Kelly Sassi CHAMPIONS EDUCATION in North Dakota

Ah, yes, the students’ body language says. They live in the Red River Valley; they know wind—the blow-you-over kind when you’re out in the open and the swirling gusts in sheltered areas.

Soon the bell rings and the students shuffle off to their next classes. Kutz-Samek exhales and flaps her arms. “I think I need more deodorant,” she says. It’s been a strenuous 50 minutes.

It’s after lunch at Cheney Middle School in West Fargo. A mob of kids flows through the hallways and upstairs like a river.

Kerstyn Kutz-Samek and Camille Forlano prepare for class in a seventh grade classroom. They are English education students at North Dakota State University, and they are teaching a lesson called “Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod” as a field experience for their Methods of Teaching Literature class.

Kutz-Samek is nervous. It’s her turn to lead a room full of expectant seventh graders through the lesson, just as she will for student teaching and later in her own classroom. And there’s added pressure of visitors in the room — a photographer and reporter — but most importantly instructor Kelly Sassi, who will evaluate her performance. Forlano, her “fire-up buddy,” is there to support her.

Beginning teachers need practice to become high-performing teachers. This is a challenging field and Sassi gets them in front of students early and often, and she joins them in the classroom, modeling effective techniques, giving cues and providing immediate feedback. “They later say this is one of the most useful experiences on their journey of becoming a teacher,” she says.

Kutz-Samek launches into the lesson with energy, keeping things moving. She clearly spent a great deal of time preparing. She shows a video that will help students make predictions about what they read. She fires off one question after another. She reads and asks students to read selected passages out loud. The students sit up straight. Some participate more actively than others, but everyone is paying attention.

Sassi stands to the side, following along and jumping in from time to time. “Any canoeists in here?” she asks. “What does eddying mean?”

Kutz-Samek pulls up a screen to reveal the vocabulary word and its definition on a whiteboard: to move in a circular motion.

“Like the wind in front of your school,” Sassi says.

Preparing

TEACHER-LEADERS

Sassi is preparing her students to be what she calls teacher-leaders — professionals who advocate for their students, who study and share effective practices with their colleagues and who work to bring positive change when it is needed.

Her work extends beyond current college students. The teacher-leader philosophy is at the heart of the prestigious National Writing Project, which has a site at NDSU that serves eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. Called the Red River Valley Writing Project, it started at the University of North Dakota in 1999. The site moved to Fargo three years ago when Sassi became director.

Through the local site, practicing K–college level teachers have access to cutting-edge professional development, such as the summer institute that brings teachers to campus for three weeks of intensive training, and the College, Career, and Community Writers Program designed to improve source-based argument writing for students in grades 7–12.

Being part of the national network also gives North Dakota teachers an opportunity to share their expertise with a national audience. Teachers from other parts of the country benefit from North Dakota teachers’ insights on working with American Indian students and veterans. NDSU graduate student Tony Albright, a veteran himself, presented on leading a writing workshop for veterans called “Warrior Words.”

giving North Dakota STUDENTS ACCESS to NATIONAL AWARDS

Another site project was establishing a North Dakota chapter for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards to give the state’s students in grades 7–12 access to recognition and scholarships. Recipients of these awards often become leaders in their fields — think Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Zac Posen and Lena Dunham.

For the 2016–2017 academic year, North Dakota students submitted 400 works — double from the previous year — and 83 received regional awards. Four students won awards at the national level.

Sassi has encouraged North Dakota’s American Indian students to participate in the scholastic competition by holding workshops in their communities where they work with Native writers and artists. The last two summers, for example, she organized weeklong workshops in Belcourt, North Dakota, for students who attend Turtle Mountain Community Schools. The students tried a variety of genres — poetry, fiction, memoir, oral narratives, printmaking, photography, slam poetry and birchbark scroll writing.

“I think that is one of the best things I’ve done,” she says. “The students excelled.”

A Calling

Sassi has been an educator for a long time, first as a high school teacher in Alaska where she grew up and then as a college professor at NDSU.

She is also a researcher and writer, who has published three books on education and numerous research articles in peer-reviewed journals. To date, she has brought in more than $200,000 in grants to support regional teachers and North Dakota students.

She puts her heart and soul into preparing young teachers and supporting teachers who are already in the field. She is committed to ensuring North Dakota students now and in the future have access to an outstanding education. This is her calling.