Teaching in a small town definitely has it benefits: perhaps the most notable being the small class sizes! In my six years of teaching, the largest class I have ever taught had 22 students, and the smallest class was just this previous year at 4 students. I would say that the average class size I…
There’s a lot of negativity surrounding education lately, but especially following the COVID pandemic. I absolutely agree that there is a lot to be down about: lost learning time, education gaps and missing foundational skills, a widening achievement gap, and a complete end of education for some (World Economic Forum, 2022). That’s to say nothing…
In honor of summer rapidly approaching, I wanted to share a few summer themed haiku. Haiku is a Japanese style of poetry written in three lines, the first line containing 5 syllables, the second 7, and the 3rd line with 5 syllables once again. Haiku also typically describes nature or the seasons, what better way…
There’s an anxious buzz and an excitement in the air. The number of days left of the school year is in the single digits, but the busyness level is as high as ever. In a small town, the school is the lifeblood of the community. Time and time again, as communities in rural America lose…
A couple of years ago, I ran into an interesting study published by the CDC in February 2020. WOW – Can you imagine what those averages might be now that we have experienced the COVID pandemic? I’d hate to even guess. However, in 2022, I found a very interesting response to those numbers called the…
The world can take you wondrous places and lead you to meet incredible people. Life brought me to small town Kansas, to a school with fewer than 200 students K-12, to a farming community lucky enough to have a bank, a hospital, a bar, and 5 different churches. This is my home. I will live…
The Small Town STEM Teacher 