Fellow Profile: Mary Margaret Mills

About Mary Margaret 

Social Studies Teacher, Northern High School

Doctoral Candidate, Education Leadership, UNC-Greensboro  

When I started student teaching, I fell in love with being in the classroom and teaching in Durham Public Schools. I wanted to stay in the area and TeachHouse seemed a great way to receive support as a beginning teacher. I was also drawn to the idea of learning to be a teacher-leader and working with other teachers to learn and address issues in education. I believe that because of the networkand opportunities that I have been given because of Duke TeachHouse, I have personally thrived as a beginning teacher. 

Mary Margaret Mills is a Duke TeachHouse Innaugural Fellow ('15 - '17) and National Board Certified Teacher at Northern High School in Durham Public Schools. She received a BA in Political Science from UNC and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Duke University. While Mary Margaret is primarily an American History teacher, she has spent the past three years at Northern developing the AP Seminar course and building the AP Capstone program in the district. In her time at Northern, she has served as the Student Council Advisor and Men and Women’s tennis coach. Mary Margaret was awarded the Hollyhock Fellowship for beginning teachers in high needs schools from Stanford University. Additionally, Mary Margaret has completed a Gilder Lehrman Fellowship on Colonial American and three National Endowment for Humanities Fellowships (Capitalism, Democracy, and Race in the Gilded Age, Lowell Mills and the Era of Reform, and Atlanta and the Color Line). Beginning in the Fall of 2020, Mary Margaret will be enrolled at UNC-G as a doctoral student in Education Leadership, while also remaining in the classroom. She is from Salisbury, North Carolina. 


How has Duke TeachHouse influenced you as an educator? 

Duke TeachHouse has taught me that being an educator is not a competition. To build the best opportunities for students, it is important to be surrounded by passionate and successful educators. Having a supportive community allows for authentic collaboration, innovation, and better practices. Duke TeachHouse allowed me to experience the value of a supportive professional community through our reflection session and companionship during my first two years of teaching. Even though I no longer reside in TeachHouse, I make sure that i still have a supportive community through engaging in reflective practices and cross-department collaboration with my coworkers.