Denver Home Living Huettner Capital Fall 2018 | Page 27

I
KATHY ZOOK
IS AN INSPIRATION TO STUDENTS AND COLLEAGUES ALIKE
f you happen to see a
grown woman walking
through Denver
International Airport
carrying a fully dressed
cheetah stuffed animal with
its own passport, there’s no
need to worry about the
woman’s sanity. Chances are
you’ve bumped into Kathy
Zook, a teacher of gifted and
talented third-, fourth- and
fifth-graders at Hodgkins
Elementary just north of
downtown Denver—or one
of her colleagues—taking
the class mascot on
another adventure.
With a passport chock
full of country stamps,
the stuffed animal—
known as Chester
the Cheetah—has
been to destinations
most of Zook’s
underprivileged
students—83 percent of
whom qualify for free
or reduced lunch—can
only dream about.
Zook uses Chester—and the
journals and videos he keeps
(with her help!)—to widen her
students’ horizons and expose
them to places and cultures well
beyond their Denver classroom.
When Zook is not busy with
Chester, she can often be found
at RAFT Colorado (short for
Resource Area for Teaching, an
organization profiled on page 28
of this issue), where she works to
develop challenging hands-on
projects for her students on a
wide range of educational topics,
including circuitry, strawberry
DNA, and color spectrums of
light, to name just a few. When
her students finish one of these
projects, Zook challenges them
to go home and teach their
parents the same lesson they
have learned.
As an avid supporter and
promoter of RAFT—which
develops creative, hands-
on learning tools for the
classroom—Zook has a unique
eye for recognizing the many
alternative uses for unusual
items donated to the program
by local businesses. Back
in 2011, she received the
first annual Mary Simon
Outstanding Educator award
for “outstanding teaching of
academics and 21st-century
skills using innovative materials
and
hands-on
learning.”
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Zook currently sits on the
organization’s Teacher Advisory
Board to help other teachers take
advantage of all the inexpensive
resources RAFT has to offer.
Over her 33 years of teaching,
Zook has made a huge impact
on her students and colleagues
by her extreme dedication—
which was no more evident
than when she developed breast
cancer in 2017. Rather than
handle her illness privately, she
openly shared her diagnosis
with students, parents, and staff,
teaching age-appropriate lessons
about her illness and recovery.
The staff took to wearing pink
shirts emblazoned with the breast
cancer symbol—along with
the phrase “On Wednesdays,
we wear pink to support Kathy
Zook”—while the students
showed their support with
plenty of cards, hugs, and
words of encouragement. One
student even nominated Zook
as “Teacher of the Week” on
radio station KOSI 101.1—an
award she was proud to receive
in January 2018.
Never one to sit still, Zook’s next
adventure will take place high
above Denver when she embarks
on a hot air balloon ride with
funds raised by her colleagues
to support her during her illness.
No word yet on whether Chester
will be on board, but no doubt
Zook will figure out a unique
way to share the experience
creatively with her students.