(Editor’s note: The start of the 2010-11 school year has brought several new faces to area public schools. The Register will profile new educators with brief biographies. Today’s roundup features new teachers at Jefferson, McKinley and Lincoln elementary schools in USD 257.)
Katie Ellis
Katie Ellis said she is happy to be a full-time teacher after teaching part time and being a stay-at-home mother. She teaches second grade at Lincoln Elementary School.
She grew up in a family of educators — her dad teaches at St. Mary’s-Colgan High School in Pittsburg and her mother at Pittsburg State University.
Ellis a a graduate of PSU.
She and her husband, Jared, and their two daughters, Ally, 6, and Brooklyn, 3, live in Iola.
Jamie Newland
Jamie Newland is beginning her career as a kindergarten teacher at Jefferson Elementary School.
“I have always liked working with young children and can’t wait for that ‘ah ha’ moment when my students reach milestones such as reading,” she said.
A graduate of Emporia State University and an Olathe native, she and her husband, Tyler, moved to Iola from Emporia.
“I like living in a smaller town where you get to know your neighbors,” she said.
Christy Boyers
Christy Boyers said two aunts who were elementary school teachers were her inspiration to be-come a teacher.
Originally from St. Paul, she is a graduate of Pittsburg State University.
She taught the past two years in Garnett, and is now a kindergarten teacher at Lincoln Elementary School.
She and her husband, Clint, and daughters, Gretchen, 2, and Sophia, 1, live in LaHarpe.
Joseph Hand
Joseph Hand enjoys all aspects of music and said, “I knew when I went to college that I wanted to major in music.”
He teaches general music classes for kindergarten through fifth grades at Lincoln and McKinley elementary schools.
This is his first teaching assignment. He was a student teacher last school year in Salina.
Hand, a native of Ellsworth, is a graduate of Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina.
“I love to teach music and play music. When I have time I play guitar in a blues band in Salina,” he said.
Hand said he is fortunate his uncle and aunt, Kevin and Jolyne Alexander, reside in Iola since it takes hours for him to drive to his home in Ellsworth.
