Salina South High School

2020-2021 
Renaissance Teachers of the Month

South High School’s May Teacher of the Month is Seth White.  Mr. White is in his 5^th year of teaching Business/Computers, all at South High School.  He chose to become a teacher because he had teachers growing up who changed his life, and he wants to return the favor and help out every student he can, regardless of their circumstances.  He also says having summers off is pretty cool!  His favorite subjects growing up were history and accounting.  He enjoyed working with data and spreadsheets, which helped lead him to become a business teacher.  Mr. White enjoys watching students learn new things and seeing that moment it all “clicks” and they can apply their knowledge to real life scenarios.  He would like to tell everyone to wake up every day with a positive attitude and make the best of each day no matter how many negative things happen.  Congratulations, Mr. White!

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South High School’s April Teacher of the Month is Megan Hagaman.  Dr. Hagaman is in her 15^th year of teaching, the past five teaching Speech, Debate, and Forensics at Salina South. She chose to become a teacher because she loves learning and helping students find their voice.  She was inspired by great speech and debate teachers like Gary Harmon.  Dr. Hagaman’s favorite part of teaching is building relationships and encouraging students to achieve goals that they have set.  She enjoys the South High Speech & Debate family and how everyone is supportive and works to build up the entire team.  She would like to tell parents that communication skills are even more important today, in our screen mediated society, and appreciates the support of communication studies in our schools.  Congratulations, Dr. Hagaman!

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South High School’s March Teacher of the Month is Charlie Lynn.  Mr. Lynn is in his seventh year of teaching, the past four being in the South High English Department.  Mr. Lynn loves reading and discussing literature, and that led him to wanting to help others find that same joy.  He enjoys interacting with students and helping them grow their reading and writing skills, and is especially proud when he sees how their skills grow from the beginning to the end of a school year.  Mr. Lynn would like to tell all parents to present reading as a fun activity to your children, because it is!  Congratulations, Mr. Lynn!

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South High School’s February Teacher of the Month is Collin Carlson.  Mr. Carlson is in his eighth year of teaching, all in the South High Social Studies Department.  Mr. Carlson was fortunate enough to have many teachers who made their classrooms welcoming and engaging, and he sees teachers as wanting to recreate their own positive classroom experiences.  He is especially grateful to Dave Ewers and Mike McRoberts for their encouragement in pursuing teaching as a profession his senior year.  Mr. Carlson enjoys the fun he gets to have on a daily basis with his colleagues, and enjoys getting to know his students through their simple daily interactions, when they share moments of success, struggle, and aspiration.  He would like to tell parents and the community that, even before most students pay attention to American politics and civic life, they do pay attention to how we engage and conduct ourselves in those spheres.  He sees, in that sense, that we all have the capacity to be positive and constructive social studies teachers. Congratulations, Mr. Carlson!

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South High School’s January Teacher of the Month is Jesse Yarochowicz.  Miss Yarochowicz is in her second year of teaching, both at South High in the Medical Investigations classroom.  She has always loved science, and she wanted to share that love with others.  She especially enjoys getting to see her students explore career possibilities in their field of interest.  Miss Yarochowicz grew up in USD 305, and loves still getting to be a part of the district.  She would like to tell parents, thank you for trusting us with your kids and their safety this year.  Congratulations, Miss Yarochowicz!

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South High School’s December Teacher of the Month is Tina Donnelly.  Mrs. Donnelly has been teaching for 17 years, all of them at South High.  Mrs. Donnelly has always loved working with kids, including teaching dance to younger children when she was in high school, which led her to teaching as a career.  She loves the relationships that she gets to build with her students, and the amazing faculty and staff she gets to work with every day.  Mrs. Donnelly says that teaching is a wonderful career because you get to help students accomplish their current goals now to enable further success with their future plans.  Congratulations, Mrs. Donnelly!

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South High School’s November Teacher of the Month is Calla Raasch.  Mrs. Raasch has been teaching Spanish for a total of 11 years, and this is her first year at Salina South.  Mrs. Raasch’s love for teaching and the Spanish language was inspired by her high school Spanish teacher.  Her experiences studying abroad and traveling to Spain, Mexico, and Costa Rica continued to foster her love of different cultures.  She is enjoying getting to know the community of students and faculty of South High, and the greater culture of Salina.  Mrs. Raasch loves teaching students to be open to other languages and cultures, showing them the importance of seeing other viewpoints in today’s society.  She would like to say “Thank You” to all those who have welcomed her family to the Salina community and helped them to see that they have found their forever home.  Congratulations, Mrs. Raasch!