Back To Her Roots

First year North Cedar teacher Alex Curley shown here playing in the outfield for North Cedar when she was a student.  Curley is in her first year teaching in the North Cedar school district.  Photo by NC Yearbook Staff.

By: Kaitlyn Thompson

 A woodworking, forging, crocheting, fishing, softball playing math teacher whose name is Alex Curley. She considers herself, “A jack of all trades, master of none”. Alex Curley is a not so new teacher here at North Cedar and is an amazing addition to our group of math teachers, teaching geometry, statistics, and algebra A and B. While this is her first year teaching here it is not her first time here at North Cedar.

 Curley graduated from North Cedar in 2012 and accomplished a lot in her four years. By the end of her high school career Curley was valedictorian, a four sport athlete, won the Silver Cord Volunteer scholarship, was involved in student council and math club, was a gallon blood donor, and received the Governor's Scholarship Award among many other scholarships.

 After graduation she went on to attend Simpson College to play softball and rugby and work towards her degree to become a math teacher. Curley graduated from Simpson College in 2016 with the Breakdown National Player of the Week award and two NSCRO national championship appearances for rugby and graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Arts degree in mathematics and minors in secondary education and coaching. Curley went into the workforce right away after graduation getting a teaching job at South Central Calhoun Middle School in Rockwell City, Iowa for a year before applying for the open math teacher position here back to her roots at North Cedar.

 Curley was never really gone though. Since 2015 Curley has been assistant coaching for the Knights softball team, and will take the head coaching position this season.

 Since Curley has been in school there have been quite a few changes. Curley says the biggest changes she noticed when she came back as a teacher instead of a student are the building and the grading system.

 Curley said, “I miss the Stanwood high school like crazy. It doesn’t even feel like the same school I went to. It’s sad seeing the building gone”. Here at North Cedar we are also switching over to a new grading system: standards based grading. Not only has this system been hard on students it’s been rough on teachers trying to implement the system in classes as well, “I have very limited experience with standards based grading and I'm learning as we go. It's a big transition for me especially not being able to grade homework. In math, the more practice the better”. Standards-based grading is a big transition for all the teachers and students but with teachers helping the students and the students helping the teachers it is gradually getting easier for everyone.

 Usually people can’t wait to get out of high school and their home town and never look back, but not Alex. Curley said, “Coming back to work at North Cedar was something I always hoped to do. I never thought I would be back in only my second year of teaching but I'm glad I am”. Coming back to your home town is one thing, but coming back to work with all the teachers you may or may not have liked is a whole nother thing, “It wasn't a difficult transition for me to go from student to colleague. All of the staff has welcomed me back with open arms”.

 Although Curley is a first year teacher here she already knows what she wants to accomplish at this job she is so passionate about.

 Curley said, “My goal while working here at North Cedar is to change the mindset of students. We have a tendency here to settle for just being ok. I don't want us to just be ok I want us to push harder and get better. We need to increase work ethic and accountability”. Curley is more than ready to be involved here at North Cedar and to help students be the best they can be when they leave high school to enter the real world.