Celebrating the work of Summerland High School ELA Teacher, Anna Mayes!!
Dear Jacob:
We are writing to congratulate and thank you for the incredible work that your teacher Anna Mayes has accomplished with the 2026 Nebraska Writing Project Institute at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As facilitators of this intensive annual graduate seminar for teachers, we wanted to take this opportunity to share a brief note about Anna’s engagement and inspirational leadership.
Anna offered a research-based professional development workshop to our group of eighteen teachers entitled: Zip-Zab Collab: Pulling the Curtain Back on Theatrical Improv Exercises to Teach Successful Collaboration in Group Work. In this teaching demonstration and workshop, Anna showed how theatre principles and exercises can help teachers and students of all subject areas grow as collaborators, building their confidence to contribute their unique strengths and viewpoints to a group effort, their abilities to support their team members, and their listening and communication skills. Resoundingly, teachers explained that after this activity, they are excited to help students overcome barriers to creation and collaboration by using the low-stakes and playful scaffolds that Anna shared. A teacher participant remarked, “It was so creative and interesting. I observed that there would be no way for AI to recreate this, and that is the power of collective creativity. I also love how we had to ‘think on our feet’ while trying to stay in the loose context of the story. This would be interesting to use in the classroom to show how revision and creative play is an opportunity for something interesting to happen.” I am actually adapting Anna's workshop for use in a graduate course on collaborative learning next week!
We feel so grateful that Anna participated in our Summer Institute, and we know she will bring the new knowledge and professional development of their pedagogy back to her students in dynamic ways. We encourage you to consider tapping Anna to lead professional development workshops with other teachers in your context.
In the Nebraska Writing Project, we have been committed for almost 50 years to developing youth programs, graduate courses, teaching resources, and community events that center innovative and research-backed approaches to teaching writing. Please reach out if we can further support you or your teachers with professional development or youth programming or if you would like to know more about the Nebraska Writing Project.
Thank you for recruiting and supporting phenomenal teachers such as Anna. We are thrilled to learn with and from them, and we appreciate the positive impact they have on teachers and students.
Sincerely,
Rachael Shah, Grace Story, and Tina Le
Monday September 28 2026 Announcements
Special Segment - Debate with Isaac and Lane followed by Perfect Timing with Kayden, Rogan, and Mason
Friday September 25 2026 Announcements
Special Segment - Carson’s Interview with Coach Kaczor about football
Dear Superintendents and Principals,
We want to make you aware of reports of a phone scam that has recently impacted several Nebraska school districts. While this type of scam has surfaced periodically in previous years, recent reports serve as a reminder that schools should remain vigilant and consider creating communications to inform families.
In these incidents, a parent receives a call from an unknown number. The caller falsely claims to be a school employee, often identifying themselves as a counselor or other staff member, and says that the parent's child is in trouble or involved in an emergency situation. The caller then attempts to direct the parent to meet at a location to pick up their child and may instruct them not to disconnect the call or discuss it with anyone else.
These calls are fraudulent and should not be trusted.
School leaders may wish to remind families of the following:
If a parent receives a call claiming their child is in trouble, they should hang up and contact the school directly using the school's published phone number.
School staff will not ask parents to meet at secret, undisclosed, or off-campus locations to pick up a student.
School personnel will not instruct parents to keep a situation confidential or prevent them from contacting others.
Parents should be cautious of calls from unknown numbers that create a sense of urgency or pressure immediate action.
While this scam is not new, reports indicate it continues to reappear from time to time in different communities. Awareness is one of the best tools for preventing these scams from succeeding.
If families report receiving suspicious calls, districts may encourage them to contact local law enforcement and notify school officials so patterns can be identified and shared with the appropriate authorities.
Please consider sharing this information with staff and families as appropriate. Thank you for your continued efforts to help keep Nebraska students, families, and school communities safe.
Best regards,
