CES kindergarten instructor named Master Teacher

A Chanute Elementary School kindergarten teacher has been named one of the 2023 Kansas Master Teachers of the Year.

Kindergarten teacher Maggie Wolken will visit the state capitol March 14 to be recognized on the floor and will receive the award at a dinner April 5 at Emporia State University.

“It was a complete surprise,” Wolken said. “I don’t come to work expecting a nomination.”

The recipients are nominated by their superintendents and must have taught for five years in their field. Chanute Superintendent Kellen Adams told Wolken in October  that  she  was nominated, and she prepared a portfolio for submission. 

 But she put the subject in the back of her mind until her award was announced.

Wolken was giving a presentation to other kindergarten teachers as part of a development day when her principal told her she had won. 

“They were just as excited as I am,” Wolken said.

She has taught kindergarten for 16 years after one year of teaching fourth grade at Humboldt Elementary and one year teaching third grade there.

Wolken said she student-taught fourth grade and was happy teaching fourth and third.

“I knew I’d be happy in kindergarten, also,” she said. “I knew that’s where my heart was.”

She graduated from high school in Chanute and received an associate degree from Neosho County Community College. She received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a minor in early childhood from Pittsburg State University in 2004, and a master’s from Emporia State in 2015. 

She is currently working on a Leadership Endorsement in administration from Fort Hays State University. She expects to finish in July.

Although she would love to be in an early childhood setting, she said Chanute is home.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Wolken said. 

One of her memorable moments in teaching kindergarten was before the COVID-19 pandemic when the school teamed with Ash Grove Cement to get Christmas trees for the classrooms.

“That just created a lot of memories,” Wolken said, adding that she had never had a real tree before and needed to learn how to care for it.

“As the kids had to learn, I had to learn,” she said.

Another time was about 10 years ago when a student saw a kitten on the way to school and fell in love with it. The student put the kitten in a backpack and the backpack into a locker. Teachers hunted all over for the source of the meowing.

“He was just determined to take that cat home,” Wolken said.

The other award recipients represent Dodge City, Hays, Emporia and Blue Valley high schools, Fort Riley Middle School and North Fairview Elementary School in Seaman.

The selection committee is made up of the president and a representative of the Kansas-National Education Association, Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education, the Kansas State Board of Education, Kansas Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Kansas Association of School Boards, the Kansas Congress of Parents and Teachers, United School Administrators, and two Master Teachers from the previous year.