By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Michele Brungardt wants to help her students find their place in the world.
Middle school academics are important, but this time is also crucial to students’ social and emotional growth.
Luckily, in a school the size of Hays Middle School, there are lots of niches. There are lots of groups in which to find a home.
“A lot of people say big schools aren’t good, but I think every kid who comes here finds their group,” she said. “I think that eliminates a lot of bullying. I am not saying it is not out there. It takes awhile, but I think everyone who comes here finds their group that is their support group, whether it be adults or other kids. I think that alleviates the bullying that takes place in smaller schools.”
Brungardt is finishing her 26th year as a teacher. She grew up in Victoria, and received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fort Hays State University. She currently teaches seventh-grade social studies at HMS, and she is the Hays Post Teacher of the Month.
All but one of her 26 years of service has been in Hays. She started at Jefferson Elementary, and when that school closed, she moved to HMS.
One of the places kids find their place is intramurals. Brungardt oversees the teacher assistants for that program.She has photos of the intramural teams proudly displayed on the wall in her classroom. She said she thought athletics and music help youth grow into well-rounded people.
Cade Scott, fellow HMS social science teacher nominated Brungardt for the award. He said in his nomination, “Michele is an excellent teacher at seventh-grade social studies. … She represents our Home and School program. She does extracurricular things like keep book and clock for basketball games. I have only been teaching at HMS for two years, but Michele has helped me out numerous times with basically anything I need. She takes the time to care about teachers and students. HMS is a better place and a great school because of Michele Brungardt.”
Brungardt knew she wanted to be a teacher from the time she was a little girl. Her father was teacher and school counselor.
“My family was always around education, and that is always something from little on up that I wanted to be,” she said.
Brungardt’s favorite part of being a teacher is the kids.
“I do what I do for them,” she said.
Brungardt coordinates the citizenship program for the seventh graders. This includes a states and abbreviations test, service hours and a written citizenship test.
“At the middle school level we try to teach the kids academically with life-long skills, but the kids at middle school need so much social and emotional direction. You sprinkle in the academics,” she said, “but their needs are not purely academic at the ages of 11 through 14.”
You have to listen to kids and make them comfortable in the classroom so if they need something they can come to you, she said. The children’s needs are always changing, so Brungardt said she tries to change her teaching methods to meet those needs.
Brungardt said as her students move on to high school and beyond she hopes those skills she has taught them both social and academic will stick with them.
She said she hoped she could impart, “those life-long skills whether they be academic or social that they have heard me say and repeat. When they get to make choices in high school, [I hope] there is that little voice in the back of their head saying, ‘Oh. Mrs. Brungardt would have said this.'”