West Side teacher receives Master Teacher Award

Andrea Cooley, a fourth grade teacher at West Side Elementary, was selected by the Washakie County School District No. 1 Board as the 2023 Master Teacher Award winner and was presented the award at the May 22 board meeting.

"It's such an honor to be acknowledged," said Cooley.

This award is given annually by the school board to recognize a teacher within the district that has gone beyond their calling as an educator. Through her 12-year career in Worland, Cooley has shown continued dedication to ensuring that her students are provided everything they need to succeed - in and out of class.

Cooley grew up in Kansas but moved to Sheridan with her family when she was in middle school. After she graduated high school, she pursued her bachelor's degree at Sheridan College, and then completed it at Chadron State through Sheridan.

Her first job in education out of college was teaching first grade in Worland, which she did for two years. She then moved to third grade for three years, and then onto fourth grade. Cooley has just finished her seventh year teaching fourth grade.

She has also just this year completed her master's degree in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education.

Cooley said that she has enjoyed sticking with fourth graders, saying, "They're at the age where they're still really inquisitive, they're excited to be at school, but they're old enough to have deeper conversations and their vocabularies are built a bit. So it's just like that magical age."

On what she strives for as a teacher, Cooley said, "I want kids to want to be here."

She shared that one of her main goals at West Side is to have her students who move on to the fifth grade leave her class excited about learning.

She said, "It's not just about hitting the learning standards; I mean, that's a big part of our job, but I want kids to have good relationships with people around the building and just be excited about life."

She continued, "I want them to be inspired to travel and explore, and have experiences they wouldn't have if they just stayed in the house."

In that same vein, Cooley shared how she promotes learning outside of the classroom. She frequently brings supplemental learning opportunities to students who can't get enough of learning. Examples include outdoor classroom sessions during class time and having her class work in the school garden. Garden sessions with her students extend even when school is out for the summer.

This summer Cooley will be running Work it Wednesday, a time for students to come and work and learn in the garden, with the addition of the new greenhouse at West Side that will hopefully extend their growing season deeper into the fall. She will also continue to run the Science Alliance summer camp with Donna Hunter, an opportunity for students to travel on excursions across the Big Horn Basin for the purpose of learning about science. Cooley said that in recent years the focus of the camp has been on paleontology, letting students learn about the different eras of time in Earth's history and what types of fossils can be found here.

As for her thoughts on winning the Master Teacher Award, Cooley said, "It's such an honor to be recognized by the school board. It's nice that somebody out there recognizes as a colleague the time that goes into this. I would add that it's not just me; there are so many teachers in our district going above and beyond just what they need to do in the classroom. I've been amazed at the amount of staff that has jumped into the garden."

She named Ron Bihr, a maintenance worker for the district, as having tilled up an area of the garden to serve as a pumpkin patch. She also named Jackie Urbin, a cook at West Side, as having worked with the Washakie County Conservation District to secure a grant that resulted in three new composters for the school garden.

Cooley ended by saying that she is excited to get her kids working in the garden, and that she has some new activities in the works for this year.