Ms. Doris Lembo is the kind of teacher students and staff look up to and respect. She displays leadership and inspiration in the classroom and has been selected for the 2014-2015 Morris Hills High School Teacher of the Year. Ms. Lembo is a member of the Special Education Department where she teaches mathematics. Ms. Lembo has been teaching for 15 years and displays devotion to her students and school year after year.

Ms. Lembo has always dreamed of being a teacher. She said that when she was a kid, she would often play at being a teacher and practically harassed her family into completing the worksheets she made for them.  She got her first real teaching job at Lakeside Middle School in Pompton Lakes. After two years, she accepted the job to teach at Morris Hills where she has worked ever since. She is now in her thirteenth year here at Morris Hills and adores her colleagues. “I love the other teachers here. They are so helpful and they helped me learn when I started as a young teacher,” she said.

Ms. Lembo said she was in the middle of teaching her senior class, a group she has taught since they were freshmen, when she heard the news about her award. Mr. Toriello began describing the winner’s accomplishments and traits, and, though it was her, Ms. Lembo said the description could have fit “any other teacher; you assumed it couldn’t be you.” When she heard her name, she was so moved by the gesture that she admitted to crying in class.

As a teacher, her job comes with some bumps in the road, but Ms. Lembo keeps moving forward with a positive attitude. The most challenging part of her job is “breaking down math so that her students can understand it.”  She says her motivation is seeing her students improve and understand her lessons. To cope with the pressures of her job, she spends her free time weight lifting and doing Olympic lifts.

Ms. Lembo is an inspiration to us all for the job she does and the way she handles herself. She is without a doubt a class act and well deserving of Teacher of the Year. We congratulate her on her award.