Tami Ward of Creston has reached a high point in her career.

The Creston School fifth- and sixth-grade teacher has been an educator for 12 years and is one of 10 educators around the country selected to advance the profession as part of the Heinemann Fellows program.

Heinemann is a publishing company that produces professional materials for teachers.

According to Heinemann’s website, membership in the fellows program is not a reward for past accomplishments, but rather an investment in an educator’s originality, insight and potential impact on the teaching profession.

Although Ward, 46, fits that description, she said there was some self-doubt mixed with confidence.

“I thought there was no way out of all the teachers in the United States that I would be selected,” Ward said. “It did say they were looking for a wide variety of teachers and I feel rural education similar to Creston is not represented well in publications, so I wanted to get the word out there are wonderful things happening in small schools.”

After spending her spring break at school filling out the application, the acceptance call in May was a delightful surprise.

“I could not believe it,” she said.

When she received an invitation to attend the International Reading Association conference in New Orleans, at which the top educators for the fellows program were announced, she was thrilled.

“All these people [whose research] I had been reading for years were all in this room, so it was so overwhelming,” Ward said about attending an author’s reception.

As part of her two-year fellowship, Ward is conducting research. She also will meet with lead researchers and writers in New Hampshire and Colorado.

Her research focus is whether multidisciplinary teaching in a set block of time will influence students’ vocabulary in writing and speaking.

“I teach a multidisciplinary block where I include science and social studies in a three-hour literacy block,” she said. “I have three hours where kids are reading and writing through the lens of science and social studies. I’m hoping to show that science and social studies, while taught within the literacy block, will help students with their reading, writing and comprehension and I’m hoping to show how that can be done in a rural setting like Creston.”

Bringing attention to rural schools is a goal for her contribution to education as a Heinemann Fellow.

“Fifty-seven percent of schools are located in rural areas. We’re quietly getting our job done and we’re tossed into everyone else’s data,” Ward said.

Ward believes in staying current on educational research and implementing new ideas in the classroom.

“Every night I try to read at least 15 to 20 minutes of research,” she said.

Creston Principal Judi Hewitt and the school board have been integral in supporting progressive research-based strategies in the classroom, she added. One of those examples is a workshop model where students don’t sit in individual desks, but at communal tables.

“Kids are doing most of the learning and talking,” she explained. “It’s something we’ve been doing for a couple of years. A lot of research says the person doing the talking or the reading is the person doing the learning. It’s kind of shifting it to where we are supporting the learners instead of just sprinkling out a lesson and hoping it hits someone.”

Investing the time to keep lesson plans updated and fresh is something children need, Ward stressed.

“I feel like kids deserve an education that’s made for them today, not an education from the file four years ago,” she said.

Ward was one of five children raised by a mother who taught middle school English in Bigfork and a father who completed his career teaching at Flathead Valley Community College.

A couple of her sisters became teachers, but Ward wanted some time to figure out what she wanted to do after graduating from Bigfork High School in 1986. At 21, she married her high school sweetheart, Rob, and had two children.

“When I had my own kids, I realized as I was going to help in their classrooms when we lived in Butte that it was something I loved and I’d like to do full time,” Ward said.

Tailoring instruction to students’ individual needs is something Ward champions because she saw her children become very different learners, yet received the same style of instruction.

“It struck me that these two kids really don’t benefit from the same type of instruction. I really was interested in differentiating that instruction so that every kid could get what they needed,” she said.

Currently, Ward is completing an administration certification through the University of Montana and will become Creston’s principal following Hewitt’s retirement at the end of this school year.

While teaching standards and trends come and go, Ward said the focus remains on creating lifelong learners, readers and writers.

“I want kids to leave Creston knowing they can do anything they put their minds to,” she said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.