CARRIE GUTIERREZ, fourth grade teacher at Woonsocket Elementary, received a $1,000 scholarship last week from SD Retired School Personnel scholarship chairman Bill Zubke.

A call from your boss requesting that you attend a meeting usually causes some anxiety as you ask yourself what infraction you may have committed. But for Woonsocket Elementary fourth grade teacher Carrie Gutierrez, a surprise awaited her at an assembly on Thursday, April 28, as she was awarded a $1,000 scholarship from the South Dakota Retired School Personnel organization by Bill Zubke, state scholarship chairman.
Kindergarten through 12th grade teachers, who have at least five years of experience and are working toward an advanced degree or national certification, qualify for the scholarship. They must submit a 500-word essay explaining how acquiring this additional degree would help them grow as a teacher and also solicit a 200-word essay from a colleague, which Rosemarie Delvaux did for Ms. Gutierrez. Two teachers are presented the award each year.
Gutierrez, who has taught at Woonsocket for three years and will receive her master’s degree in teaching and learning from Northern State University in May, will put the scholarship toward getting another master’s in May 2017 in Educational Administration.  She received her undergraduate degree from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion before teaching at Bon Homme, Texas, New Mexico and now Woonsocket.
Gutierrez feels that even after 25 years in the classroom, she is still learning and has changed her teaching style to be more of a facilitator of student learning, using inquiry-based methods to get her students to use higher-level thinking skills.