Huff is in her ninth year of teaching, third at the high school. In addition to four hours of algebra, she also teaches two hours of tech, something that has come in real handy this year.

“It’s been a challenging year, but we’ve overcame, together. It takes all of us,” Huff said. “Just getting all the teachers caught up with technology and making sure they had the right resources to help the students whether they’re in person or remote.”

Centralia is using a blended schedule with four days of in person learning, and then everyone is remote on Fridays. Some students are full remote. The remote aspect presents several challenges, particularly for math classes.

“We can share screens back and forth,” Huff said. “We’ve definitely had to get creative for sure, because we need to see what the students are doing on their end too so we can give them feedback. We have a lot of good resources we’ve been able to use. The best resources are the teachers in the hallway that you can share ideas with and try to not reinvent the wheel.”

Huff says while the use of technology has been by necessity this year, it will certainly have a place in years to come.

“Not just to replace what we’re doing–you take something on pencil and paper and throw it on a Chromebook, it’s not really any better,” Huff said. “How can we teach above the line with technology, do things that we haven’t been able to. Some of the things the teachers have just kinda had to figure out on their own. It wasn’t fun going through it, but it’s like ‘hey, that worked really good’. The video lessons, just for absent kids, has been really good.”

Huff says the kids deserve a lot of credit for a successful school year despite all the challenges.

“They’ve been amazing–just keeping up with the masks and all the protocols,” Huff said. “You saw them wear clear backpacks. They have to take everything with them because we don’t have lockers. They don’t get lunch with their friends. They’ve had to give up a lot of their sports. They’ve really just kinda had the positive attitudes the whole way. Pretty resilient to say the least. Being able to make it through school year 2021, I think they can overcome anything. I’m really proud of all my students.”

In her nomination, Tiearra Nadolski said “Mrs. Huff does a lot for her students and helps them as much as she can. She is super nice and understanding. If she had to, she would re-teach a lesson for 1 student 1,000 times just to make sure they understood it.”

If you would like to see others we have honored as Most Valuable Teachers, just go here.