Michael Flynn

Each year the program honors a Massachusetts teacher who exemplifies fine teaching in the Commonwealth. The purpose of the program is to select a teacher who is worthy of speaking for and energizing the teaching profession, and representing the positive contributions of all teachers statewide. The Massachusetts Teacher of the Year automatically becomes the state's candidate for the National Teacher of the Year Program.

Michael Flynn teaches second grade at the William E. Norris Elementary School in Southampton. He is the proud father of four children and is an active member of his community. Over the course of his ten years of teaching, Mike has worked to create a classroom environment that is enriching and inclusive. Students in his class engage in authentic learning experiences throughout the year like raising salmon to release in a local river or designing rockets launched by air pressure. The highlight of Mike's classroom is the television show his class produces throughout the year. When they finish a unit of study, the students work in small groups to develop segments (skits, news reports, interviews, experiments, etc.) highlighting what they have learned. The show is then played throughout the school and shared with families. Mike has also established himself as a teacher leader by providing professional development on a wide range of topics including video production in the classroom, mathematics, and digital story telling. As a workshop leader for the math curriuculum Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, Mike travels throughout the country leading weeklong workshops during the summer. Mike has contributed ideas, suggestions, and written material that have been incorporated into the second edition of Investigations in Number Data, and Space as well as two Developing Mathematical Ideas modules: Patterns, Functions, and Change and Reasoning Algebraically About Operations. He is currently a contributing author to an edited collection and DVD set about mathematics instruction in inclusive classrooms to be published by Heinemann in 2009. As an active member of his community, Mike serves as a school committee member and recreation commissioner for the city of Northampton. He is also a board member for the Northampton Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises money and awards grants to teachers in the Northampton Public Schools.