Kate Highsmith, NBCT, Author at NBPTS | Shaping the profession that shapes America's future. - NBPTS | Shaping the profession that shapes America's future.

Kate Highsmith is a teacher in Concord, NC and the Cabarrus County School District’s Teacher of the Year. Kate is a former high school art and English teacher, but in 2017 she was given the opportunity to combine her two passions for teaching and global awareness into the Global Inquiry and Design Class at Weddington Hills Elementary School. Follow her on Twitter @WHES_Global

Sparking Passions through Service Learning

Kate Highsmith, NBCTMay 21, 2019

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not,” is a familiar quote from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax. The summer before I was a fifth grader, I was swimming at the beach when a loggerhead sea turtle surfaced beside me sparking my passion for protecting the sea turtles of North Carolina. This is a passion I have continued to pursue over the past 25 years. We must teach our children to care about big ideas that matter. It is these childhood passions, developed as young learners, that will carry through to adulthood..…