PDT Staff Report
FRANKLIN FURNACE — At the end of the 2011-12 school year, two Green High School teachers — Melissa Colyer and Tate Skinner — have received prestigious awards.
Melissa Colyer, intervention specialist at Green High School, received the Franklin B. Walter Outstanding Educator Award honoring educators who have made outstanding contributions to the education of children with disabilities.
“Melissa Colyer is one of the finest intervention specialists that I have experienced in my career. She exemplifies hard work with a ‘whatever it takes’ attitude toward student learning. She combines that attitude with knowledge of special education law and process and a knack for getting the paperwork completed in a timely and complete way. Melissa’s can do attitude includes being able to take students from their current level and scaffold the learning to the next level is what makes the students feel successful and learning to occur,” Green Superintendent Sandra Mers said.
Colyer is also an instructor at Marshall University, and teaches beginning special education course to pre-service teachers each semester. She has also has been invited to attend the Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children Luncheon on June 20 at the Villa Milano, in Columbus, to receive her award.
High School math teacher Tate Skinner received one of the 2012 Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics Outstanding Teacher Awards.
“Tate exhibits energy and passion for the mathematics classroom, his school, and his students. He is a teacher, mentor and published author. His book ‘Skinner Money’ is phenomenal and illustrates his passion for his classroom as well as his colleagues. Tate is willing to share his methods with his colleagues and help his fellow colleagues try to implement new ideas within the classroom. Working in a school system can be very challenging at times; however, Tate exhibits an endless supply of energy for his school. Tate videos each lesson and at the end of the day uploads those to YouTube so that students have the ability to reference the lesson anywhere,” Mers said.
Mers said the Green Local School District is proud of the accomplishments that Colyer and Skinner have made, and stressed that all of their teachers are a phenomenal collaborative group focused on students.
















