This year’s Teacher of the Year is Kristen Portalea. With a passion for mathematics and a 14-year commitment to teaching and inspiring students, Ms. Portalea has made an incredible impact here at Rockville High School. She has worked with all variety of students and works especially hard to support students with IEPs and our Emergent Multilingual students.

Her nominator summed up her dedication wonderfully, “Kristen goes above and beyond in helping her students learn math and find a place to belong. She is incredibly creative and resourceful when reaching even the most reluctant learner. When students were worried about highlighting the wrong thing in their notes, Kristen got them erasable highlighters. When students were struggling to keep different formulas straight, she color coded the formulas and created a laminated note sheet for them. Every student feels welcome in her class and she helps any student who needs it, even if they aren’t her current student.

She’s always keeping the class active and fun, whether that means having hot chocolate as they practice equations or fun coloring sheet that cover the concepts.”