USU Alum Tiffany Ross Wins Teaching Award  

USU alum Tiffany Ross, who graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Teaching Emphasis, recently received the Middle School Teacher of the Year award from the Utah Council of Teachers of English (UCTE) at their annual conference. Presenting the award was English Department Assistant Professor Jessica Rivera-Mueller, who mentored and instructed Tiffany during her USU education. Jessica recently interviewed Tiffany about her experience at USU, her first five years as a middle-school English teacher, and her advice for USU students in the English teaching emphasis.  

When Tiffany considers her USU English education, she notes that USU has a “phenomenal” English teaching program. Her colleagues from other institutions, Tiffany explains, simply did not get the same amount of time and practice in the classroom. She asserts, “The time that you get in the classroom for student teaching, but also before student teaching [at USU] is something that a lot of pre-service teachers […] are not getting […] to the extent that we did.” She challenges current students in the teaching emphasis: “Take advantage of any time that you can be in front of a classroom or build a relationship with kids […] I’m very grateful for Utah State [and] that I was able to experience some of these things before [full-time teaching]. 

Tiffany began teaching 9th grade English full-time in 2020 at Bear River Middle School—the year Covid forced all teachers in the state to online-only teaching—but Tiffany now sees this experience, though difficult at the time, as helpful because she gained confidence, strengthened her adaptability, and began to use the telephone to reach out to parents (which, in her experience, creates better communication than emailing them). 

Now teaching 8th and 9th grade regular English, 9th grade honors, and acting as the student government advisor at North Ogden Junior High, Tiffany finds her job both joyful and positive, even though in some places teaching gets a rather negative view. She states, “If you’re on social media, you’re not hearing positives of education. People ask me, ‘Oh, you teach junior high? Are you going to stick with this?!’” She enjoys responding, “I love my school, my co-workers, and I love teaching. Even though it’s hard sometimes, I love it.” Tiffany credits her students and their parents, who “really care and help their kids with their education,” reflecting that she has many students from Venezuela as ELLs. Also, Tiffany shares, “I have a great group of co-workers; we’re all on the same page, and we have each other’s backs. We work well together and the students pick up on that energy that the faculty [embodies.]”  

As for advice, Tiffany offers: “It’s the little things like giving them high fives as they walk into the room, getting to do hands-on learning. They don’t have high attention spans, and that’s a direct correlation with Covid. Finding ways to engage them in learning in unique ways is fun and challenging. I am a nerd! And I love teaching Romeo and Juliet, which we begin soon. I keep saying, ‘In two weeks we’re starting.’ Their groans of dismay are so funny. I tell them, ‘Hey, talk to the students that were tenth graders last year.’ It’s so fun to see the change in students because they go in with such negative attitudes, and they come out with such positive attitudes. It’s very, very fun.”  

Attending the UTCE conference, Tiffany states is “the BEST. It’s about that time of year where I’m burning out. UTCE helps me figure it out myself and gets me excited about teaching again. My co-workers and I make a day of it. It’s just fantastic, and I highly, highly recommend even pre-service teachers attend.” 

When asked about her teaching philosophy, Tiffany explains: “I want to be a teacher that, when kids leave my room, they may not remember everything I’ve taught, but they remember how they feel. I want kids to know that they can be successful in a subject that a lot of them come in hating. We talk a lot, letting them recognize that reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills apply to every job or any career—like real-life application. I want them to realize that there’s value in what they’re learning, and just learning in general, to show them how what I’m teaching them is applicable, and it’s not just busy work. Honestly, make relationships and be positive. There are positive jobs, positive experiences, positive people. They’re good kids. They ARE, even though people are constantly saying, ‘This current generation!’ I see the positives of this current generation right now—there are some good kids that do great work and are hard workers.” 

In addition to Jessica and Tiffany, Samantha McCartney, a student in Teaching Writing, attended and helped Jessica launch a new state-wide writing competition for secondary students in Utah, and graduate student Marianne Hale presented her master’s thesis research at the conference. 


                              Jessica Rivera-Mueller