Kathleen Mercury, a Gifted teacher at Ladue Middle School, received the October Excellence in Education Award at the Oct. 22, 2018, Board of Education meeting. Congratulations to Kathleen on this prestigious recognition!
Kathleen has been a member of the Ladue Schools team since August of 2006, when she took her first position as a gifted and enrichment teacher at Ladue Middle School and Spoede Elementary.
As a Gifted teacher, Kathleen developed a middle school gifted program scope with objectives and assessment criteria. She created specific units including Strategy Game Design, RPG Design, Espionage, Humor, Robotics, Logical Fallacies, Film Analysis and Filmmaking, Finance, The Brain and Adolescent Development and many more. She also maintains her own website (www.kathleenmercury.com) to share game design teaching resources with her fellow educators and hosts a podcast entitled “Games in Schools in Libraries.”
Kathleen was appointed to the Ladue Technology Leadership Academy in 2013. She serves on several committee, including: Professional Development, Leadership, Strategic Plan Scheduling and Evaluation.
Kathleen is the Ladue Middle School’s choice for this recognition for many reasons. First and foremost, she is extremely student-centered, providing opportunities for all students in the LMS community to be engaged and learn, even if they are not in her classes. Examples of this work include sponsoring Board Game Club, Gay Straight Alliance, Science Olympiad, Sixth Grade Camp, Quiz Bowl, Geography Bee, Speech and Debate and Ski Club. She can often be found working with students on her own time after school and on the weekends.
Kathleen is also a problem solver; whenever any type of issue arises, she speaks up and offers a variety of solutions.
Ladue Middle School Principal Dr. Tiffany Taylor-Johnson appreciates the fun and excitement that Kathleen brings to everything she does. “Kathleen models being comfortable in your skin and marching to the beat of your own drum,” Dr. Taylor-Johnson says. “This is such an important quality for middle school students to see at this time in their development. Anyone who meets Kathleen knows that she truly loves her job and that she is more than deserving of this recognition!”
Kathleen is originally from St. Louis. She and her husband, Mark Sellmeyer, have been married seven years and have two dogs: Grizelda and Flurry; and three cats: Tempest, Nebula and Squash.
Kathleen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri- Columbia. She earned a Master of Arts in Teaching from Webster University in May 2006 and a masters degree in Educational Technology from Webster University in August of 2016.