North Cedar’s Alex Curley returns home to teach

CLARENCE - Alex Curley is a woodworking, forging, crocheting, fishing, softball playing math teacher at North Cedar.

She considers herself 'a jack of all trades, master of none.”

Curley is a not-so-new teacher at North Cedar and is an amazing addition to our group of math teachers. She teaches geometry, statistics and algebra A and B.

While this is her first year teaching at the school, it is not her first time at North Cedar.

Curley graduated from North Cedar in 2012 and accomplished a lot in her four years. By the end of her high school career, she was valedictorian, a four-sport athlete, won the Silver Cord Volunteer scholarship, was involved in student council and math club, was a gallon blood donor and received the Governor's Scholarship Award among many other scholarships.

After graduation, she attended Simpson College to play softball and rugby and work toward her degree to become a math teacher. Curley graduated from Simpson College in 2016, earning the Breakdown National Player of the Week award and two NSCRO national championship appearances for rugby. She graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and minors in secondary education and coaching.

Curley went into the workforce right away, getting a teaching job at South Central Calhoun Middle School in Rockwell City for a year before applying for the open math teacher position to get back to her roots at North Cedar.

Curley was never really gone though. Since 2015, she has been assistant coaching for the Knights softball team and will take the head coaching position this season.

Since Curley has been in school there have been quite a few changes. Curley said the biggest she noticed are the building and the grading system.

'I miss the Stanwood high school like crazy,” Curley said. 'It doesn't even feel like the same school I went to. It's sad seeing the building gone.

North Cedar is switching to a new grading system - standards-based grading. Not only has this system been hard on students, it's been rough on teachers trying to implement the system in classes.

'I have very limited experience with standards-based grading and I'm learning as we go,” Curley said. 'It's a big transition for me, especially not being able to grade homework. In math, the more practice the better.”

Standards-based grading is a big transition for all the teachers and students but with teachers helping the students and the students helping the teachers it is gradually getting easier for everyone.

Usually people can't wait to get out of high school and their hometown and never look back, but not Curley.

'Coming back to work at North Cedar was something I always hoped to do,” she said. 'I never thought I would be back in only my second year of teaching but I'm glad I am.”

Coming back to your hometown is one thing, but coming back to work with all the teachers you may or may not have liked is a whole nother thing.

'It wasn't a difficult transition for me to go from student to colleague,” she said. 'All of the staff has welcomed me back with open arms.”

Although Curley is a first year teacher, she already knows what she wants to accomplish at this job she is so passionate about.

'My goal while working here at North Cedar is to change the mind-set of students,” Curley said. 'We have a tendency here to settle for just being OK. I don't want us to just be OK. I want us to push harder and get better.

'We need to increase work ethic and accountability.”

Curley is more than ready to be involved at North Cedar and to help students be the best they can be when they leave high school to enter the real world.