By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
Two Great Bend teachers have been nominated as candidates for the Kansas Teacher of the Year. Dara Touslee, kindergarten teacher at Park Elementary School, and Joseph Bliven, an eighth-grade science teacher at Great Bend Middle School, were introduced to the Great Bend Board of Education at their monthly meeting on Monday.
Touslee has taught at Park Elementary for 20 years. Park Principal Adam Cline praised Touslee for her work at the school.
"I went in there a couple of times to view the instruction and it’s spot on,” Cline commented. “Students are in there doing what they need to be doing. I think it says a lot that we come in there and we give her the award and all the kids want to come up and give her a hug. I think that says it the most.”
Bliven began his fifth year of teaching at the Middle School this year.
As Teacher of the Year nominees, Touslee and Bliven will have the opportunity to participate in a number of professional development conferences.
Regional semifinalists for the award will be chosen in March with finalists announced at a banquet scheduled for next September.