Newspaper editor turns teacher for her family

TEN SLEEP – When Ten Sleep School's new 7 – 12 grade English teacher Kate Decker graduated high school she went into journalism but after having her daughter, Decker decided that the busy life of a newspaper reporter and editor wasn't conducive to family life, so she switched gears returning to college at Regis University in Denver, Colorado to earn her Master of Education degree.

"When my daughter was 6 months old, I went back to school to be a teacher, which I find ironic now, because I am never done as a teacher either but at least my kids get to be with me and we are kind of on the same schedule," Decker said. She added that she had worked in Saratoga as a newspaper reporter before moving to Pine Bluffs where she worked as an editor along with working for different companies doing advertising before she decided to switch careers.

After getting her teaching degree, Decker taught in Cheyenne for almost 10 years before moving to Worland. She stated that her family is the reason she, her husband Ryan and their two children moved from Cheyenne to Worland last summer. "We moved from Cheyenne to Worland because we wanted a slower pace and a smaller town atmosphere for our kiddos," Decker said.

For the 2017-2018 school year Decker taught in Thermopolis, but didn't feel that the school was a good fit for her, which caused her to wonder if she was going to continue teaching, until the positioned opened up in Ten Sleep. "This position opened up in Ten Sleep and I came over, toured and it just felt right and I have loved it so far," Decker stated.

"The community here [Ten Sleep] is awesome. I have never, I've been lots of places, but I have never come across a community like Ten Sleep. For such a small town it is really so diverse. It has a huge diversity; we have our rancher community, we have climbers and we have the working class people, just a whole bunch. It's like a melting pot but everybody gets along, everybody works together and everybody takes care of each other. It's a really unique place to be. Before I even taught over here this was my happy place. I would come over here and hang out in Ten Sleep or I would be up in the canyon. It's fortuitous that I am teaching here," she added.