Kathy Stringham

Throughout Kathy Stringham’s life, she has never been afraid to take chances. She has portrayed this in her teaching when she removed all desks from her classroom for the first half of the year. Not knowing what the outcome would be but well aware that many would find it strange, Stringham emptied her classroom leaving nothing but chairs behind.

After going to a workshop about a year ago, Stringham learned about this no desk experament and decided to try it. For the beginning half of the year, no students had desks to work on. When there was a small writing assignment, her students would just write on a small piece of paper on their lap. If it was a bigger assignment, Stringham would take her students to the library or a different classroom to work.Stringham is always looking for new and innovative ways to challenge herself not only in her teaching techniques, but in her everyday life.

“With Spanish, I really liked it because you could get the kids up and moving,” Stringham said, “and I could easily move things around.”

Stringham went into this experiment not knowing what the results would consist of. After receiving each student’s feedback from the experiment, Stringham decided that desks for each student would work as a better learning environment due to the lack of space in Highland. Stringham explained that because the building is so full, there was rarely a second classroom option for her to take her students to when they had a large assignment. Overall, the experiment was a good experience for Stringham and her students, but the lack of positive feedback resulted in bringing the desks back to her classroom.

“I’ve had my fingers in lots of pots.” Stringham said.

Along with classes at Highland, Stringham volunteers every Thursday night teaching English at the Guadalupe School, adding to her number of courses she has taught.

Stringham is not only daring in school, but out of school as well. Raising bees has been a hobby for Stringham for many seasons now and with a lack of success, Stringham continues to try.

“We’ve tried having bees for a couple of seasons and I’m thinking about doing it again this year.” Stringham said. “One year we got some honey out of it, but the other couple years, by spring, we’ve showed up and the bees didn’t do well or it was too hot.”

While Stringham continues to fearlessly try new things, she has had one activity that has stayed consistent sense she was very young. Every Tuesday night, you can find Stringham bowling with her regular league. Unlike beekeeping, Stringham has had much success with bowling with her highest score at 247.

“My grandfather taught me how to bowl when I was little,” Stringham said, “and when I went to college, I was on the bowling league. we traveled everywhere, from provo to portland to phoenix. Everything my grandpa taught me was wrong so I had to relearn everything that he taught me.”

Even the sport Stringham was most comfortable in had many challenges that she willingly accepted. By continuing to keep bees and trying new things no matter what the consequence will be, Stringham never fails to show her fearless attitude.