Tim Blankenship, the 8th grade science teacher at Iola Middle School, went to Wyoming to hunt for fossils in 2003, with minimal success. A couple of weeks later, he returned to his farm in Chetopa,…

At the end of the last school year, Aubrey Westhoff delivered welcome news to one of her fifth grade students. Her role was expanding, and she’d be able to meet with him when he transitioned…

Now that school is out for the summer, the library at Iola Elementary School was eerily quiet Wednesday morning when a young boy popped in. He was there to see about a dog.  Not just…

Virginia Crane isn’t sure what she will do without a classroom when the school year ends Friday. She’s been teaching for 57 years. “I’m near tears every time anybody says retirement,” Crane said.  By the…

TOPEKA — Jodee Nickell, a Family and Consumer Sciences teacher at Humboldt High School, is being recognized for outstanding teaching. She is one of 32 educators from Kansas recognized with the 2024 Kansas Horizon Award, …

MORAN — Halie Luken, a speech, drama and Spanish teacher at Marmaton Valley High School, remembers when she proved the existence of Santa Claus.  She was around age 11, and her mom, Jackie Walls, was…

HUMBOLDT — Kim Isbell thought she was helping a colleague solve a computer glitch Wednesday. But when she arrived into the darkened classroom, Isbell was instead greeted with a throng of well-wishers with news of…

LAHARPE — Don Settlemyer’s teaching career began in early January, when he took the helm of the construction trades class at the Regional Rural Technical Center. But in reality, Settlemyer has been a teacher all…

MAYETTA — Marmaton Valley High School’s Jacque Gabbert was named the Kansas Association of Career and Technical Education (K-ACTE) teacher of the year on Saturday. Gabbert teaches vocational agriculture classes at Marmaton Valley. The Kansas…

WICHITA, Kansas — Kelly Kluthe is one of those rock-star science teachers schools need. She landed an innovative teaching grant at Olathe West High. She speaks at national conferences about ways to make science lessons…