Brian Hutton and a fellow teacher at Ottawa Middle School wanted to come up with a creative way to get their 7th graders to read. What they decided on was a friendly competition in which each student was rewarded for every 100 pages they read. “They would receive a paper snowball to build a snowman on our doors,” Hutton ’11 said. “There was a competition between all five classes to see which group could read the most in a month’s time.” The result of the competition was more than

Teacher of the Year Marcel Kadera-Redmond believes that physical education is about creating experiences for his students. “Every day in class, my students and I participate in activities that help us learn about our bodies and how to live healthy and active lives, while also experiencing life lessons,” he said. A 2006 graduate of the Ottawa campus, Kadera-Redmond was recently named the 2010-2011 Elementary Teacher of the Year in the Spring Hill, Kansas, school district. He was also th

It took a few years, but Dr. Paula Wolfe, the new director of education at Ottawa University-Arizona, has finally found the right job that is a great fit. More interested in the administrative side of her field, she was looking for a university “where running the program is my job,” she said. Increasingly uncomfortable in her last position, she realized that she wasn’t motivated by the competitive atmosphere in traditional academia. “You work and publish on your own and people critici

Not all schools are created equal. The size, location, demographics, and budget of a school make each one a unique experience. Unfortunately for some education majors, they don’t discover which environment is ideal for their skill set and passions until they’re in the thick of teaching. Ottawa University has a solution to this common and frustrating problem. For more than five years, Program Assistant Denise Cook has offered a course in real life to OU-Kansas City students who are on their w