Mission Valley Christian Academy welcomes five new teachers
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News from Mission Valley Christian Academy
POLSON — Mission Valley Christian Academy started the 2013-14 school year with four teachers new to their staff. These are their stories.
Sierra Zemke
I will be teaching first and second grade this year at MVCA. I am so excited to see the things God has for us this upcoming school year.
I grew up in Scott City, a small town on the plains of western Kansas. I received a dual-degree in Bible from Manhattan Christian College and Elementary Education from Kansas State University. My husband and I just moved from Kansas to Montana. Some of the things I enjoy doing are being outdoors, writing fiction stories, watching old movies, reading, and spending time with my family.
Denise Dawson
I was born and raised in the Serbian Orthodox tradition receiving a foundation in my faith, a rich cultural heritage and many fond memories. After graduating from college with a bachelor’s degree in English, I began teaching in a K-8 school. I came to know the Lord at a Young Life camp at the age of 27, during my first ten years of teaching. During the summers, I traveled throughout Europe and Israel. I was privileged to work as a volunteer on an Israeli kibbutz in the summer of 1979, prior to joining the staff of Jews for Jesus in San Francisco. It was there that I met my husband, Chris Dawson, and we were married in 1980. We were blessed with six children during the first eight years of our marriage. We chose to home school our children rather than a public school option. They were able to enjoy various field trips and experiences of travel and interaction with other home-schooling families. Besides home school, they also experienced private schooling, charter schools or independent study programs, which were added venues for educational enrichment. In time, I returned to teach in the public schools, and completed courses for a Masters in Special Education. I was a Resource teacher for five years in Brentwood, Calif. Since 2006, I have been a Special Education and Resource teacher in Montana at Ft. Belknap, Dodson and Polson School Districts. Upon my retirement from public education I completed the course of study for an endorsement as a Special Education Director at UM and MSUB. It is my desire to continue to serve the Lord in an educational-support capacity. I look forward to the possibilities that lay ahead at MVCA.
Randy Adcock
My name is Randy Adcock. I am the seventh/eighth grade classroom teacher at Mission Valley Christian Academy. I have been teaching for the past 10 years primarily in public schools as my second career. I am a certified teacher in the states of Montana and Washington. My degree from Montana State University at Billings is in Elementary and Special Education. I am the oldest of seven children in my family and have two sons and two grandsons. My third grandchild will (be born) in about five months, due February 2014. I am very close to my family. We are still committed to spending Thanksgivings together during which all of us guys participate in our annual Adcock Turkey Bowl tackle football game. Prior to teaching, my first career was in the airline business for 20 years from 1983 to 2003. I retired from Alaska Air Group as the Montana Regional Manager within which I was responsible for the seven airports that we served in the state of Montana. I love sports, including basketball, football, baseball, boxing, hunting, fishing, hiking, biking and swimming. My sons, brothers, nephews and I compete annually during the summer in the family divisions of 3 on 3 basketball tournaments around the Northwest. It is my goal to not retire from basketball until I have competed in one of these tournaments as a teammate with my grandsons. But most of all, I am in love with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Kimberly Norman
God has blessed me beyond words in providing this teaching opportunity at MVCA. My presence here comes totally by the grace of God. I’m a California native who spent most of my life on a horse. I can remember doing my schoolwork sitting backwards on my horse, bareback, and using her fanny as my desk. Never then did I ever picture myself as the one responsible for assigning all those homework tasks. Flash forward — life with God’s most precious gift: children. It was not until several life changing experiences later that I realized a desire God had placed in me. The joy of motherhood put me in the middle of the most important job in the world: raising my children according to God’s instructions. Embracing that responsibility sparked a desire to be a major factor in my children’s education. I returned to college, volunteered in schools and in kids’ church, substituted at the elementary level, and home-schooled for several years. And now, I am blessed to be guiding “bucket-filling” for grades three and four at MVCA. Stop by the school for more info. The kids will love to share all the details. Thank you, MVCA, for entrusting me with this honored responsibility.
Theresa Bauer
Theresa has the privilege of teaching English Language Arts in the Upper School at MVCA. She loves reading and looking at literature as it applies to our lives today and hopes to share at least a part of that passion with the students in the class. She expects to challenge students to connect learning to their everyday lives and will design assignments to help students better understand the concepts being explored.
Theresa grew up in Santa Barbara, Calif. with her twelve older siblings. She has wanted to teach since junior high and believes that nothing is more important for this job than making sure that students are not only able to be successful in school, but are also prepared for wherever they are going in life. Theresa received her Bachelor’s Degree and English Language Arts certification from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. She has spent the last three years substitute teaching, including two long-term assignments. She is excited to see where this school year leads and what discoveries will be made as students challenge themselves into finding different ways of looking at literature and life.
