Marc Miller wins Educational Services Professional of the Year Award
Tabernacle Elementary School math specialist Marc Miller was recently awarded the Educational Services Professional of the Year.
“Winning the award was fantastic,” Miller said. “It is also humbling. I thought everyone here is a fantastic teacher, and I just feel like I am just one piece of a big huge team here.”
“Mark started with us about five or six years ago,” Principal Gerald Paterson said. “He was hired as our math specialist, and he is more than a math specialist. He works with our teachers in trying to bring them the latest innovations and techniques with instructing our students with mathematics. If there is ever a question that teachers have or even myself with regard to structural delivery for math or programming for students, we will seek Marc out.”
Miller’s path to Tabernacle Elementary began when he graduated from Rowan in 1997. He started teaching second grade in the Washington Township School District for eight years at Bellevue Elementary School. When his son was born, he took a year off to stay home with him. After he returned to teaching, he was assigned to a third-grade position. After a few years, he took a position with the Pennsauken School District and became an elementary math coach. After one year, though, the school district eliminated all the coaching positions. Miller was not a tenured employee and had to look for a new job.
“It worked out perfectly,” Miller said. “At the time, my wife Stefaine had just opened a café in Merchantville, and we did not have anybody to run it. Since I was out of a job, I ran the café for a year, so it worked out perfectly.”
While Miller was working at the café, he continued looking for teaching positions. Then one day, he saw an opening for a math specialist at Tabernacle Elementary.
“It was exactly the position I was looking to have. I jumped right on that opening and interviewed for it. I have been here now for six years,” he said.
Miller has become a fixture at Tabernacle Elementary, earning the nickname “Mr. Math.”
“Mrs. Foster, a second-grade teacher, would come into the room and go ‘Hey it’s Mr. Math’ or “Good morning Mr. Math’ and it caught on with the rest of the kids. All of them started calling me Mr. Math, which made it easier for Mr. Math,” he said.
With a greater emphasis being placed on math in schools. Miller plays a pivotal role in the school. Although math can be a challenging, Miller finds working through the problems are rewarding.
“My favorite thing about teaching is when I am working with the kids, and they are struggling and think they cannot do it. After we work hard and we look at the problem from lots of different ways, and they finally get it, you get to see that look on their face. I just feel so proud of them when they finally do something that they never thought they could. And when you start to see their attitudes changing and becoming more open, more excited about learning math. That makes me happy,” Miller said.
