Casper woman named Wyoming history teacher…

CASPER — Paula Volker, a history teacher at Kelly Walsh High School, returns to the classroom this month to introduce her second- and fourth-grade students to history.

This can be a difficult task.

But the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, an organization that promotes the study and preservation of historical documents, just gave her a vote of confidence by naming her Wyoming History Teacher of the Year.

Whether he’s analyzing the Voting Rights Act and connecting it to Casper or reading headlines about Kim Jong Un’s next missile launch, he’s trying to find a way to engage young minds.

“History is so important to understanding what’s happening today. You can’t really understand our country without understanding history,” she said. “I tell kids they won’t always love history, but they will learn incredible critical thinking skills.”

Volker, a teacher in the Natrona County School District since 1994 and originally from Casper, has been at Kelly Walsh High School since 2013, where she teaches U.S. history and government. She believes that using primary sources, such as original documents, are ways to bring the past into the present and make history relevant.

Transfer of voting rights

Her Teacher of the Year honor was given by an anonymous person. After discovering that the New York institute was considering Volker for the state title, she submitted a unit plan that is part of her advanced U.S. government and politics class for third- and fourth-graders. The unit plan focuses on the Voting Rights Act.

“I submitted a unit that I’m doing on voting rights, which takes all kinds of different documents and knowledge from history and political science and applies it to current events,” she said. “(It) also includes a little bit of local history here in Casper, because they want to see how you use a little bit of local history and how you get kids to interact.”

Volker connects the unit to the national competition for high school students, “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution National Finals,” which focuses on the U.S. Constitution. In addition to studying the Voting Rights Act, students delve into the 2013 Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, which eliminated the need for Southern states like Texas and Alabama to obtain “preclearance” from the federal government before making changes to their election laws.

“We looked at the pros and cons of this particular case and we looked at Selma in 1965 and the whole Freedom summer and how people were standing up for the right to vote,” she said. The students also looked at how Casper-born Reverend James Reeb marched in Selma and was killed.

There is a mural dedicated to Reeb in Casper, and part of Volker’s curriculum includes registering to vote and visiting the mural in downtown Casper.

“It’s just a way for kids to really connect with the local,” she said. “They can see the mural and wonder what it is. I also shared with them a document from the Congressional Record where his eulogy was read on the House floor.”

Former student Anna Koehmstedt, who graduated in May, called Volker’s classes on U.S. government and politics “enriching, informative, and inspiring.”

“Ms. Volker has created profound connections between the past, present and future of American politics, drawing on Supreme Court cases, first-hand events and primary documents. Her passion for teaching and depth of knowledge illustrate the importance of exercising civil liberties,” she said. “As I enter this election year, under Ms. Volker’s leadership, I feel engaged and educated to participate thoughtfully in democracy.”

Another 2024 graduate, Eleanor Veauthier, said using original documents helped “enrich” her learning and helped her “connect with the modern world.”

“One of the most valuable experiences I had in the classroom was participating in the We The People competition, where we demonstrated our knowledge of constitutional principles and analyzed current issues.”

Making connections

In addition to his advanced history classes, Volker also teaches a sophomore class called “Contemporary American Studies,” focusing on the history of the United States since World War II.

These classes offer her ample opportunities to use original sources and documents, allowing her to stimulate discussion and interaction with her students.

“It’s a really fun class to teach because you can make so many connections to everything that’s happening today. We study the Korean War, and then we look at North Korea today, or we learn about how the United Nations was founded,” she said. “And then we looked at how the UN responded to Israel last semester, or how NATO was founded after World War II, and now there’s so much talk about NATO and Ukraine.”

She learned that sophomores love talking about concepts like privacy and free speech. So when headlines talk about TikTok being banned, it opens up another avenue for her students to engage.

Volker’s interest in history began at an early age. Growing up in Casper, she said she always felt a “connection to place.” As a little girl, she read historical novels and always loved history.

Volker is interested in the nation’s founding fathers and early documents, as well as the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Although Wyoming history is covered in ninth grade, Volker said she tries to incorporate it into her lessons whenever she can. One example is the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Korematsu v. United States, which allowed the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II at Heart Mountain in Wyoming.

Although her bachelor’s degrees in liberal arts and secondary education and her master’s in education are not in history, she said she took some history courses at the University of Wyoming. She still loves being a history student and plans to take an upcoming course at the Gilder Lehrman Institute on the Cold War, McCarthyism and its impact on Jews.

School “Proud”

Kelly Walsh High School Principal Mike Britt said the school is “extremely proud” of Volker and the recognition she received from the Gilder Lehrman Institute.

“We are grateful for and inspired by outstanding teachers like Paula,” Britt said. “Her passion, professionalism and dedication to being an extraordinary teacher shape not only her lessons but also the futures of her students. Her positive influence extends far beyond the classroom, igniting curiosity, instilling confidence and inspiring a lifelong love of learning.”

The Gilder-Lehrman Institute was founded in 1991 by Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman. Its purpose was to create a repository of the nation’s historical documents and to promote knowledge and understanding of American history.

The nonprofit’s website says it has more than 85,000 documents that are available for free to K-12 teachers and students, and to the general public for an annual fee of $25.

As Wyoming History Teacher of the Year, Volker receives $1,000 and is nominated for a national award, to be chosen by a national panel of historians, past winners, and teaching champions. The national winner will receive $10,000.

Volker said that when she started her career in 1994, the Internet wasn’t accessible to teachers, and bringing original documents and primary sources into the classroom was much more difficult. Now, her curriculum is based on primary material.

“I don’t do anything in my classroom that doesn’t involve a primary source,” she said. “That’s really the guiding principle of my classes.”

Dale Killingbeck you can contact us at Email: [email protected].