HOBOKEN–Special education instructor Mark Mautone has been named the 2014-15 New Jersey Teacher of the Year, the state Department of Education announced at a ceremony in Trenton Wednesday morning. The award is the latest and most significant honor Mautone has received for his work as head teacher of the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program for autistic students at Wallace Elementary School. He is the first Hoboken teacher ever to be named a state Teacher of the Year.
For almost twenty years, Mautone has been working in the field of special education in Hudson and Bergen Counties. According to the Hoboken school district, he uses “ongoing in-depth educational assessments and data analysis” to create individualized educational plans for preschool children on the autism spectrum.
However, it is his use of technology, and particularly iPads, in the classroom that has attracted the attention of teachers in New Jersey and nationwide. Mautone has been incorporating the tablet computers into his curriculum since they were first released in 2010, and he has even developed his own suite of apps designed especially for autism education.
“Mr. Mautone has a deep enthusiasm for helping his students overcome the challenges they face so that they can receive the best experience possible in the classroom. Yet his dedication to the success of disabled students extends far beyond the classroom,” said Acting New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe. “He is an inspiration to teachers, parents and members of the community.”
As Teacher of the Year, Mautone will receive a six-month sabbatical from his teaching duties at Wallace. From January 5 to June 30 of next year, he will become an employee of the state Department of Education and tour the country attending education conferences, promoting the work of teachers in New Jersey and his own program in Hoboken. Expected engagements include the International Space Camp in Alabama and the ETS Next Steps Conference in Princeton, New Jersey.
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