For Laura Potter, teaching mathematics is about so much more than combining numbers and charts.
The C. Milton Wright High School teacher, who still loves coming to work every day after 11 years on the job, believes every student is a mathematician, urges her students to "be a miracle grower, not a lumberjack" and reminds them that "peace in the world starts with peace in your heart."
"The only thing Ms. Potter loves more than mathematics is other people liking math," Nathan Ehrhardt, one of her many enthusiastic students, told the crowd gathered Wednesday evening at the Bayou Restaurant in Havre de Grace for the 21st annual Harford County Public Schools Teacher of the Year banquet.
"I don't know one student that ever dreaded going to class with Ms. Potter because all classes are interesting and enjoyable with her," Nathan said.
Despite being with the school system for just two years, Potter won the title of 2015-2016 Teacher of the Year, beating out four other educators who have served HCPS far longer.
"I didn't really think it was real," she said with a smile after the ceremony, about hearing her name called by Barbara Canavan, superintendent of schools. "I came in tonight knowing I was already a winner, and I was a winner because of my students."
"It's an amazing honor to be the Harford County teacher representative and really inspire teachers to become their best," she said. "It's a huge responsibility. And I'm ready for it."
The award gets Potter a year's lease of a new 2015 Chrysler 200 Limited from Jones Junction, a Dell laptop, a watch from Saxon's Diamond Centers and a custom ring from Jostens.
Potter serves as acting mathematics department chairperson for the school and has facilitated professional development to strengthen math instruction, according to the school system. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Notre Dame of Maryland University in 2001 and received a master's degree in teaching from Towson University in 2005.
Besides serving as math chairperson, she is also a member of the School Improvement Team. In 2014, she was nominated for the William J. Sacco Mathematics Teacher Award and, outside the classroom, she is the religious education chairperson at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Harford County.
"She is the only person I know who would get a person to love calculus as much as I did. I enjoyed every day of class," Julia O'Mara, a C. Milton Wright senior who nominated Potter for the honor, said after the banquet. Julia took AP calculus as a junior last year.
"I've never [met] a student who doesn't like Ms. Potter. She's amazing," Julia said. "She's just a positive role model. I hope that I can be like her when I'm older. She's great."
Potter said anything she can do to make students care about math is what she tries to do.
"I personally believe that all kids are born with an affinity for math and it's my job to pull it out of them and to make math as exciting as I can, as real-world as I can, to use manipulatives and make sure that they understand mathematics, and to really just bring math to life because for many of them, math is not a pleasant experience," she said.
Members of the Teacher of the Year Judging Committee reviewed and scored all nomination packets to determine a pool of candidates who participated in an interview with a panel of seven judges. The judges then narrowed the pool to the top five finalists.
The Harford school system has more than 3,200 teachers, each of whom can be nominated for the coveted annual honor by students, colleagues, administrators or parents.
Lawrence Jehnert, a third-grade teacher at Edgewood Elementary School, who was the 2014 Teacher of the Year, gave a humorous keynote speech about his experience in the coveted role, joking about having to pick out a suit for the rare occasion.
On a more heartfelt note, Jehnert added that teachers' main responsibility "is to give an opportunity, and that's about it, to give a fair and equal opportunity to the people put in front of them."
The other finalists for the award were Lisamarie Bermudez, Edgewood Middle School mathematics teacher; Tonya Chandler, Youth's Benefit Elementary School second grade teacher; Katie Scharpf, Forest Hill Elementary School third grade teacher; and Sarah Scholl, Havre de Grace Middle School media specialist.
All five finalists received multiple dinner and bank gift certificates, local merchant gift cards and $1,200 from HAR-CO Credit Union. Schools spokesperson Jillian Lader noted 63 businesses donated nearly $30,000 worth of products and sponsorships to the finalists.