meet amy mascott
You may know Amy Mascott as “teach mama” because this educator-mom of three is the creator of the award-winning blog, teachmama.com, where, for 15 years, she helped families cultivate meaningful connections and build important bridges between home and school.
Early on, Amy established herself as THE education-focused blogger in a sea of mom bloggers. She was one of the very first “kid activity bloggers” and one of the few actual teacher bloggers.
She worked closely with brands like:
Disney
Amazon
Google
HP
Target
Yahoo!
Melissa & Doug
Scholastic
PBS
Staples
Nintendo
LeapFrog
And many more. It was a blast.
She was an “OG” blogger known for helping brands really move the needle, reaching an audience of loyal educators and parents who truly trusted her.
Amy was an innovative and adventurous blogger and taste-maker, carving the way for influencers today.
She loved the creativity that blogging afforded, collaborating with brands she loved on new ways of supporting teachers and empowering parents.
Her 4-year partnership with Advancement Courses brought affordable, relevant, and teacher-centered PD to 1000’s of educators.
Amy began her teaching journey in 1998 as a high school English teacher—and she loved it!—but she learned quickly that her English Education degree did not fully equip her with the skills she needed to support all of her students. Many students, yes, were able to learn to write a solid thesis essay. Many could handle phrases and clauses. Many, in time, could determine tone in Lord of the Flies, or symbolism in The Great Gatsby; many could memorize and perform scene adaptations from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
But what about the handful of students who couldn’t get past the process of decoding the words on the page?
How could she reach those students?
How was she supposed to teach her students to analyze the themes of novels and plays if they could not even read the text?
After 7 years teaching 9th, 10th, and 11th grades, Amy went back to school to become a Reading Specialist. In a very short time, she realized that truly, her passion was teaching students how to read.
And very soon, she would have three little students of her own on which to practice her newly-acquired teaching
skils. . .
Madeline, Owen, and Cora were born in the span of four years, so before she knew it, Amy had a house full of soon-to-be readers.
And soon friends were calling asking, “Hey—what should I be doing to teach Ella her letters and numbers?” “Can you give me a few ideas about how to teach Liam to write his name?” “I know I should be doing something to help John get ready for Kindergarten—but WHAT?”
Amy knew that if her friends were asking these questions, that many other parents shared the same questions, concerns, and needs. She knew what to do.
In November of 2008, teachmama.com was born. And the rest is history. Along with writing on her own blog, Amy shared knowledge and information about early literacy on dozens and dozens of other sites and publications like PBS Parents, readwritethink.org, DC Metro Moms, Melissa & Doug, Parents, Sylvan Blog, and more.
For years, she anchored the Scholastic Parents Raise a Reader Blog and eventually wrote two books about literacy learning. Amy co-authored of Raising a Rock-Star Reader: 75 Quick Tips for Helping Your Child Develop A Lifelong Love of Reading (Scholastic, 2016) and Setting the Stage for Rock-Star Readers: Helping Young Children Develop A Lifelong Love of Reading (Scholastic, 2019).
In 2023, Amy wrapped up that ole blog of hers in a pretty little bow and sold it, ready for new adventures. Mostly she was ready for some serious screen-free time—and she was ready to get back into the classroom.
Though she has helped hundreds of students improve their reading and writing skills over the past 20 years, in one-on-one or small group tutoring, Amy really missed the collaboration and connection of working in a school.
Currently, Amy is a reading focus teacher in Maryland public schools, and she is still tutoring a small number of students as well. Working with small groups of students in grades K-5, Amy uses the Orton-Gillingham approach to provide goal-driven instruction to meet each student’s needs. She truly believes that she has the best. Job. EVER.
Her certifications include:
MSDE Advanced Professional Certificate, Reading Specialist K-12; Elementary Education 1-6; English Education 7-12; ELD K-12 (ESOL)
IMSE Orton-Gillingham Fidelity Certificate
IMSE Orton-Gillingham Phonological Awareness Course (12.5 hours)
IMSE Orton-Gillingham Fluency, Vocabulary, Comprehension Course (3 hours)
LETRS, Vol. 1 & 2, Units 1-8 (96 hours)
