Teacher Feature: Kari Newman

As a kid, Mrs. Newman had a desire to be a veterinarian when she grew up. Unfortunately, she found out that she was “too allergic to animals to make that work”. Mrs. Newman then turned to the great outdoors!

Since Mrs. Newman was in a military family, she switched schools a lot. “I went to 4 different schools during middle school, and 2 different high schools,” she told me. Because of her childhood, she now enjoys traveling and road trips. Mrs. Newman explained that it was difficult to fit into to schools where students had known each other for a while. She had to face bullying, but from that, she learned the importance of inclusivity.

Mrs. Newman majored in chemistry at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky and also worked as an environmental educator in summer camps. For graduate school, she attended Florida State University and obtained a MS degree in Chemical Oceanography. Her research was based on environmental chemistry and she spent time collecting methane samples, analyzing them for isotope signatures, then comparing them to coal mine methane.

As Mrs. Newman explained herself, “when my advisor asked me to work with some high school students one summer, I figured out that I really liked, and was good at, teaching.” She started to teach chemistry and spiced up curriculum with her environmental knowledge. Mrs. Newman would work in private schools because they didn’t require a teaching degree. She went back to North Carolina State University to get a MEd in Science Education. In 2015, Mrs. Newman was honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching!

While she was teaching in Durham, North Carolina, Mrs. Newman met Mrs. Harms. When Mrs. Harms started working at BT (for more about Mrs. Harm’s story, read her teacher feature), she requested for Mrs. Newman to join. Since Mrs. Newman’s family “needed a change”, they moved, but she expressed that “challenging doesn’t even begin to describe the move.”

Mrs. Newman plans to continue teaching and join teacher organizations in the years to come. She currently is part of the National Science Teacher’s Association Safety Board and the Omaha Science Olympiad committee. “I’ve discovered that the key to teaching is to enjoy the learning process,” Mrs. Newman explained.

“Don’t be afraid of change,” she advised, “in fact, sometimes you need to seek out new opportunities to figure out what you are really passionate about.” Mrs. Newman then added, “always look for the next adventure!”