2007 Grants & Awards Recipients

Congradulations to all of this year's recipients! If you want to see who are past recipients have been, please see our archive.

MATHWEST Teacher of the Year Award

Janice DeFilipi

     Janice DeFilipi is a fourth grade teacher at the Granger Elementary School in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts. As part of her duties, she is the Project S.E.E instructor, a program which stands for Specific Enrichment Education. She meets with students twice weekly for approximately four hours each week. Students learn research skills, participate in high level literature discussions, keep current in world news, learn hands-on equations, participate in the Annual Math League Contest, build and program robots, perform plays, and participate in field trips related to their studies.

     Nominated by a parent, Mark Vatousiou, he writes, “My kids love math!… The learning they received from this teacher help them with their math studies for many years after they left grade four. The year that they had [Mrs. DeFilipi], my son and daughter would come home excited about learning because their teacher made math, science, reading, and writing come alive for them. At the time, I was a fourth grade teacher too, and I was amazed at the math concepts they were learning, and how these concepts were integrated into other subject areas.”

     Mrs. DeFilipi is currently in her third year as President of the Pioneer Valley Reading Council, a third year executive board member of the Massachusetts Reading Association, and a member of the International Reading Council. She is also now a member of MATHWEST.

     For her outstanding service and contributions to the field of education, and especially for promoting mathematics in her classroom, MATHWEST proudly honors Janice DeFilipi.

See the article that appeared about Janice in the Rebublican on June 20, 2007.

Carol J.V. Fisher, D.M.

     Dr. Carol Fisher is a high school mathematics teacher at Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Carol has been teaching the upper-level mathematic courses at the school, including AP Calculus.

     Nominated by Pamela Walters, she writes, “Carol has such a wonderful vision for the progress of the Mathematics Department. Because of her we now have our syllabi, course objectives, placement test information, and practice all online, along with much more. She has developed a method of teaching that most of us in the Department now use.”

     Carol has also written several works that were used in the schools where she attended or taught: a self-help book on calculus, notes for concepts for undergraduates courses, and a MATHLAB supplement. Carol’s latest venture is her website, onemathematicalcat.org, mentioned in the NCTM News Bulletin and is used throughout the United States. It includes her work, “One Mathematical Cat, Please,” a complete online Algebra I curriculum. It contains 155 interactive web exercises, with printable randomly generated worksheets and solutions. The first section, The Language of Mathematics, describes the philosophy of the course and explains the title.

Mary Ann Maroni

     Mary Ann Maroni has taught for “a long time” in the Clarksburg School in Clarksburg, Massachusetts. Although, she is supposed to be retired, she just could not, and now words as a consultant assisting the teachers in the school system to improve math MCAS scores.

     Heidi Dugal, who nominated her, sees her “lighting fires among the teachers who are looking at the teaching of mathematics in a whole new light. I hear excited voices, trying out new ideas, and sharing the many ‘aha’ moments that they and their students are having on a day to day basis.”

     “Mary Ann has helped nurture my ability to become a better teacher of mathematics. … Mary Ann and I ended up together in a summer course. … The week was full of learning experiences aided by the tutoring of Mrs. Maroni. I finished out of the ½ year of the course receiving not only the instruction offered by the presenters, but also the added practical advice from our district’s own best math teacher.”

     Mary Ann could have quietly faded into retirement, but instead chose to be a lifelong learner, always attending any kind of mathematics professional development. Since she has shared her knowledge and love of mathematics, MATHWEST is proud to recognize Mary Ann Maroni for her many years of dedicated service.