Middleburgh Jr./Sr. High School technology teacher Scott Gray
has been selected for the state’s
Master
Teacher program. The selection was announced on Wednesday.
Mr. Gray graduated from SUNY Cobleskill and got his master’s
degree from Union College. He has been a technology teacher at
Middleburgh since 1998. This was Mr. Gray’s second year applying
to join the Master Teacher program. He describes the process as
“very intensive”. Out of the tens of thousands of teachers in
New York State public education, only 908 have been accepted
into the Master Teacher program. 214 teachers were admitted in
this year’s class, and Mr. Gray was one of just 14 technology
teachers selected statewide.
The Master Teacher program involves at least 50 hours of
professional development during weekends at SUNY Oneonta, along
with many more hours of bringing those new techniques and ideas
back and implementing them in the classroom.
Mr. Gray has taught in Middleburgh for the past 19 years. He
also teaches two Computer Aided Design courses at SUNY
Cobleskill. During his time at Middleburgh, Mr. Gray has helped
expand the technology department to bring new offerings to
students, and has helped students showcase their work for the
community through Technopalooza, an event which is held the last
Friday of school every year. Technopalooza allows students to
display and test their projects for parents and community
members, and culminates a year of hard work.
Mr. Gray has also helped the school literally rebuild following
the devastating flooding from Hurricane Irene in 2011. Water
levels rose several feet in the technology classrooms,
destroying everything. Mr. Gray helped to rebuild and renovate
some of the technology rooms with another teacher so that
classes could get started again.
One of the goals Mr. Gray has from his work with the Master
Teacher program is to extend the district’s STEM offerings K-12.
Mr. Gray says he wants to engage more students in STEM from an
earlier age. The more they are interested, he says, the more
they will come to school and the more successful they will be.
Mr. Gray is also looking forward to learning about new and
different ways of teaching STEM to students. He says he has a
drive to always improve, and is always looking to do something
in different ways instead of doing the same thing over and over
again. His 19 years of experience have shown him that students
love a hands-on approach to learning.
Mr. Gray says he hopes to encourage other Middleburgh teachers
to apply for the Master Teacher program as well. Though
Middleburgh is a small district, Mr. Gray says that size doesn’t
prevent the district from doing great things. He says he hopes
the community sees everything the teachers of the district try
to do for the students, all the opportunities they do provide,
and everything they hope to achieve in the future.