By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
Better known as just Mrs. Stephens, New Sweden kindergarten and first-grade teacher Katie Martin-Stephens received the Aroostook Right to Read Literacy Award at the annual Young Authors’ Institute held at the University of Maine at Presque Isle on April 1.
Contributed photo
New Sweden kindergarten and first-grade teacher Katie Martin-Stephens received the Literacy Award presented by the Aroostook Right to Read organization during their annual Young Authors’ Institute event held at UMPI on April 1.
Even though Stephens had found out in February that she’d received the award, not even the threat of a serious snowstorm kept her away from the event.
“I really appreciated the fact that someone took the time and effort required to nominate me for the Literacy Award,” she said. “I also felt very grateful toward Aroostook Right to Read, the organization that sponsors both the Literacy Award and the Young Authors’ Institute.”
Colleagues Colette Thompson and Gail Maynard, who each offered interesting perspectives regarding Stephens’ devotion to literacy, nominated Stephens for the award. Maynard is the retired principal of the New Sweden School and Thompson’s son was in Stephens’ class.
“As a parent of a former students of [Stephens’], I will be forever grateful for all the essential reading and writing skills she provided my son,” Thompson wrote in the nomination application. “She is a true silent hero with a big voice for learning and makes a difference in the life of every child who is fortunate enough to be a student in her classroom.”
From an administrative standpoint, Stephens shines as well.
According to Maynard, Stephens is an “experienced educator whose work exhibits a comprehensive knowledge of early childhood issues with special strengths in early literacy.”
In the three-page nomination, Maynard and Thompson wrote of Stephens’ impact on students from Japan to the Midwest and their own small northern Maine community as well as highlighting the numerous measures Stephens has taken to ensure that her students are instilled with a life-long love of reading.
Always with a smile on her face and possessing an air of palpable enthusiasm, Stephens has made reading fun for her students — one thing that she thinks is extremely important.
“Children enjoy reading when they are matched with books that help them feel successful and confident as readers,” she said.
While she spends much of her time at school working with students on reading, Stephens is a big advocate of incorporating literacy into the home. One thing she suggests parents do to reinforce literacy lessons is read to their children every day and courage their children to read to them as well, and being an enthusiastic listener goes a long way.
“My students very often tell me that their favorite time to read is in the evening with their mother, father, grandparent or other special adult,” she said. “That time means a great deal to them. In the classroom, I try to provide abundant opportunities for children to read books that help them feel confident as readers — the more children read, the better readers they become.”
While teaching is known as a notoriously thankless job, Stephens loves it and finds working with the children and teaching to be incredibly rewarding. After all, “a day in a first or second grade classroom is never boring,” she said.
“Some of the things that adults take for granted generate such excitement in young children,” Stephen said. “The first snowfall, walking to the school garden to choose a pumpkin, painting a picture or reading a book all by yourself are all exciting events in the world of a first or second grade student.”
According to Maynard and Thompson, it’s difficult to delineate a single activity for literacy development in Stephens’ classroom because she brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of children’s literature across all areas of the curriculum.
