Farmington Faculty


Cathryn Wimett, Ed.D.

Associate Professor - Literacy Education

Ed.D., National-Louis University
M.Ed., Lesley College
B.A., Emmanuel College

In the Classroom: Engaging Students — Setting High Academic Expectations
An upbeat, energetic professor, Cathy Wimett does a lot of things to connect with her Education students and to help her students connect with each other and to the coursework. Students quickly learn that in Cathy’s classes they don’t just show up, sit, and get lectured to — they actively participate.

Because a lot of what they do in class is interactive and involves working in small groups, Cathy and the entire class start the semester by taking the time to learn each other’s names and interests — they really get to know one another. Cathy has found that having students make interpersonal connections early on truly helps stimulate class discussions and group interactions — something her students will later find valuable as they work in school classrooms teaching children.

Along with her Education colleagues Professor of Language Arts Education Marcia Nash and Associate Professor of Literacy Deborah Overstreet, Cathy incorporates into her classes “The Bedford Handbook” (an authoritative writer’s guidebook) and the “Reading Teachers Book of Lists.” These definitive books help set a solid foundation for her students to learn — and teach — grammar, spelling, and other writing mechanics. They also teach students to better organize their written thoughts and helps them to better understand and evaluate others’ writing. In practical terms, this focus teaches her students to improve their own writing skills in order to be strong models and teachers of writing for children in grades K-8.


Working in Pairs and In Small Groups
Depending on the activity, Cathy has her students collaborate in pairs or in small groups of no more than six. This allows for quick sharing of information, reviewing each other’s writing, acting as editors for each other, and giving each other feedback. The pairs and groups are especially valuable when the students work together in “literature circles” reviewing children’s literature. Literature circles help students discuss children’s literature in greater depth. They develop a variety of ways to respond to and evaluate the literature, and they participate in a strategy that can be implemented in elementary classrooms.


Inspiring Creativity in the Classroom
Cathy actively encourages her students to incorporate originality and imagination in their children’s literature assignments, be it creating posters, 3-D maps, collages, mobiles, even interpretive dance. In fact, one of her students (in a Reading, Language Arts, and Children's Literature in Grades 4-8 class) recently produced a music soundtrack for one of the children’s books her group reviewed — essentially turning the literature into a multi-media experience. It’s this outside-the-box creativity that Cathy inspires in her students, who in turn, will inspire their elementary students later on.


Making the Transition From High School to College
Cathy believes one of the hardest transitions from high school to college is that in high school, students have homework, it’s due, and then they’re done with it. In college, however — particularly in her classes — long term assignments are the rule. Cathy assigns students a number of long term projects early in the semester that are not due until later in the semester. Students work on them, piece by piece, throughout the semester.

Cathy does this because long term assignment activities are exactly what her Education students will be doing when they are teaching. It models what they do professionally.


Outside the Classroom: Innovation and Excitement — Putting Theory into Practice
Cathy and her students recently coordinated a major educational event on campus, the UMF Conference on Autism Spectrum Disorders. Working with faculty and students in other Farmington academic disciplines (Psychology, Rehabilitation Services, Special Education, etc.,) Cathy and her students performed a number of event functions: serving as ambassadors for the day, introducing speaker panels, working registration, etc. It gave her students a true roll-up-the-sleeves, hands-on experience running a major educational conference that drew professional educators and administrators from across the state as well as several hundred UMF students.

She also helps her Education students connect with children’s book authors and illustrators. For instance, her students met Talking Walls author Margy Burns Knight from Winthrop, Maine and Talking Walls illustrator Anne Sibley O'Brien from Peakes Island, Maine. At that time, Cathy’s students (who were doing their teaching practicum at local schools) brought school children on campus to the UMF Art Gallery to see O'Brien's works that were on exhibit. For the special showing, the Art Gallery Director worked with Cathy’s students to set up hands-on art activities for the children to do, using the same media the illustrator used.

In addition, Cathy has taken her Education students to professional conferences, such as the New England Reading Association Conference. Cathy does this as a way to let her students meet the innovators in Education and to let the innovators in Education meet her students.


A True Academic — Areas of Special Interest
Cathy Wimett’s strongest areas of expertise are in children’s literature and teaching reading. Teaching reading and helping future teachers understand and know how to use children’s literature effectively in the classroom are her academic passions.


Respected in the Field — Noteworthy Accomplishments
Named or nominated Farmington’s “Outstanding Faculty of the Year” many times, Cathy is well known among Farmington students as a trusted, caring mentor. Considered one of Farmington’s finest faculty advisors, she has worked one-one-one with First-Year students – often helping them to adjust to college life and being away from home for the first time, as well as helping with classroom assignments, and educational theories and concepts. And her mentoring role continues through to students’ senior year and beyond – helping advisees apply to graduate school, reviewing grad school application essays, and helping students to tighten and polish their resume. Cathy is always there for her students.

She has published numerous book chapters and journal articles on literacy education issues and has given presentations and conduced workshops on literacy instruction from California to Maine. Cathy is also a member of many professional educators’ organizations, including the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Reading Conference, and the New England Reading Association.


Outside of Academia — Personal Interests and Activities
As an avid kayaker, the Farmington area is the perfect location for Cathy: Clearwater Lake, The Sandy River, Mercer Bog, Hopkins’s Stream, Parker Pond, Flying Pond, Varnum Pond, Wilson Lake, Cathy paddles them all. She also kayaked off Vancouver Island in the Pacific. Cathy enjoys hiking and traveling within New England and to Canada.

Cathy is a longtime member of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, where she serves on its Education Committee, working to develop and support programming for Maine's middle, high school, and college students. Most recently, Cathy has helped to create an online teacher's guide for the new permanent exhibit, "Were the House Still Standing: Maine Survivors and Liberators Remember the Holocaust."


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