New teacher comes from long line of educators

Haley Hixson began her first year of teaching this fall at Chase County Schools, bringing with her some fresh ideas to share with her students.
Hixson is originally from Holdrege and joined CCS as a first grade teacher and junior high volleyball head coach.
She received a Bachelor’s degree in early childhood development and elementary education from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln this spring.
She also has  current certification in first aid and CPR that she maintains, she said.
“I come from a multi-generational family of teachers—parents, grandparents, aunts, etc. I watched their impact on children’s lives, and I wanted to do the same,” Hixson said.
She said she loves spending time with younger children and enjoys their enthusiasm to learn.
Her goal is to help her students gain a deeper understanding of the different areas of learning and to know the why and how of each subject, she said.
“When we reach the end of the school year, I want them to step up and have that ‘aha’ moment when it all makes sense,” said Hixson.
A somewhat unique training experience that Hixson is planning on sharing in her classroom is the study of animals and the science of their habitats.
“I took a training course called ‘Project Wild’ where representatives of Game and Parks instructed us on how to teach about animals and their habitats to students. I want to incorporate this into the classroom,” she said.
Hixson said she likes that CCS has a younger teaching community because it makes it easy to make friends.
“I have actually become best friends with one of the other teachers here,” she said.
Other areas of interest for Hixson when not teaching are photography, watching and playing sports when she can and spending time with family and friends.