Woodland teacher of the year celebrates for her ideas, teaching methods

Missy Hoover’s interest in making Woodland a better environment for students is what set her apart from everyone else.

It’s also why she was awarded the Woodland Education Foundation’s Teacher of the Year award.

“She’s always coming up with new ideas and bringing new things in,” said Principal Jacob Burcenski. “She’s always got questions and more often than not, her ideas are great.”

Fellow fourth grade teacher Amber Decker agreed; it was Hoover that contacted author Amy Logan to come speak to her class for Woodland’s Read Across America Week. What was going to be initially a one class session is now an assembly for students kindergarten through fifth grade.

Hoover said she met Logan, who writes the “Girl With a Cape” series, at a Mom Conference and found out from there that she was doing classroom visits. She reached out to Burcenski to see if she could reach out to Logan.

“She really spearheaded our Reading Week,” Burcenski said. “Her ideas led to everyone else getting organized. She generated the idea and now our whole elementary has these activities planned.”

Decker said that’s not the only idea she’s brought to the table.

“Back around Thanksgiving, we were teaching the kids long division,” Decker said. “She had the idea to transform our classrooms into operating rooms and we had the kids dress like they were going in to perform surgery. The kids didn’t even realize they were learning. I had a few ask us why we didn’t have math class that day.”

Decker said the class performed long division using turkeys; in order to fix the turkey, the kids had to solve the long division problem. If the answer was correct, they got to remove the bandage.

“I always encourage younger teachers that feel stuck to just teach,” Hoover said. “Look around! There are ideas everywhere, whether it’s Facebook or Pinterest or just talking to other teachers.”

Hoover said her favorite part of the day is getting to read aloud to her students but she said greeting them every morning helps her get the energy to move through the day.

“There’s always the kids that come in just happy and ready to learn,” Hoover said. “Being so early in the morning, there’s always the extra bubbly ones.”

Burcenski praised Hoover’s mindset when it comes to teaching her students and helping them grow.

“She really has a growth mindset,” Burcenski said. “She celebrates the victories as they come but she always looks to improve her methods.”