TSC receives 2024 Leading and Learning Award
MAY 1 2024 - Sue Scott
The Indiana Department of Education has awarded the 2024 Excellence in Leading and Learning Award to the Tippecanoe School Corporation. The award recognizes a school corporation that provides professional learning support for educators, including efforts that enhance recruitment and retention.
With the award, the TSC will receive a nearly $225,000 grant to enhance its SEEDS (Supporting Educators Entering District Service) program. The program was initiated in 2021 to mentor, nurture and retain new teachers.
“TSC is thrilled to be recognized by the IDOE with the Excellence in Leading and Learning Award for our creation of the SEEDS program,” says TSC Superintendent Dr. Scott Hanback. “The TSC is focused on not only attracting, but retaining the best teachers for our students in our classrooms across the corporation. SEEDS was intentionally developed as a sustainable support system for new hires joining the TSC to influence their start with the corporation in a positive way.”
“This program gives me the privilege of loving our new educators daily, which might take the shape of encouragement for one teacher or practical assistance for another or a guest lesson that provides respite for yet another,” says SEEDS Director Kathy Nimmer. “The funds from this award are simultaneously an affirmation of what we’ve done in SEEDS and also what the teachers joining us will continue to receive as they step into this challenging and beautiful profession.”
The grant money will help fund staffing for SEEDS, including a pilot program to have SEEDS teacher leaders at each of the TSC’s 19 buildings. Other funds will cover the cost of professional development for new teachers and the purchase of supplies and resource materials.
Podcast: A Teacher-Mentor's Perspective on Staff Well-Being
Working Well Features Kathy Nimmer:
In this conversation, NCSSLE Training Specialist Melanie Goodman speaks with Kathy Nimmer, who was a high school English teacher for 29 years at William Henry Harrison High School in Indiana, a public school of approximately 2,200 students. Kathy was Indiana’s Teacher of the Year in 2015 and is now mentoring new teachers full-time, including an emphasis on supportive staff well-being. Kathy is also blind. She discusses the ups and downs of her own classroom experience, how she characterizes her disability, how a windy day led to her first guide dog, her reverence for teachers, and her unique approach to mentoring.
Listen: https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/podcasts/working-well/resources/teacher-kathy-nimmer
Lion Magazine: Super Teacher
"The sleepy-eyed students quietly trudge into English Class. It's 7:30a.m., an ungodly hour for these high schoolers. The May weather outside is warm and inviting, and summer break looms. Today's topic is a pantoum, an obscure form of poetry.
Teacher Kathy Nimmer, 48, plunges ahead at Harrison High School in West Lafayette, Indiana. Don't worry: she's got this..." -- Read on by following the link below.
http://digital.lionmagazine.org/publication/?i=430248&article_id=2851836&view=articleBrowser
