After teaching through a global pandemic for three years, the 2022 Presidential Award is validating. Nineteen years of experience didn’t feel like enough when faced with circumstances for which no one could predict or train. I continued to prepare rich lessons, create a safe learning environment, and support my students. I know my colleagues did the same, and this award is a great honor that validates our efforts.

Mindi Wimett Bethel, VT | K-6, Mathematics, 2022

The official biography below was current at the time of the award.

Mindi Wimett has been an educator for 21 years and has spent the last six years teaching sixth, seventh, and eighth grade mathematics and interdisciplinary studies at White River Valley Middle School. Prior to a district merger, she taught sixth, seventh, and eighth grade mathematics and kindergarten through eighth grade mathematics lab at South Royalton School for eight years. She taught fifth and sixth grade mathematics, literacy, and science at South Royalton School for her first seven years as a teacher. Mindi works to incorporate relevant and authentic learning opportunities into her curriculum. Students work with menus, grocery fliers, travel sites, and credit unions to learn how to use percentages, discounts, taxes, tips, and interest. Students design and build scribble bots to produce and analyze data, using materials from a collaboration with the Montshire Museum of Science. She created an interactive research and problem-solving project to highlight and celebrate mathematicians who are members of the Global Majority and/or LGBTQ+ communities. Mindi has served on a variety of committees in her supervisory union. She has participated in multiple professional learning communities (PLC), such as the supervisory union’s anti-racist PLC and book study for Fostering Resilient Learners. Mindi has attended the Middle Grades Institute for several years and presented at the Middle Grades Collaborative annual conference three times. She has also served as a mentor to new teachers. Mindi earned a B.S. in elementary education and an M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction through the Vermont Mathematics Initiative at the University of Vermont. She is a certified elementary school educator and a middle grades mathematics educator.

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