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The Vermont Agency of Education announced that UMass Boston alumna Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver G’12 is Vermont’s 2025 Teacher of the Year.

The Vermont Agency of Education announced that UMass Boston alumna Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver G’12 is Vermont’s 2025 Teacher of the Year. She will begin in the new role on January 1, 2025.

A history teacher, English teacher, and reading specialist at Winooski High School, MacLeod-Bluver called the award a win—not just for herself but for her entire school community.  

“Teaching is a team sport. Anything that I'm proud of—from my classroom or work that my students have done—it could not be possible without many people in our district,” she said.

MacLeod-Bluver began her teaching career in Boston while pursuing her master of education degree in the College of Education and Human Development at UMass Boston. During her graduate studies, she participated in the Boston Teacher Residency (BTR), an AmeriCorps program established in 2002 as a joint initiative between Boston Public Schools and the Boston Plan for Excellence.

“I was in classrooms immediately, four days a week in Boston Public Schools, working directly with students while taking classes in the evenings,” she explained. “I’m really grateful for my time at UMass Boston. It really trained me to be such a reflective and intentional teacher.”

Before joining Winooski High School, MacLeod-Bluver spent nearly a decade teaching in Boston Public Schools, primarily working with English language learners at the Boston International Newcomers Academy. To better serve the immigrant and refugee students in her classroom, she earned licenses as an ESL teacher and a reading specialist.

“Many of our adolescent students are often struggling readers, and I felt like I needed more training to fully understand how to help adolescent students learn how to read, and what that looks like in a high school setting. I wear many hats, and I'm passionate about all the hats that I wear,” she explained.

Following her time in Boston, MacLeod-Bluver relocated to Alaska for a year, taking on the opportunity to teach special education in the Juneau public schools. There, she worked closely with students from the Tlingit tribe, customizing her teaching methods to meet their unique needs.

“Students are bringing their diverse backgrounds, experiences, and languages into the classroom. It is a reminder for me—as their history teacher, as their English teacher—to think of ways that I can honor and affirm their identities. I truly believe in the power of education to transform lives and to help students recognize their own power in their own voice.”

Now at Winooski High School, where she has taught for the past six years, MacLeod-Bluver is tasked with bringing that same level of thinking into her classroom. Though she has faced challenges during that time, such as navigating the pandemic, budget constraints, and systemic inequities, she said the joy of watching her students discover their potential outweighs any hurdles.

“No matter what, in any dark time, the kids give me hope, and they give me joy,” she said. “I'm very proud of many of my former Boston students that have now graduated ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ and are working jobs that they're passionate about. I'm really proud of that, but it's all really about the smaller moments.”

She shared one such moment, which took place earlier in the school year. The class had just finished reading Patrice Lumumba’s The Speech at the Ceremony of the Proclamation of the Congo's Independence. In his historic address, Lumumba, the former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, criticized colonial rule during the country’s independence ceremony. The speech left a lasting impression on one of MacLeod-Bluver's students, a refugee from Congo, who shared how it inspired her.

“She read his speech and was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I’ve never read this. I want to go back to Congo and become the president and continue this dream,’” MacLeod-Bluver recalled. “Teenagers have such a strong moral compass. They see what's right and wrong. They understand justice. They understand when justice is not being served. It’s very inspiring to work with them.”

“One reason I've been doing this for over a decade is that it's so intellectual and so creative. When you're designing your curriculum and designing your lesson plans in your classroom, you're taking these big ideas of, ‘What content do I teach?’ ‘What books do I teach?’ ‘What historical time period do I focus on?’” said MacLeod-Bluver, adding that she’s also constantly shaping the curriculum to help students develop their own voices. “It’s very intellectual and creative work for me, and I can't imagine doing anything else.”