Maria Kimmel has been teaching children with special learning needs since 1990. She has been a Resource Room Teacher for Belding Area Schools since 2000. Mrs. Kimmel graduated with honors from the University of Rio Grande in Rio Grande, Ohio in 1990 with a degree in Elementary and Special Education. She has taught in Ohio and New Jersey and she is very happy to be settled back in her home state of Michigan. She earned her Masters Degree from the University of Dayton in 1995 and has also completed requirements for Michigan Certification at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Even as an elementary student, Mrs. Kimmel always enjoyed working with students who had mental and physical handicaps. She spent most recesses volunteering in the special education classrooms and went in to help whenever she was finished with her work. In both middle school and high school, she volunteered in the Elementary Special Education Classrooms daily after her school dismissed.

Her favorite part of teaching is when struggling students become READERS!