By John McCallum
Editor 

Sunset's Terra Boling creates space for learning

Cheney School District fifth-grade teacher receives Best of the West award for best educator

 

Last updated 5/11/2017 at 11:48am

John McCallum

Sunset Elementary School teacher Terra Boling stands with her Best of the West award next to one of the bucket seats she and her father assembled for her fifth-grade class.

Things are a little different in Sunset Elementary School teacher Terra Boling's fifth-grade classroom.

For starters, there are no desks and few chairs. Instead, Boling's students sit around tables on plastic buckets - albeit nicely padded plastic buckets the materials for which she paid for out of her pocket and assembled with her father.

Boling said desks for 27 students in the crowded portable at the Cheney School District's Airway Heights school take up a lot of space. In fact, she doesn't even have her own desk, preferring to use a table when working with her students.

But then, the West Plains Chamber of Commerce's 2017 Educator of the Year for K-12 award winner said ever since high school she has been someone who needs to "get hands in and mess around with it."

"I'm very rarely teaching whole groups in my classroom," Boling said. "It's always small groups."

Boling came to Sunset from Elma, Wash., where her high school principal was ironically Sean Dotson, Cheney Public School's associate superintendent. She received her bachelor of arts degree in elementary school education, with a minor in early childhood education, from Eastern Washington University in 2012.

She also picked up a middle school math endorsement ("At the time, there were not a lot of elementary school positions.") and began work on a master's in literacy education. Boling said she did her practicum's and student teaching at Sunset, and while in the middle of her master's thesis, got a one-year job share at Sunset while another teacher was on maternity leave.

In 2014 when she finished her master's, she was hired permanently at Sunset. Boling said she had her heart set on teaching kindergarten, but applied for a fifth-grade class because there was an opening - advice given to her by her mentor, current Snowdon Elementary School teacher Christine Scott.

"I truly love teaching fifth-grade," Boling said. "You can have a real conversation."

Scott also provided Boling with teaching inspirations, as well as resources for her classroom, including many books and other materials. But the solution for creating more space for instruction belongs to Boling and her father, who worked together over the summer to research and fashion the bucket seats, which provide storage for students' materials as well as provide for better posture.

"I've noticed changes in the students," Boling said. "We don't get many drowsy eyes in here."

Cheney School District

After winning her Best Educator for K-12 award, Boling wrote the message above to her students.

The buckets provide the flexibility for better collaboration, increased instruction time and are a hit with the students, as was Boling's chamber award, something she shared with them and which they termed "The Grammy." After receiving it, Boling wrote on a whiteboard crediting her students by letting them know "This award is as much yours as it is mine."

She also credits her fellow teachers and staff members at Sunset, any of whom could have been nominated for the award.

Originally, Boling said she intended to return to Elma and teach once she received her degree from Eastern. Since then, besides finding a home at Sunset she's also become engaged, and the future couple are looking for their own home near Airway Heights.

"This is where we're meant to be," she said. "I love working here (Sunset). It reminds me of home."

Boling received her award at the annual Best of the West ceremony April 14.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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