Michelle Hammond

Ms. Michelle M. Hammond, known for her tireless work to assist students in understanding that each one of them adds a great value to the world, is the 2007 Maryland Teacher of the Year. Ms. Hammond graduated from Hobart and William Smith College in New York in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She obtained her Masters Equivalency with Concentration in Reading at Salisbury University in 2003. In 2003, Ms. Hammond became a seventh grade teacher at Stephen Decatur Middle School in Worcester County where her position includes teaching integrated language arts. Hammond says, “each child can teach me about the way he or she learns, and because of this I have acquired the ability to make learning fun, connect it to real-life situations, and make learning tangible for every child.” In a community that welcomes more Spanish-speaking families, she has graciously volunteered her translating skills to enroll new students, for parent conferences, for translating school procedures, and in helping Spanish speakers buy affordable transportation needed to commute to school. Additional noteworthy accomplishments include serving as mentor for new teachers and student interns, establishing a school dinner theater, lecturing on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at Salisbury University, and serving her community through Delta Kappa Gamma. In 2005, the television station WBOC aired two segments on ADHD called “Learning Matters,” featuring her personal story as a teacher and parent of two children, one of whom was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of six. Ms. Hammond proudly represents the hardworking and innovative teachers of Worcester County.