KTOY Tours Schools Across Southwest Kansas

The KTOY (Kansas Teacher of the Year) program, recognizes teachers with excellent teaching styles from elementary to secondary classrooms in Kansas. This plays an important role as it highlights the diverse teaching styles that contribute to a better student educational experience. Those nominated take this opportunity to view the different teaching styles during the program.

This year's educators such as Lisa Juel, Shelly DeWeese, Cheri Hopson, Patricia Gomez, Ismeal Carillo, and Jennifer Wieberg were some of the few who took on this opportunity to tour schools across southwest Kansas, from Liberal to Goodland. Their goals are to get insight from different teaching styles to improve and strengthen the education in their hometowns to benefit their students.

Upon their arrival at Ulysses High School, the visiting teachers were serenaded by the amazing drumline, organized by Rocky Franco and Ms. Sabrina Gary. During their high school tour, they were presented with beautiful charcuterie boards crafted with a CNC router, adding creativity to their experience.

Justin Coffey, the principal here at Ulysses High School, was once a part of the KTOY program. In 2016, as a math teacher at Dodge City High School, Justin Coffey was nominated to be a part of the Kansas Teacher of the Year award. He then made it to the top eight finalists where he won the 2016 Kansas Teacher of the Year award. Since then he has been involved in the KTOY program for eight years and continues to encourage teachers to be a part of the program. He prioritizes acknowledging and celebrating the amazing teachers here at Ulysses High School. In doing so he encourages his teachers to be a part of the KTOY program as they will get the opportunity to learn different teaching styles from different environments to the betterment Ulysses High School.