About me
My name is Mary Worrell and I’m an American newspaper reporter-turned-teacher. I spent the first eight years of my teacher life living and working in The Netherlands in international schools. Now I am back to life in Virginia in the U.S.
There’s no other way to say it – I love being a teacher. I love being a teacher because I love being a learner and that passion is what I aim to spark within my students. My professional interests include inquiry and project-based learning, technology and social media in education, community building, visible thinking, the writing process, teaching comics and graphic novels, and LGBTQ+ issues in the secondary classroom…just to name a few. I’m a proud geek and think the Internet has and will continue to revolutionize the way our students interact with their world. Learning is the foremost goal in my classroom, but technology infuses these learning experiences as a tool and portal to learning beyond the walls of our school, community, and narrow perspectives. I aim for students to leave my classes with fresh, global perspectives, a hunger and ability to learn more, and the confidence to do something great with that learning.
I have a teaching license from Old Dominion University in secondary education with endorsements in English and journalism. I graduated from ODU in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in English with a journalism emphasis. I completed my Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) at Michigan State University in May 2013. I am a trained IB teacher, having taught in the International Baccalaureate’s Middle Years (MYP) and Diploma (DP) Programmes.
Being a business reporter fed my love of learning and talking (and my penchant for nosiness), but after a few years I decided quit my newspaper job in Norfolk, Virginia and head back to school to pursue education and my secondary teaching license. I was looking for something even more challenging and fulfilling for my life. From the moment I stepped into a classroom for my first practical experience, I knew I had found my true passion – helping students learn. My students in the United States gave me some of the most perspective-changing experiences of my budding teaching career before I decided to uproot myself and move to The Netherlands for a new adventure. I had the privilege of working with an amazing team of educators at a new international school in The Netherlands where I taught English Language & Literature in the MYP and DP for seven years, including serving as the MYP Personal Project Coordinator and a mentor teacher. During the first few years of our small school, which opened in the Fall of 2012, I taught Design in addition to English. As the school grew, I focused on my role as an English teacher, serving as subject group leader for the Language & Literature department and as a member of the educational technology integration team. Opening a school is an incredible feat that requires lots of grit and hat changes, but I was grateful to have been a part of it before taking a position at another young, up-and-coming international school in Amsterdam. I taught DP English Language & Literature and served as a member of the IB teaching team guiding its first cohort of Diploma Programme students. I also served as the Coordinator of Approaches to Teaching and Learning in the secondary school, focused on professional learning for the teaching team and curriculum development.
When I’m not teaching or learning, I enjoy reading, writing, drawing, thinking about issues in education (and sometimes writing about them here), experimenting in vegan cooking, and knitting a few stitches.
The information on this blog reflects my own ideas and opinions and is not meant to reflect the views of my employer.
If you would like to chat privately, please contact me. Or find me online!
