Teacher gifted Super Bowl tickets because of viral video showing her teaching skills
By Marisela Burgos, Kevin Boulandier
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PINECREST, Florida (WSVN) — A Miami Dolphins legend surprised a South Florida teacher with some good news: she’s going to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
Ms. Mary Martinez, who teaches football-themed lessons, at Pinecrest Elementary School was gifted the tickets by Dan Marino and the NFL.
“Hey Mary, how are you doing? Hi it’s Dan Marino,” Marino said in a video.
“I had to rewatch his video because I really didn’t listen. You know how we black out for a moment like what just happened?” said Martinez.
Martinez said she couldn’t believe Dan Marino recorded a video for her recognizing her work as a teacher.
“You’re going to Las Vegas, you got Super Bowl tickets,” said Marino in the recorded video.
Martinez received her tickets from Dolphins cheerleaders, who handed her two tickets on Monday.
“I was probably gonna watch it on the couch with a bowl of ice cream, you know now I get to be there,” said Martinez.
Marino said the gift was due to her unique teaching style.
“We want to thank you for being a Dolphins fan and an everyday NFL fan. Because of that, the NFL is going to send you to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas because of the work you’ve done, said Marino. “Go Fins, go to the Super Bowl, and have a great time, Mary!”
Martinez, a huge football fan and reading teacher, will be going to Vegas with her fiancé to watch the Kansas City Chiefs battle it out with the San Francisco 49ers.
She said she found a creative way to incorporate her love of football and some math into her daily lessons. The students are loving it.
“When I taught them about Brock Purdy, we broke out the word irrelevant and we talked about the base word relevant and the prefix ‘ir’ so it’s like they’re, we’ve done prefixes before as it’s part of our curriculum in third grade. So they are learning those things and making those connections through football,” said Martinez.
Her students knew about the surprise since last week but kept it a secret from her until Monday.
Because of her unique style of teaching, Martinez went viral on social media and it caught the attention of the NFL.
“I was like ‘what!’ like it was crazy,” said Martinez.
She hopes her story inspires others.
“My favorite thing has been the way that it has inspired other educators ’cause I’ve seen that online and it’s like there are so many incredible teachers out there and there’s so many, I don’t know, it’s just that’s what I want to do, inspire people to continue to teach. Maybe they’re not passionate about the NFL. Find something you are passionate about and use it in your classroom,” said Martinez.
Martinez said this would be her first time visiting Vegas.
She said that she saw the Chiefs versus the 49ers when they played in Miami. At that time, she was a Chiefs fan, but now she is rooting for the 49ers. However, she said she will always be a Dolphins fan.
“I’m going to go and I’m going to represent all the teachers,” said Martinez.
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