For a long time I circumnavigated the challenge of becoming a high school teacher. Now I see that all the pieces were crucial to what I need to know in order to teach.”

Kate’s Story

Kate Rosok considered becoming a teacher while still in high school. When she went to Colorado to attend college, she traded the Minnesota lakes for the mountains and the desert. She led outdoor trips, worked as a camp counselor and taught science and wilderness skills. “Through geology I discovered that I could do science while traveling to beautiful places.”

Upon graduating, Kate worked at a group home for teen girls, where she learned about school politics as a caregiver, and in outdoor education in the mountains of Colorado, where she taught site-specific biology, geology, environmental issues, and wilderness skills. She spent a winter teaching English in Shenyang, China, to elementary and middle school students. She also worked as a concrete geologist before turning to teaching.

Once Kate made her decision, she realized that she had been laying the foundation for years. She earned her teaching certificate from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minn. During this time she worked for the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics, teaching high school students on how to teach geoscience in their communities. In 2009, she presented the results of her teacher research at the National Science Teachers Association’s national conference in New Orleans.