Home » United States Articles » Mary Lou Gammon Reflects on a 46-Year Teaching Career and Shares her Plans for the Future with
G2 Educational Services, Inc.
Mary Lou Gammon Reflects on a 46-Year Teaching Career and Shares her Plans for the Future with
G2 Educational Services, Inc.
Mary Lou Gammon talks with Cambridge Who's Who about the role of G2 in curriculum audits and school improvement projects
TUCSON, AZ, July 29, 2010 /United States PR News/ --"Everything I ever needed to know, I learned being a superintendent, principal, teacher, bus driver [and] maintenance person in a rural school." These were the words with which Cambridge Who's Who was greeted during a recent interview with Mary Lou Gammon at her home in Tucson, Ariz. Ms. Gammon, who has dedicated an excess of 46 years to the field of education, proves that despite her formal retirement, she has no intentions of whiling away her days playing bridge or mahjong. Quite the contrary—now more than ever, she plays an instrumental role in academics as an educational consultant through G2 Educational Services, Inc., a firm she established three years prior to her retirement. "I have what is called an 'Arizona retirement,'" Ms. Gammon said, laughing. "In Arizona, when you retire on a Friday, you take a new job on Monday."
Throughout her career, Ms. Gammon has demonstrated excellence in strategic planning and curriculum development at all levels of instruction. The experience has served as a unique primer for her involvement in educational consulting. "G2 is an educational services company that provides school districts with facilitation when they're working on school improvement projects," explained Ms. Gammon. Involved primarily with K-12 school districts, the firm also offers assistance to county offices and cultural educational institutions.
As the firm's president and CEO, Ms. Gammon evaluates teachers, sets parameters for administrative operations and develops policies. She is currently in the midst of providing curriculum audits, an important procedure conducted for schools by an outside party that assesses performing processes. She commented, "Sometimes schools say, 'We think we're doing a really good job, but we don't know for sure, so we want someone from outside to come in and audit us.'" Ms. Gammon conducts extensive interviews involving teachers, superintendents, principals and parents to get an idea of the "gaps" that are present in a certain school district. She then creates focus groups and collects quantitative data in an effort to back up the perceptions of the particular district and ultimately streamline educational initiatives.
Due to ever-present changes in federal and state mandates, Ms. Gammon works with schools to determine the most effective route to improving both student and teacher performance in accordance with new regulations. Her background in hands-on schooling, which began in 1966 when she taught in Venezuela as a Peace Corps volunteer, helped her to hone her skills in English as a Second Language instruction. She credits that experience, along with her stint as superintendent of schools in a rural town in Arizona from 1985 to 1994, as pivotal phases of her career and significant factors in her expertise. "One of the most important things that I've learned in my profession is that people are the same everywhere," Ms. Gammon noted, assuredly. "From Venezuela to Wisconsin [and] back to the southwest - we all have the same interests, we have the same needs [and] we have the same desires to do a good job for the children of our nation."
Schools in rural areas and those with limited resources are Ms. Gammon's predominant foci because she enjoys witnessing their journey and progression toward success. Her specialty is corroborated by the insight she gained as former president of the National Rural Education Association, during which time she helped increase the number of technological programs in pastoral areas. Attuned to the importance of teacher mentorship, Ms. Gammon recalled a pivotal moment in her career when she recognized her own legitimacy as a mentor. "It's surprising when you see yourself needing a mentor or having a mentor and someone [comes] to you and [says], 'You've always been my mentor.' I remember [the] day when a teacher came up to me and said [that]. I went back to my office and thought, I'm a mentor! I really didn't realize that I had gained that much during my experiences to actually be seen as somebody who would be [an inspiration to others]." Indeed, Ms. Gammon's talents as a teacher and educational consultant have become resources that other professionals rely upon to provide the highest quality strategic planning, curriculum development and professional development. "There's one thing about educators," Ms. Gammon said, smiling. "[If] you put up a barrier, we will find a way to break that barrier down and do what's right for the kids...If that passion is not there, then that's not where you need to be. You really need to believe that you can make a difference."
Aside from her involvement with G2 Educational Services, Inc., Ms. Gammon had served for many years as an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona. This year also marks her 25th with Northern Arizona University, where she teaches courses in curriculum development and school program administration. She also works closely with students studying toward a specialty in reading to teach the finer points of diagnosis, remediation and clinical practice in reading intervention.
Ms. Gammon holds a bachelor of arts in education from The University of Arizona, earned in 1964, a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earned in 1970, and a Ph.D. in secondary education, with a concentration in reading and English as a Second Language, from The University of Arizona, earned in 1980. Her professional associations include the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the International Reading Association, the National Staff Development Council, Phi Delta Kappa International and Kappa Delta Pi. For her exceptional contributions to the field of education, she was inducted into Arizona's Rural Hall of Fame and given the Rural Superintendent of the Year award. Most recently, Ms. Gammon was named Cambridge Publishing's 2008 Executive of the Year in Educational Consulting. She was also chosen in 2009 to be featured in "Cambridge Publishing's Top 101 Industry Experts," in recognition of her professional excellence and leadership.
For additional information about G2 Educational Services, Inc., please visit http://www.g2edu.com. Ms. Gammon is available for contact by phone at, 520-751-8338 or through Email at, marylou.gammon@nau.edu.
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