Homecoming reveals passion for teaching

Beverly Froud was recently named 2013 Rural Teacher of the Year. Froud teaches family and consumer sciences at White County Central High School in Judsonia.
Beverly Froud was recently named 2013 Rural Teacher of the Year. Froud teaches family and consumer sciences at White County Central High School in Judsonia.

— When Beverly Froud graduated from White County Central School, she didn’t expect to walk through the doors again as the person who stands in front of the class.

Now, she has spent eight years as a high school family and consumer sciences teacher at the school, and her efforts to be the best teacher she can be were recognized when she was named Arkansas Rural Education Association Teacher of the Year at the beginning of July.

“I was so honored,” she said. “There are lots of teachers out there who are much more qualified than me.”

She didn’t come into the teaching field in the traditional way, she said.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in family and consumer sciences from Harding University in Searcy in 2003, Froud said, she worked for the Department of Human Services in White County, then moved to the Pulaski County Cooperative Extension Service, where she was a county extension agent.

“I did nutrition and obesity-awareness training for Pulaski County,” she said.

Although she held state positions, teaching was always in the back of her mind.

“I’ve always loved teaching,” Froud said.

When an extended substitute teaching position at her alma mater came open, she jumped at the opportunity.

The family and consumer sciences teacher at White County Central High School at the time Froud took the substitute position had to relocate to a different city, she said.

“I filled in for a semester and ended up teaching at the school,” Froud said. While she finished up her semester as the fill-in family and consumer sciences teacher, she was finishing up a master’s degree in the subject in 2006 at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

In addition to completing her master’s degree, Froud said, she applied to the Arkansas Department of Education Nontraditional Licensure Program to receive her Arkansas educator license while she was substitute teaching.

“[These licenses] are for people who already hold degrees in a content area

and have worked in that area,” Froud said.

She had to go to class one weekend every month and two weeks during the summer for two consecutive years, she said.

“This program allows you to work in the classroom while you’re getting your license,” Froud said.

The subject matter Froud teaches gives her an opportunity to instruct her students in ways to thrive as adults.

“Family and consumer science is so unique,” Froud said. “It gives students skills to be a successful adult.”

Though she “took the long way around” to become a teacher, Froud said, she enjoys the students she interacts with when school is in session.

“I had no idea how much I would love teaching,” she said.

The diversity of the subject she teaches allows Froud to experience something different each day.

“Every day is a new challenge for me,” she said. “You always get a fresh start. It’s exciting.”

She said she teaches six different classes during the school’s eight-period day.

“At a rural school like this, you are the family and consumer sciences department,” Froud said. The classes she teaches daily range from parenting to food and nutrition.

“The first foods lab is always nerve-racking,” Froud said. “You’ve got kids from all different [cooking] skill levels.”

She said she sees her students develop not only more advanced cooking skills; they develop confidence in themselves.

Food and nutrition classes are fun for Froud, but she said her favorite class to teach is personal and family finance.

“This class teaches such useful and important information,” she said.

The field of family and consumer sciences has offered Froud a way to keep her students and herself involved and engaged in the subject by experiencing new and different activities each day.

“If you get bored teaching, it’s your own fault,” she said.

Staff writer Lisa Burnett can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or lburnett@arkansasonline.com.

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