ToY Finalist Abby DuBord

New Opportunities

Teacher of the Year finalist DuBord is excited to get to know new faces at a new school.

By Kelly Hagen, kelly.hagen@ndunited.org

“Relationships are at the heart of education, and I believe that relationships are deeply impacted by the culture in which they formed,” said Abby DuBord, a first-grade teacher at Elk Ridge Elementary School in Bismarck and a finalist for 2023 North Dakota Teacher of the Year. “In a professional education setting, this means that the culture within our school and classrooms will inevitably impact the relationships that are created within.”

DuBord learned this lesson upclose and personal at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, as she moved from teaching first grade at Centennial Elementary, also in Bismarck, over to Elk Ridge, which is one of two brand new elementary schools that opened this fall. Teachers know that the key to success in reaching students where they are and cultivating their passion for learning is to build a relationship with each of them. You need to learn who they are, where they come from, what sparks joy for them and what challenges they face. It can be a challenge to build these new relationships with students each year, but for DuBord and her colleagues at Elk Ridge, they are also building trust relationships with each other.

With these challenges come new opportunities, too. DuBord saw this new chapter in her career as an opportunity to build something new and beautiful for everyone. “A little bit of like what that looks like now at Elk Ridge,” DuBord said. “It’s been really fun having kind of a melting pot of teachers. But what you notice – at least I’ve noticed – is we are so strong because, I think, we came into this with a common goal, and it was to open a new school and to be our best selves for students.”

As a first-grade teacher, DuBord gets to start the process of growing a love for learning very early in every student’s academic journey. That, too, comes with challenges and opportunities.

“I feel like we have a lot of pressure and a really good way to instill a love of education and a love of learning and an excitement of learning in these young students while also trying to problem solve and notice any barriers at a young age of what might be kind of stopping or slowing their learning,” DuBord said.

Despite this being only DuBord’s fourth year in education, she said every day in teaching is still as exciting as it is daunting. “(It’s) a lot of pressure to make sure 22 students are set up for their future success,” she said. “But also really exciting because there’s potential in each and every one of them, and it’s just kind of my job to unlock that potential and see what they need to find that success.”