By Melissa Wagoner
When Emily Rau received an email from KPTV FOX 12 Oregon informing her that her classroom at Butte Creek Elementary School was being named Classroom of the Month for March 2023 she couldn’t believe her eyes.
“I thought it was spam,” she laughed. “So, I Googled it.”
Secretly nominated by her husband, Jim Rau – who had seen an advertisement while watching a football game in December 2022 – Rau was not only recognized by FOX 12 but she was gifted the contents of an Amazon wish list worth $1,000 by the Oregon Freemasons – the sponsors of the award.
studies teacher, Emily Rau.
Melissa Wagoner
“I got a lot of seating options for the kids, regular classroom supplies, covers for some of the lights so it’s more outdoorsy, and I got a desk for myself,” Rau said, motioning toward the desk she’s currently using, which is actually a student desk, repurposed for an adult. “Next year I’ll have a class of 33 and I only have 32 desks, so I wouldn’t have one.”
It’s just one of the many ways the award will be of help to Rau, who – like so many teachers she knows – often pays for classroom supplies herself.
“Everything around the classroom, with the exception of the desks, I bought,” Rau said. “So, it was nice to buy those things I know my classroom could use.”
It was also nice – if a little uncomfortable – to receive recognition for her hard work.
“It was weird,” she admitted, describing the news crew that arrived to record her Leadership class in mid-March. “I don’t do well with that stuff. To be recognized this way, and see other teachers not recognized, is odd.”
A middle school social studies and leadership teacher for grades five through eight at Butte Creek Elementary School – her first permanent classroom assignment – Rau said she always knew she wanted to be a teacher.
“I played lacrosse and I always loved helping with the middle school and high school kids,” she recalled, describing the ways middle schoolers, like those in her current classroom, are fun to teach.
“The kids are in a sweet spot of finding out who they are and still enjoying being at school,” she said. “They like it when you’re real with them and yet they still get excited about the little things.”
Little things like their teacher winning an award worth $1,000.
“All of the kids got to open [the Amazon packages] and they were shocked,” Rau recalled. “I had told the kids the money was for our classroom but they were surprised that the money was for stuff they could use. It just doesn’t happen in little K-8 schools like this.”
But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen in more schools like Butte Creek because, while it was Rau’s classroom that was acknowledged as one of the best this time, she views the entire staff of Butte Creek as deserving of a similar award.
“It’s the best little school,” she said.
