About the Author

Pennsylvania Teacher of the year finalist for 2004

Sandra Martin has been a learning support teacher specialized in math and reading needs since 1976. She currently teaches middle school students in the Conewago Valley School District in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Martin is a speaker and author.

After graduating from Bloomsburg University with an undergraduate degree in special education, Mrs. Martin received a master's degree at Shippensburg University, specializing in the field of learning disabilities. Mrs. Martin has done staff development programs across the state of Pennsylvania in the areas of literacy and math, using her own methodologies that she researched and test-piloted for over 20 years. She has written about her programs in the books Breaking the “Sound” Barrier to Fluent Reading, Level 1, Mathopedia, Level 1 and Mathopedia, Level 2.

Awards:

1) Sandra Martin has been named as a Finalist for Pennsylvania’s Teacher of the Year for 2004.
2) Mrs. Martin was published in Who’s Who of American Teachers, Who’s Who of American Women, Madison's Who's Who, and Metropolitan Who's Who for 2004 to the present.
3) She was named one of four exemplary educators in Adams County by the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce in 2002.
4) Mrs. Martin is the proud recipient of the Shippensburg University Study Council’s Exemplary Program Award for 2002 for her phonics program.
5) Sandra Martin authored two math books called Mathopedia, Levels 1 and 2, and one phonics book called Breaking the “Sound” Barrier to Fluent Reading, Level 1, published in 2002-03. Due to Mrs. Martin’s successful students' math and reading test scores, she wrote the books to help teachers instruct all students to achieve above basic levels for state assessment tests. For years and years, textbooks have been written that do not produce long-term results or motivate students. Mrs. Martin has researched and test-piloted all of her materials. She instructs with her own programs since she has found unprecedented successes.
6) Sandra Martin’s math and phonics programs were test-piloted and used at the K-12 levels in her own school district, Conewago Valley, New Oxford, PA.
7) Breaking the “Sound” Barrier to Fluent Reading, Level 1 and Mathopedia, Levels 1 and 2 have been recognized by the Hanover Evening Sun, The Gettysburg Times, and the York Dispatch newspapers.
8) WGAL Channel 8 TV recognized Mrs. Martin’s classroom phonics program and did a “Learning Matters” segment that aired in 2002.

Activities in staff development:

1) Speaker - Mentoring future teachers - for Pennsylvania's Governor's School for Teaching at Millersville University, PA in 2006

2) Reading chairperson and video evaluator for National State Teachers of the Year - PA Chapter in coordination with the Pennsylvania Department of Education at the PDE building in Harrisburg, PA in 2006

3) Speaker - General special education topics - Dickinson University's Kappa Delta Pi in 2005

4) Guest lecturer for student teachers at Dickinson University, PA from 2003 to the present

5) Speaker - Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year - state level conference, Harrisburg, PA in 2003, 2004, 2006 on increasing student performance on tests through multi-sensory instruction and mentoring new teachers

6) Speaker – National Teacher of the Year Conference in Lancaster, PA in July of 2004 on increasing students’ test scores in mathematics

7) Speaker - staff development program - increasing students’ reading levels for 80 secondary alternative education teachers at the Lincoln Intermediate Unit #12, New Oxford, PA in October 2004

8) In-serviced Eastern York County’s, PA 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers in 2004 on Mrs. Martin’s mathematics program, Mathopedia

9) Coordinated a Mathopedia test-pilot program in the 5th- 8th grade inclusion classes at New Oxford Middle School in 2003

6) Researched math and reading programs for effective instruction from 1980 to the present

10) In-serviced Northern York County schools, PA in 2003 on mathematics and phonics

11) Speaker – staff development session for Intermediate Unit #4, Grove City, PA in the spring of 2003 for 60 secondary teachers on the topic of phonics

12) Instructor for phonics and other literacy topics for staff development sessions at the Lincoln Intermediate Unit #12, New Oxford, PA in 2002 and 2003

13) Instructor for mathematics, phonics and other literacy topics for staff development at the Conewago Valley School District in 2002, 2003, and 2004

14) Guest lecturer at graduate classes at Shippensburg University in 2001-2002 on the topic of literacy

15) Presenter for Bloomsburg University’s Annual Reading Conference on the topic of phonics in 2002

16) Presenter for the Council for Exceptional Children on the topic of phonics in 2002

17) Presenter at Shippensburg University’s Exemplary Program Council on the topic of phonics in 2002

18) Attended Conewago Valley’s Understanding By Design, Dimensions of Learning, and Reading Across the Curriculum staff development courses in 2002 to present.

19) Presenter for new teacher inductions from 1999 to 2004.

20) Supervised three special education student teachers at the graduate level in 1997 and 1998

21) Completed an intensive week-long course of study in textbook publishing by The Educational Publishing Institute sponsored by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill and Shippensburg University in 1998

22) Guest lecturer for the Lincoln Intermediate Unit #12’s summer teacher in-service sessions from 1985 to 1989 on literacy, right-left brain learning, and computerized reading programs

23) Attended LIU #12’s training sessions in 1985 related to research done by the Kansas Mental Retardation and Developmental Disability Research Center on specific techniques for students with learning disabilities

24) Attended numerous in-service sessions and staff development workshops sponsored by the Lincoln Intermediate Unit #12 from 1976-1996

25) Membership in the National State Teacher of The Year – PA Chapter Association, Pennsylvania State Education Association, the National Education Association, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), CEC’s Division of Learning Disabilities, the Learning Disabilities Association of America, Who's Who Among American Teachers, Who's Who of American Women, Madison Who's Who, and Metropolitan Who's Who