By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
Every year, the Kansas Teacher of the Year Team (KTOY) – the pre-K-12 educators celebrated as the best of the best for that year – tours the state’s universities.
This year, the team will come to Fort Hays State University on March 9, and Dr. Chris Jochum, chair of the university’s Department of Teacher Education, decided to do something extra. His department and the College of Education are using it as the core event of what he is calling Future Educators Day, the first of what he hopes will be many.
The purpose is to “get kids interested in the teaching professions and, hopefully, stay in Kansas.”
So far, 12 schools and school districts have signed up, and Jochum expects about a hundred students with their sponsoring teachers, school administrators and counselors.
FHSU President Tisa Mason and College of Education Dean Paul Adams will welcome the attending teachers and students and the KTOY Team to campus in the union’s Fort Hays Ballroom.
The KTOY Team (KTOY is colloquially pronounced KAY-toy) is the current Kansas Teacher of the Year and the seven regional finalists for the honor.
“The KTOY team presents on campus every year,” said Jochum, “and the reason for Future Educators Day is because there is an identified need not only in Kansas but nationwide to attract more people to the teaching profession, especially people who will return to their hometowns and teach there.”
Jochum began preparing for the day last fall. The concept was an event that would begin trying to attract high school students to the profession of teaching by giving them a different perspective on teaching.
“We wanted to get in front of high school kids who are still thinking about their careers and show them the benefits of being a teacher.”
That idea evolved into the concept of a day that introduce students to the idea of teaching as a career and, with KTOY, using people acknowledged as this year’s best teachers to make the introduction. The Kansas Teacher of the Year for 2020, Tabatha Rosproy, preschool and early childhood teacher from Winfield USD 465, will deliver a keynote address at lunch in the ballroom.
A recent Fort Hays State graduate, Perla Camacho, a former Noyce Scholarship winner who teaches math in Ulysses USD 214, will also address the luncheon audience, as will Jon Armstrong, director of admissions at FHSU.
“The big picture,” said Jochum, “is we are responding to our K-12 colleagues and stakeholders who have rightly expressed concern: Are we doing enough to promote the profession? Are we doing enough to get in front of students and introduce the profession from a perspective different than that of a high school sophomore or junior?”
As part of that, the day’s schedule includes a time for the high school students to tour exhibits. From 1 to 1:40 p.m., tables will be set up in the union’s Black and Gold Room for the high school students to visit with faculty from departments with teaching majors or endorsements:
• Elementary Education
• Early Childhood Unified
• Special Education
• Art Education
• Spanish Education
• English Education
• History Education
• Math Education
• Music Education
• Science Education
The time will also include people who can answer questions on career services, study abroad, living and learning communities, residential life, Greek Life and other student-related services.
The day’s events also includes a KTOY presentation to the high school students from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. and a panel discussion and activities with current teacher education students and Camacho as well as a tour of Rarick Hall.
The KTOY team will also engage in events with just FHSU faculty and students: a presentation from 10:30 to 11:20 a.m. in the Stouffer Lounge, and a discussion between the KTOY Team, K-12 teachers and FHSU faculty on “filling the teacher pipeline” from 12:55 to 1:40 p.m. The day’s closing remarks will include a drawing for scholarships from the Office of Admissions and the Department of Teacher Education.
Jochum provided another illustration of the “big picture” concerns that the Future Educators Day is intended to address.
“The defining moment of when a rural community is closing down is when they lose their schools,” he said. “The two entities in a rural community that are most likely to have college graduates are the bank and the school.”
He continued, “Let’s try to promote education, especially in rural Kansas, to get these kids to settle there and contribute to the economy, and then maybe their kids will go to school there. This would help all our communities, but especially those out here in Western Kansas.”
For more information, contact Jochum at cjjochum@fhsu.edu.