The Kansas Teacher of the Year team made their annual stop in Emporia Tuesday to speak with educators of the future.
Among them was current Kansas Teacher of the Year Susanne Stevenson a fourth-grade teacher in Dodge City and Emporia State University alumni. While speaking with local media following a presentation to ESU students, Stevenson stated she felt great to be back on campus.
Seaman High School Spanish teacher Lisa Martinez says Stevenson did a great job in getting the rest of the team “pumped up” to visit ESU.
The main focus of the KOTY contingent’s time at ESU Tuesday centered on creating a community within a classroom. Understandably, this has been a difficult task over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic especially when the majority of school districts went to online learning.
When asked how they managed to maintain a sense of community without students in the classroom all of the KOTY team members stated it was important to check up on their students regularly outside of regular class hours. Stevenson says the checkups were not all about academics, however, as she and her teammates agreed that it was more important to focus on their students’ emotional and mental states rather than just their grades.
Cheney Elementary School fourth grade teacher Laurie Thisius says finding ways to keep student morale up throughout the early half of the pandemic took a lot of creativity.
The many different approaches perfectly illustrate the role of an educator in students’ lives, as Hutchinson High School English teacher Amber Carithers says “that’s what teachers do we adapt.”
Along with Stevenson, Martinez, Thisius and Carithers, the 2022 KOTY team includes Ottawa fourth grade teacher Megan O’Neill, Shawnee Mission High School English teacher Natalie Johnson-Berry, Goddard High School business teacher Kristin Salazar and Bonner Springs Elementary School library media specialist Amanda Ketterling.
