Pratt and Skyline welcome new teachers

More than a dozen teachers will call Pratt or Pratt County home as they begin a new academic year in a new school. Most are veteran educators.
Chris Lyman, a freshman English and debate teacher at Pratt High is a neophyte. He will encourage his students to share their opinions about literature and learn new points of view. Students shouldn’t bother bringing an apple to the teacher; he says (with a wink) that he loves fresh baked goods but is a bad cook. In his spare time he enjoys reading, board games, car maintenance and knitting.
Tate Thompson brings 12 ½ years of teaching experience to the Pratt High English department. He is also the assistant tennis and head wrestling coach.
David and Molly Swank and their three children are new to the Pratt community. He will teach eighth grade math at Liberty Middle School and coach varsity boys basketball at Pratt High and she will teach sixth grade social studies and coach middle school volleyball. Both say they like to incorporate a lot of technology into their teaching to keep students engaged and make learning fun.
Julie Scheef brings seven years of experience to her new position as seventh grade math and seventh and eighth grade extended science teacher and assistant coach for volleyball and girls’ basketball. An athlete and sports fan, she looks forward to becoming an active member of the Pratt community.
Steve Strecker hardly needs an introduction. The former owner of the Pratt McDonald’s, he is also a former teacher and coach at Liberty Middle School. He will teach science and coach football and track in 2009-10.
Justin White rounds out the science department at LMS.
Megan Ricke transfers from LMS to Southwest Elementary as a paraprofessional in the gifted and the Title 1 programs. Roxanna Staats moves from Southwest to Liberty as a reading teacher.
New special education staff members include Esther Jewell and Diana Flygare at Haskins Elementary School and Jenna Polok at Southwest.
Tonie Graber moves from the USD 382 Bridges to Learning special needs preschool to a kindergarten class at Skyline School. Establishing a good system of classroom management and building a relationship with each student are keys to success, she believes. She enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading and sharing recipes. She has run three marathons. She is married to Mark and is the mother of an eight-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.
Jenny Plantz and Lori Anschutz are new resource teachers at Skyline, employed by the South Central Kansas Special Education Cooperative. Anschutz will also serve as assistant girls basketball coach for the middle school.
Jessica Tibbetts is excited to be back in Pratt. After teaching for four years in Manhattan, she will work at Skyline as an English as Second Language tutor and assistant high school girls basketball coach.