 36.
That was 21 years ago.
“I love working with kids and looking at a kid and seeing the potential others may have missed because all kids can succeed, some just do it differently,” Maurais said Wednesday.
The Livermore woman says she’s “lucky” that the district has a “wonderful staff, because you cannot do it without them.”
Her strong suit, she said, is “looking for what a student needs to be successful in life, whether it be a job, volunteer work, different classes, adult education – whatever they need to leave school successful.”
She has started several programs to help students, including a job club, work experience at Treat Memorial Library and a transitioning program for middle-schoolers.
“I’m humbled and honored,” she said about receiving the award. “I never expected this.”
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