Nicholas Greer was in the middle of a lesson on ecological succession Tuesday morning when he heard a commotion in the hallway. Then, suddenly, a horde of administrators, school board members, colleagues and camera crews had descended upon his classroom at Polytechnic Institute.
Greer, 29, was being named the city's Teacher of the Year. "You're kidding me," he said to the crowd that included schools chief Andr?s Alonso, Poly Principal Barney Wilson and Baltimore Teachers Union co-president Marietta English, as his ninth-grade biology students applauded.
A Pennsylvania native and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Greer has been teaching for seven years, the past six of them at Poly. He runs the biology part of the school's science department and teaches in the Ingenuity Project, a magnet program for students gifted in math and science. His colleagues credit him with Poly's high pass rate on the biology state graduation exam.
Greer also coaches the boys soccer team, is a mentor for an intern from University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and chairs Poly's School Family Council. He is a member of the international honor society Pi Lambda Theta, the National Association of Biology Teachers and the National Science Teachers Association.
He was selected from 13 applicants, all of them nominated by a principal or colleague, and will now become a candidate for Maryland Teacher of the Year. The state winner goes on to compete nationally.
Alonso said that, in future years, he would like each of Baltimore's nearly 200 schools to select its own teacher of the year and then choose the citywide winner from that pool.
Greer completed a screening process that included classroom observation, an interview and submission of a writing sample. "When we saw him teach, there was just a spark," said Nancy Neilson, the administrator who runs the city's Teacher of the Year program. She presented Greer with a cart full of prizes, including a new laptop, color printer, projector and camera.
"He's an outstanding teacher," said Poly freshman Denzel Hamilton, 14, noting that Greer works after school with him whenever he doesn't understand something. "The best teacher I've had yet."
