Heather Garst: 4th grade teacher at Rock Hills Elementary School

Heather Garst, fourth grade teacher at Rock Hills Elementary School, is in her second year of teaching. She is originally from Cameron, Missouri, but has lived in Jewell County for 16 years. Before moving to her husband's home town, the Garsts lived in Kansas City, but found it unappealing with having young children. They wanted a smaller community, so to Jewell County they came.

Garst met her husband on a blind date. He had been working in Chilicothe, Missouri, doing paintless dent repair on hail damaged vehicles when one of his friends met one of hers. The rest you can say, is history. They have been married for 16 years and have three children.

In her free time, Garst enjoys sewing, baking, shopping, decorating and researching teaching. Her favorite part of living in Jewell County is the small town communities. "You always have someone you can rely on when you need a friend," Garst said.

Before teaching, Garst was a cosmetologist for 16 years. She then did a home daycare, where she became interested in working in a school setting. She worked as a paraprofessional in special education for 9 years. While she was working in Beloit, at what was called the Alternative Learning Center, Garst worked with teacher, Amanda Thiessen. Garst enjoyed everything Thiessen did, and she became inspired to become a teacher. She started her journey into the teaching field attending Fort Hays University.

Garst has a passion for teaching reading, and is involved with a number of things in the school, such as The Behavior Cadre, which consists of administrators, the school psychologist, the school counselor and two other teachers. The Behavior Cadre studies a positive behavior intervention system for our schools. They will be helping students with behaviors become more successful in the school classroom. Garst is also involved with Back-To-School night and VIP night. VIP night is a family engagement night where parents come and are able to interact with students and teachers. This is a good engagement to build relationships with parent and families outside of the classroom.

Advice she has for aspiring teachers is to Do It! "You'll never regret it," Garst said. "It's very rewarding seeing the children progress through the year, and each year it's different, the kids are different every year."