Teacher Appreciation Week runs from Monday, May 4th through Friday, May 8, 2026.
Renee Martin is a courageous and kind teacher who teaches senior seminar, government, and dual-credit political science at Procter R. Hug High School. She is a teacher of many specialties and has worked on campus for 12 years, where she takes great pride in her job. She is also in charge of graduation and making sure everyone does what they are supposed to do during the ceremony.
She served on the logo and name committee for our campus and got to talk with other staff members regarding the name of the new campus and whether it should still be named Procter R. Hug High School. Not only was she a part of making all those things happen, but she is also the department leader of social studies and the senior class advisor.
Since she was a little girl, Mrs. Martin would force her siblings and friends who lived in her neighborhood to play school. Clearly, she knew from a noticeably young age that she had a passion for teaching. As she got older, people started telling her that teachers did not make a lot of money. She decided to put that passion to the side for a moment while she studied criminal justice and focused on a political science major. She figured she would go into politics and make a change some way.
However, when she finished her undergrad at UNR, she decided she did not want to go into politics, and her passion was to be a teacher after all. She went off to get her master’s degree and did a teaching program. She completed her student teaching while living in Arizona for a while and when she moved back to Reno, she decided to work at Hug because she was once a student there herself!
Lauren Rachal, Mrs. Martin’s work bestie, is also on the scholarship committee and they help each other review applicants and decide who gets which scholarships. Mrs. Rachal has known Mrs. Martin for about 12 years, and they have gotten closer since they started teaching around the same time. Mrs. Rachal had nothing but nice things to say about Mrs. Martin. She stated, “Mrs. Martin is so funny; she makes me laugh all the time. She is a hoot!” 🦉
I have a lot of personal experience with Mrs. Martin, since I do have 2 of her classes—government and senior seminar. In both classes, she helps students as much as she can with assignments and makes everyone feel comfortable. She has helped me tremendously throughout the year with not only school, but with general advice and guidance. I am extremely grateful to call her my teacher.
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Teacher Appreciation Week (NEA)
