By Wendy Sweeter
Nebraska native Lisa Muhs came to the Lennox School District three years ago and loves teaching fourth grade.
Muhs was named the district’s Teacher of the Year this month, pictured above in her classroom.
Muhs, who grew up on her great-grandparents’ homestead near Pierce, Neb., grew up going to country school before graduating from high school in Pierce. She then went to Westmar University in Le Mars, Iowa, for elementary education with a reading endorsement.
With her mom as a teacher, Muhs grew up around education.
“We always went to school functions,” she said. “We were always around school stuff. I think that my first influence into education was just being around all those kids when she would sponsor movie night or something at school.”
Her first teaching job out of school was on the Texas-Mexico border, where she taught for two years and coached three sports. Then she spent three years in the Dallas area before moving back to Pierce when her aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time.
“My aunt got breast cancer for the second time so I decided I can teach anywhere and I moved back to Nebraska,” she said.
When she moved back to Nebraska, she was looking up job openings while sitting in her mother’s high school classroom when the superintendent walked in and told her she should apply for Pierce’s special education opening. She had experience in special ed while in Texas. She had not planned on getting the position since she could not picture herself living in a small town after having lived in Dallas.
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