Meet Mrs. Rice
My name is Caroline Rice. I am currently enjoying my 29th year of teaching for Bellevue Public Schools. For the first 20 years I taught fifth and sixth graders at Belleaire, Central, LeMay and Two Springs. I loved what I was doing and truly enjoyed the challenge of working to help each child to be successful in my little (sometimes, not so little) classroom. When I was approached seven years ago about developing a new delivery system for High Ability Learners, I was not sure that I wanted such a big change; however, I had spent 20 years telling students that one never advances without taking a challenge . . . so here I am. Every new group of students and every new unit of study that I develop tells me that being offered this opportunity was truly a needed professional challenge and a personal blessing.
I was born in New York City, but spent most of my growing up time in Panama where I graduated from Balboa High School. Eager to explore new frontiers, I chose to attend St. Olaf Lutheran College in Minnesota where I graduated with a B.A. in economics. I actually began my working life in Minnesota as a auditor.
My husband and I were married soon after I completed college and that began another series of traveling days. From being pastor of a small church in the middle of Iowa, he put on an Air Force chaplain's uniform and we were off to California. From there we went to Hawaii, Florida, Turkey and Nebraska. By the time we got out of the Air Force, we loved Nebraska so much, that we just stayed. Last June he retired after serving 19 as the pastor of a small church south of Bellevue.
In addition to my husband, my family includes 3 grown children, all graduates of Bellevue West and Creighton. We have 5 very active grandchildren: William is the oldest (6 years old) his twin cousins Daniel and Katheryn are just 2 1/2 months younger. William's sister Elizabeth is 3 1/2 years old, and Baby David will be 3 on St. Patrick's Day. In January he will be giving up claim to being the baby when his sister Margaret makes her appearance. Since they all live in the area, Meema and Papa get to play with them lots. It appears that my family room is destined to be forever strewn with some sort of railroad track, doll house or animal safari. My rescued American Eskimo dog Shay, Big Fred, our 15 year old diabetic cat, and three little kittens who were dumped at a construction site three summers ago round out the family.
When I was in 7th grade, I wrote a paper about becoming a teacher. When I decided I was serious, I returned to college and earned a Master of Arts in Education degree from the University of West Florida. Once in the classroom, I realized that education never stops. I earned an endorsement in Gifted Education at UNO and have since enjoyed over 36 graduate hours in educational psychology at UNL.
In my professional role, I have served on numerous curriculum and assessment committees in our Bellevue School District. As a member of the Bellevue Education Association I have served as a building representative and chair of the "Read Across America" committee, and am currently a member of the executive board. For several years I have served on the statewide Nebraska Council on Teacher Education, an advisory group to the state board of education. I served for four years as chair of the Undergraduate Education subcommittee. At the national level, I am a member of the Board of Examiners for the National Council on the Accreditation of Teacher Education. As a member of this group, I visit and examine teacher preparation programs across the nation. This assignment affords me the wonderful opportunity of seeing "how other people do it" and then bringing back new ideas and expertise to my students and fellow teachers here in Bellevue.
I have always loved to travel. Over the period of many years I have visited Russia, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Georgia (the country), Germany, Turkey, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Mexico, Haiti, Canada, Costa Rica, Puerto Rica, and Jamaica. There are still places that I want to go.
I spend my free time enjoying my family, supporting my church, gardening in season, advocating for animals of all kinds, training dogs, traveling whenever and wherever possible, and being an avid Cornhusker fan.