GREAT FALLS — Linda Rost, a teacher at Baker High School, was recently named as the Montana Teacher of the Year for 2020.
State Superintendent Elsie Arntzen joined Baker High School students, teachers, and administrators last week to congratulate Rost on the honor.
Rost, who teaches science at the high school, will now go on to represent Montana in the 2020 National Teacher of the Year competition, according to a press release from Arntzen's office.
Rost was also a finalist in last year's Montana Teacher of the Year event.
From her bio page on the Baker schools website: "She completed an M.Ed. in Instruction & Curriculum in 2010 from Montana State University - Bozeman and also completed a M.S.in Science Education from Montana State University - Bozeman in 2018. For her thesis work, she investigated phage therapy, an alternative to antibiotics, for the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, and the mechanism of iron-doped apatite nanoparticles in increasing phage infections."
Baker High School principal Dave Breitbach said, “In a small school setting, using instructional strategies that engage all students in a diversified classroom is just one challenge Mrs. Rost must overcome on a daily basis. At Baker High School, classroom diversity may begin with the mixing of age groups and then is further complicated by a wide range of comprehension levels, science backgrounds, and varied areas of interest. Regardless of the student make-up in her classes, Mrs. Rost finds ways to connect to each and every student, who ultimately leave her classroom better than when they entered.”
An initial selection committee met to review applications in August and recommend finalists who were interviewed by a separate committee.
Other finalists included Jordan Lankford-Forster from Great Falls, Traci Doll from Billings, and Connie Wittak from Scobey.
The selection committees consisted of representatives from the Montana Advisory Council on Indian Education, the Montana University System, the Board of Public Education, the Governor’s Office, the Montana Small Schools Alliance, the Montana Chamber of Commerce, the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, the Montana Legislature, the East Helena School Board, and 2019 Montana Teacher of the Year Dylan Huisken.
