- November 22, 2024
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Indian Trails Middle School Teacher of the Year Beth Blumengarten had wanted to become a teacher since she was a girl.
"I want to be living proof that if they can dream it, anything is possible."
— BETH BLUMENGARTEN, Indian Trails Middle School Teacher of the Year
"I remember walking home from school when I was young. I was pretending that I was fumbling for my keys and telling my children that I have papers to grade," she wrote in an essay for her Teacher of the Year application.
After a detour to train cast members at Walt Disney World and start her family, Blumengarten came back to education, first as an office aid for Flagler Schools in 2011, and, after she finished her degree, as a classroom teacher in 2018.
"What inspires me? It is every time that I hoped, wondered, and dreamed of what it would be like to teach in my own classroom," she wrote. "It is every day that I walk into my room and know that I can inspire my students to become anything. I want to be living proof that if they can dream it, anything is possible."
Blumengarten has taught English Language Arts to seventh-graders and eighth-graders since she started at Indian Trails in 2018.
COVID-19 has made it tricky to reliably track student progress over the last couple of years.
Still, she wrote, "It was easy to see, as the year progressed, that students were gaining knowledge and understanding. Success in my ELA class rolled over into my Future Problem Solver class as well. Students in their first year of competing not only won at the state competition, but also received a third place in Community Problem Solvers during the international competition."
Blumengarten also helped the football program at Flagler Palm Coast High School this past year, volunteering to take temperature checks to help keep the team safe to practice over the summer.
She assists twice a week with the Credit Recovery program for students who are at risk of failing one or more classes.
"During this time, I have been able to build such strong relationships that the students ask to stay additional days just to complete their work," she wrote.
Blumengarten is most proud of her influence on former students. She was recently at a football game between Matanzas High School and Flagler Palm Coast high School, and former students came up to her to say they were doing well in class or were now in advanced English language arts classes.
"My heart was filled with joy as student after student would come up to me," she wrote. "The common theme of their conversations with me was that I would be proud of them."
