By Megan Wehring 

DRIPPING SPRINGS — In the face of strenuous challenges and a rewritten syllabus caused by the pandemic, two Dripping Springs teachers were honored for their tenacity. 

Kristen Northrup, second grade teacher at Rooster Springs Elementary, was named Elementary Teacher of the Year and Micki Whitacre, statistics and algebra teacher at Dripping Springs High School, was named Secondary Teacher of the Year. Both individuals will represent Dripping Springs ISD (DSISD) in the 2021 Teacher of the Year Program.

Pandemic teaching came as a surprise to many. Instructors and district administrators were forced to shift in unprecedented ways – from changing from a school presence to virtual learning, adapting to new technology platforms and learning to pivot in new environments quickly. 

In her 21 years of teaching, Northrup said this has been the most challenging school year she has ever taught. 

“I had to figure out ways to reach every student,” Northrup said, “fill in gaps from the end of the previous school year, teach in-person and remote students at the same time and have small group instruction, even with remote and in-person social distancing.  It truly was a juggling act and a constant paradigm shift throughout the year.”

Teachers have had to develop new ways to make school special, Northrup added, while also keeping the students engaged even when teaching during quarantine. 

Whitacre agreed that there have been obstacles, but teachers have also learned some lessons along the way.

“I think the pandemic has forced teachers to rethink education as we know it for the better,” Whitacre said. “Many of the strategies we used to make this year successful, a ‘less is more’ content approach and building in time for intervention during class, will last beyond the pandemic.”

Whitacre graduated from Texas Christian University amid the Great Recession in 2009, when she discovered that job prospects were slim. She then enrolled in a teacher certification program when her local pastor’s wife encouraged her to apply as a math teacher, a subject she has always enjoyed, at Overton Independent School District.

“I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into that first year but I fell in love with teaching,” Whitacre said. “I love working with high school students. I enjoy that ‘ah-ha’ moment when something clicks. Now that I have been teaching for some time, I can say that my favorite part is staying connected to students and watching their lives unfold as they start their careers and their own families.”

Northrup is in her 14th year at DSISD and has taught first, second and third grades at Rooster Springs Elementary. She almost always knew that she would become a teacher after watching her dad evolve into a versatile music educator.

“He made it look so great and I always felt like the students he taught were a part of the family,” Northrup told the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch. “He would bring home used textbooks and primers for me and I would ‘teach’ and ‘play school’ downstairs in our basement.”

Watching former students grow up and accomplish great successes is her favorite part of the job, Northrup explained. She likes to say that she played a small part in making that happen. 

Other Campus Teachers of the Year for DSISD were Laurie Burton (Dripping Springs Middle School, English Language Arts/English as a Second Language), Raquel Flores (Dripping Springs Elementary, bilingual first grade), Jennifer Franco (Walnut Springs Elementary, pre-K), Tori Pattison (Sycamore Springs Elementary, first grade) and Rebecca Smart (Sycamore Springs Middle School, eighth-grade Social Studies).