Tag: Rural Education
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The 2023 Noyce Summit
I was a shy child. I remember feeling incredibly frustrated with myself whenever someone would try to talk to me because instantly my tongue would feel as though it was stuck to the bottom of my mouth and I could only mumble a few words quiet filled with spoonerisms (e.g. a chy shild rather than…
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Taking Care of the Little Things
Depending on who you ask or which search engine result you click on, I’m either the youngest of the Millennials or the oldest of the Gen Z. I wore Soffe shorts and danced to Soulja Boy. I got my first cell phone (a turquoise LG Scoop) for my birthday in 8th grade, only a few…
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What I’m Looking Forward To in the New School Year
The summer has hardly begun, and I plan to enjoy it immensely, yet I’m looking forward to the fall and start of the school year. Here are five things I’m doing this summer to prepare for back to school season: Building Relationships Living in a small community, there are plenty of opportunities to build positive…
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A Big Announcement
This summer, I was nominated for, and accepted to speak on a panel of teachers on the Voices From the Field panel at the 2023 Noyce Summit in Washington, D.C.
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Teacher Expectations: Filling a Niche or Filling a Need?
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…
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Why Choose Teaching After 2020?
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…
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A Summer Haiku
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…
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Importance of Open House Night in a Rural High School
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…
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Get Those Kids Outside!
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…
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Who Am I?
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 