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Biographical Information

Fifth- grade and sixth grade teacher Kathleen Heusel demonstrates both the art and science of teaching at Morningside Elementary School in Great Falls, Montana. With a strong focus on active, process-based learning, Heusel integrates multiple subject areas, turning math graphs into art projects and having students write about real-world topics of their own interest. Heusel worked with a grade-level partner to teach tessellations by having students create their own tessellated patterns. Students then voted for the best pattern, which was then cut into a necktie for the principal to wear. Her students have also created art projects to benefit the community, such as illustrated and laminated placemats for "Meals on Wheels" served to senior citizens and quilts for children at the Great Falls Receiving Home. Most of Heusel's students typically score proficient or advanced on the Montana Criterion-Referenced Test, with 100 percent of her third graders achieving those levels in 2007. Her students also routinely pass district tests in communication arts, social studies, science and math. Heusel's students have also been published numerous times in Creative Communications, a poetry publication. She is a member of Morningside's RTI intervention Team, ECS Team, Safety Committee Team, Communication Arts Team, and runs Art Club. When she moved from third to fifth grade in 2007, many parents whose children she had taught in third grade requested her to teach their children once again. Current position: 5/6 combination class.