Ozarks Teacher Corps members train in rural school districts

Before members of the Ozarks Teacher Corps apply for the two-year program and accompanying $8,000 in scholarships, it is made very clear to them that rural education will be the focus of their training. Sponsored by the CFO’s Rural Schools Partnership and funded by the Chesley and Flora Lee Wallis Trust, the program requires students to spend the first three years of their careers in rural districts.

This focus has never been sharper than it was earlier this month, when the current class of the OTC visited the Glenwood R-VIII school district. Glenwood is one of the few K-8 districts remaining in Missouri (students can choose from a handful of area high school districts, including West Plains, Willow Springs and Koshkonong upon completion of eighth grade). The sprawling district, as Superintendent Dr. Wayne Stewart notes, has Arkansas as its southern border, but nevertheless carries a vibrant culture of which students and faculty alike are very proud.

During their visit, Teacher Corps members met with Stewart and longtime art teacher Dawn King. Stewart talked about creating a positive environment to increase teacher retention — currently an important topic among rural districts — and shared a bit of wisdom about learning the ropes in a new district.

“Each school has a flavor of learning,” Stewart said. “Your job is to figure out what that flavor is wherever you wind up teaching.”

In her art classroom — a colorful mix of high-tech AV equipment and throwback buckets of paints, markers and old magazines — King provided a glimpse of the talent these rural students have for art, as well as some ingenuity in stretching limited resources. (Did you know the guts of dried-up magic markers can be put in water and turned into gorgeous watercolors?)

The second half of the day was spent at Missouri State University-West Plains, where Rural Schools Partnership staff, past members of the Ozarks Teacher Corps currently teaching in their own classrooms and artists from the Placeworks Art Initiative led discussions and workshops for the future teachers … all while the West Plains High School homecoming parade rolled through the MSU-WP campus.

It was, indeed, a “flavor of learning” that can only be found in the Ozarks.

For more information on the Ozarks Teacher Corps and the Rural Schools Partnership, please contact Julie Leeth at jleeth@cfozarks.org.

Matt Lemmon is Media Director for the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.