AMHERST - A longtime teacher of English as a second language at the Regional Middle School was named Massachusetts Teacher of the Year at a ceremony in Boston Friday.

Floris Wilma Ortiz-Marrero has been helping the children of immigrants and foreign scholars learn English in Amherst for 17 years. She has also taught cultural diversity at the University of Massachusetts, helped the Holyoke schools use writing as a tool for language acquisition, and served as an advocate for non-mainstream students.

"She's the complete package," said Bruce Penniman, a former English teacher at Amherst Regional High School and Massachusetts Teacher of the Year in 1998. He nominated Ortiz-Marrero for the state award.

"She's a first-rate teacher who's done a lot of innovative things for students," he said. "She's deeply involved in the community, especially supporting the Latino community. She's developed programs that have gotten a lot of recognition nationally."

The Massachusetts Teacher of the Year award has been in existence since 1960. The 2008 winner was Michael Flynn of the William E. Norris Elementary School in Southampton.

"The purpose of the program is to select a teacher who is worthy of speaking for and energizing the teaching profession, and representing the positive contributions of all teachers statewide," according to a state Web site.

Ortiz-Marrero, 51, was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, to a family of teachers, and studied bilingual education there. Her mother, who lives in the same house Ortiz-Marrero grew up in, attended the ceremony in Boston. Also there were interim Superintendent Maria Geryk and middle school Principal Michael Hayes.

"She works harder than any educator I know, giving whatever it takes when it will benefit students," said Hayes. "She is loved by all. She has an amazing energy, lighting up any room she enters."

Penniman called her "a firecracker." He said, "She's a bundle of energy, warm and outgoing, and makes everyone around her feel accepted and comfortable and valued."

Before her selection, Ortiz-Marrero went through a rigorous process that included essays about philosophy of teaching, community involvement and other topics. She had to create a lesson plan and videotape herself teaching it and then critique her performance. Last month she was one of five finalists to be interviewed by an 11-person selection panel.

"This is not about Wilma," she said in an interview. "This is about the people I represent, the teachers, students, the middle school and the Latino community. I am an ambassador for these multiple communities."

At Friday's ceremony, she gave a speech about the teaching of language as more than vocabulary and grammar, but as a tool for communication and a key to success and opportunity. Seventh-grader Takuto Kimura also spoke about Ortiz-Marrero at the ceremony.

She has been at the middle school so long that she has taught children of her former students, she said. During that time, she has received a master's degree and, last year, a doctorate from the UMass School of Education, and she has been a mentor and teacher there since 1997.

Ortiz-Marrero said she got a doctorate because "I felt my advocacy role, my passion, my love and commitment to social justice were not being effective the way I envisioned," she said. "I felt I needed to learn how to speak the kind of language necessary in the field so people would listen to me."

In addition to teaching, she does a lot of collaboration with other educators, and also visits students in their homes and gives them rides. "She goes above and beyond every day," said Hayes.

Ortiz-Marrero has also been active in the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, where she got to know Penniman. It is a network of sites devoted to professional development for teachers focusing on the teaching of writing, he said.

Ortiz-Marrero is "a bridge-builder" who keeps faculty discussions at the middle school positive, Hayes said. She has "the ability connect with all colleagues, parents and students," he said.

And she keeps the needs of students who are learning English in the minds of administrators, he said. "She is deeply committed to underrepresented populations and helps keep them central in our thinking," Hayes said.

"She has been known to speak truth to power, but always in a respectful way," said Penniman.

Ortiz-Marrero said she is an emotional person who occasionally needs to curb her enthusiasm to be effective. "I'm a constant reminder of what's missing every time a decision is made," she said.

Nick Grabbe can be reached at ngrabbe@gazettenet.com.