Branches

Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) team members started to review applications and interview potential Cohort 4 members in December. The application review process is complete and we’re thrilled to announce Cohort 4 has 16 residents! Meet one of our newest Cohort 4 residents.  Kristy Wells accepted last year and deferred to Cohort 4. Wells brings a wide variety of experiences to our newest cohort. Her experience includes work as a special education paraprofessional in Wichita Falls, Texas, as well as serving as a substitute teacher for three years. She has worked with students with autism spectrum disorders to collect data for behavior and IEP goals and assist teachers facilitation of inclusion across different settings. She is a veteran of the Air Force, and her husband recently retired after 21 years of service. Wells was excited to learn about the TRRE program and relocate to the northern area of New Hampshire where her husband was raised. In addition to join...

Abigail Clark - Cohort 3 Resident Abigail Clark has been working in barns and riding horses since she was eight-years old. She never realized that this passion would eventually lead her to her first experience with teaching. During her junior year of college, she discovered the joys of sharing her knowledge with others while working as an instructor for the therapeutic horseback riding program. She described seeing the empowerment and confidence in her clients when they learned how to control a 1,000-pound animal as “one of the best feelings in the world.”   It was during her time as a camp counselor at the local Boys and Girls Club in her hometown of Plymouth Massachusetts that Clark realized she wanted to become a teacher. She had always been passionate about the natural world, animals, and the sciences, and working with the children at the Boys and Girls Club helped her to realize she wanted the opportunity to share this passion with others.  Clark joined the TRRE ...

Tom Schram Whether working as a ranch hand in Wyoming or supervising Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) residents in New Hampshire’s North Country region, beloved University of New Hampshire (UNH) Education Department’s Tom Schram has always had a love for small communities.  Schram recalls many fond memories of spending time on his grandfather’s farm. His grandfather, Hal Case, started life as a farmer and went on to teach agriculture at the University of Illinois, as well as start several agricultural colleges in Asia and Europe. While reflecting on his grandfather, Schram shared, “My fondest memory of him was walking with him through the cornfields and having him pick up a handful of soil and talk about really what it means. He was always an advocate for farmers.” Case’s commitment to farmers and rural communities is something Schram often thinks about during his work with TRRE. Schram’s career in public education started after a number of years working in the ...

Seth Denoncour is a New Hampshire Native who grew up hiking and camping in the North Country. The TRRE program seemed like a natural fit to Denoncour and he entered the program especially excited about participating in a community internship in order to engage fully with the school community. Denoncour is now mid-way through his residency and pursuit of a secondary science teaching certification at White Mountains Regional High School with his mentor Bill Klein.   Helping others has always been a passion of Denoncour’s, but he did not always plan on becoming a teacher. In high school, Denoncour often sacrificed his own study time to assist his classmates in their learning. After high school he toured around the world with the United States Navy for six years, during which time he experienced many new cultures and communities and acted as a mentor to incoming shipmates by managing training programs. Upon leaving the Navy, Seth returned to school with the int...

Bill Klein’s goal (right above) in the classroom is to shape young minds to be truly passionate about science. From an inner-city in New Jersey to Vermont then to rural New Hampshire, Klein is a veteran educator with 24 years of experience teaching high school science in private, public, and parochial schools. This year Klein entered his third year teaching science at the White Mountains Regional High School and truly believes that the strength of the WMRHS community lies in their small size, friendly faculty, and acknowledgement of all students as individuals. As teaching mentor to Seth Denoncour, Klein enjoys engaging in shared planning and reflection on lessons. As Denoncour gained confidence in the classroom this fall, Klein gave his mentee the lead on implementing lessons on genetics with a high honors biology class.  Klein did not always imagine he would end up a science teacher. His passion for environmental education i...

TRRE partner districts are covering social-emotional and trauma informed practice from many different perspectives using a variety of programs. In order to more effectively work with our partner districts, the TRRE management team, faculty and residents are committed to exploring the social-emotional learning (SEL) initiatives happening around New Hampshire. Our goals are to: 1) integrate our understanding of SEL with our partner districts’ needs and priorities in this area to deepen our partnership; and 2) understand SEL initiatives around the state to inform the residents’ experience in their classrooms. Last summer, TRRE residents began to read Lost at School , by Dr. Ross Greene. 1 Greene offers insight into traditional school discipline with alternative strategies (Collaborative and Proactive Solutions) for working with the most behaviorally challenging students. Faculty on the TRRE management team also read selections from Lost at School , and Helping Children Succeed ...

UNH-TRRE provides opportunities for alumni to pursue teaching careers It may not seem like a therapeutic riding instructor, a physics expert, and a manager of family entertainment centers would have a lot in common, but Abigail Clark, Brian O’Connor, and Dan Hornbeck certainly do. As graduate students enrolled in the University of New Hampshire’s Teacher Residency for Rural Education (UNH-TRRE) program, they are all preparing to become teachers in rural New Hampshire schools, while earning their second UNH degree. Clark (’19), O’Connor (’19), and Hornbeck (’93) all received their bachelor’s degrees from UNH, and have elected to pursue their M.Ed.’s through UNH-TRRE. Although they have arrived at a similar place for the 2019-2010 academic year, their journeys to UNH-TRRE, and to teaching, have been unique. Abigail Clark arrived at UNH planning to become a veterinarian. The Plymouth, Mass. native graduated with a degree in biomedical science, but realized during her time as ...

Three words to describe Whitney McCallum’s classroom: “rigorous, engaged, and fun.” McCallum teaches English Language Arts and Social Studies on the sixth-grade team, and has been teaching Grades K-6 for the past 22 years. McCallum’s passion is to inspire her students to engage as critical thinkers who question, wonder, ponder, and doubt, who “look to change the world” with their ideas She enjoys being innovative in the classroom and consistently tries to grow and hone her craft by identifying and implementing new data-supported teaching methodologies or strategies. She is a Laconia local, born and raised surrounded by lakes and mountains. Outside of the classroom, she enjoys spending time on the lake boating or floating, and reading and playing board games on rainy days.  Her family has recently started a small farm in Moultonborough  which also keeps her busy.   Sonya Roberts embodies the idea of being both a student and a teacher. She s...

Dale Maguire describes herself as a “modern-day international nomad,” having spent 20 years of her life living overseas in Europe and Asia, and much of the rest moving from place to place within the United States.  She sees her role as a teacher not only to teach students how to learn successfully but to excite and motivate them to be life-long learners, self-advocates, and proud community and world citizens. Maguire applied to the TRRE program to achieve her longtime goals to become a certified teacher and settle in the Lakes Region to be near family. Her extensive background working with children and curriculum development comes from experience as a counselor, special education teacher and youth program coordinator. With a B.S. in Computer and Information Sciences, Dale’s technical experience includes work as a website designer and administrator, telecommunications IT support, and systems program analyst. Through TRRE, Dale hopes to build strong connection...