BANGOR – Teacher Brian Twitchell of Kingfield was honored during the awards ceremony at the Maine State Math Meet on Tuesday, April 14, at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
The Maine Association of Math Leagues voted to honor Twitchell by re-naming the “Crystal Trophy,” the top award of the meet, the “Brian Twitchell Award.” Carl Robbins, co-director of the meet with Twitchell, spoke on Twitchell’s accomplishments as he presented the trophy to the highest scoring team at the meet: the Maine School of Science and Mathematics.
Twitchell competed on the Oxford Hills Math Team while he was in high school for Coach Allen Gerry. He helped lead the team to winning the New England Math Meet two years in a row (1983 and 1984), scoring a perfect meet his senior year. He represented Maine at the Atlantic Regional Mathematics League, the national competition at Penn State, his junior and senior years.
Twitchell earned his BA and MA in Mathematics from the University of Maine. As a college freshman, he assisted Bangor teacher Louise Small in creating their first math team. Twitchell was hired by Mt Abram High School in 1991 and immediately started a math team and has been coaching and teaching there ever since. In 2002, he was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. He has travelled the country as trainer for Math Connections, a standards-based secondary mathematics curriculum, from 2001 – 2014, and has been an AP Calculus Reader for the past 9 years. He served for many years on the MAML board, and has helped coordinate this Maine State Math Meet for the last 18 years.
The Brian Twitchell Award recognizes his contributions to mathematics in Maine and will be awarded to the top team at the State Math Meet each year.
Congratulations, Brian!
Such a well deserved honor! Congratulations Mr. Twitchell. You are the teacher that made the most impact in my career, saving a high school sophomore who couldn’t do basic 4th grade multiplication, and taking the time to make a subject that I hated, fun! Thank you for all you have brought to the kids and community of Mt. Abram. We are so thankful to have you.