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Nemechek: Middle-school age students begin forming their own identity
Published 11/16/2009 in Local News
Editor's note: This is the fifth story in a six-part series on teachers selected for the Crystal Apple award, which honors outstanding educators in Finney County. Today's story features Julie Nemechek of Holcomb Middle School.
By MONICA SPRINGER
mspringer@gctelegram.com
Click to Purchase Photo Reprints! Brad Nading/Telegram Julie Nemechek works on angles and triangle shapes Friday with sixth graders in a math class at Holcomb Middle School. Nemechek is one of the instructors nominated for a Crystal Apple Teacher award.
HOLCOMB -- Sitting on the desks in Julie Nemechek's classroom are bags of narrow pieces of plastic that vary in length.
The pieces are called Anglegs, and Nemechek uses them to teach triangles to middle school students at Holcomb Middle School.
The students can put the pieces together and determine what kind of triangle each is: an isosceles, or an obtuse.
The hands-on experience helps the kids, Nemechek said.
Nemechek is one of six finalists for the Crystal Apple Award, which annually goes to some of the top educators in Finney County. The CARE Task Force of the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce, which is made up of representatives from the business community, recently announced the finalists.
Nemechek has taught for 19 years, and for the past nine years she's been teaching in Holcomb. She previously taught fourth and fifth grades in Deerfield.
Nemechek has bachelor's and master's degrees from Fort Hays State University. She graduated from Holcomb High School and is a lifetime resident. Nemechek teachers four math classes and two computer classes.
Nemechek keeps pictures throughout the year, and at the end of the year she puts the pictures in a slide show and shows the students. She said she likes comparing students from when they enter the school in sixth grade to when they exit the school in eighth grade.
"They're starting to grow up and find themselves," Nemechek said. She said she likes that students at the middle school age develop a sense of humor.
Nemechek said she originally wanted to go into pharmacy or physical therapy. After she received her associate's degree at Garden City Community College, she started substitute teaching in Garden City USD 457.
Then she decided to be a teacher.
Nemechek and her husband, Curt, have two kids, Courtney, 12, in seventh grade at Holcomb Middle School, and Christopher, 9, in fourth grade at Holcomb Elementary School.
Nemechek said in her computer classes, she not only teaches but oftentimes learns from her students.
"I learn something new every day. It's amazing what I learn from them," she said. "I really enjoy the kids. They make it all worthwhile."
Other finalists for the Crystal Apple Award are: Jamie Terry, Victor Ornelas Elementary School; Roger Syng, Charles O. Stones Intermediate Center; Leslie Wagner, Charles O. Stones Intermediate Center; Mark Calvin, Garden City High School, and Rico Perez, Abe Hubert Middle School.
The top three finalists will be named as the 2009 Crystal Apple Teachers of Finney County at a banquet Wednesday and will receive an engraved crystal apple and a $1,000 cash award.
The other three finalists will receive a cash award of $250.
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