Salida High School has welcomed multiple new teachers this year, including world history and geography teacher, Lou Gwaltney. Aside from teaching a core class, Gwaltney also has a freshman advisory and has an academic success class to support students who need help making up credits and working on organizational skills. Gwaltney is excited to get to know the students and staff of Salida High School, as well as be more immersed in Salida’s community.
“We moved here from Denver because we wanted to be closer to the outdoors and to have a smaller community as well as having the core connection to people from the school,” Gwaltney said.
Gwaltney grew up in a small town in Arkansas and was influenced to pursue college by one of her high school teachers. After graduating from the University of Arkansas and attending Dominican University, she got a Middle Eastern Politics and Archeology degree, and she has been teaching for 13 years since.
In 2011, Gwaltney started teaching social studies and language arts in Chicago at South Side Chicago Englewood for seventh and eighth grade students. Next, she worked at a boys mental health facility, helping the boys to become their best-selves by working with them on critical thinking, hard work and motivation skills. After working there for a year, Gwaltney moved to Denver where she got a job working at the Girls Athletic Leadership School Denver. Then, she focused on teaching middle school social and emotional wellness and social studies. Most recently, before moving to Salida, Gwaltney taught 11th and 12th graders government and psychology at Denver East for six years.
Gwaltney explained that her family, consisting of her husband Jeff, two and a half year old daughter Evett and dog Edwin, has loved being more connected to the community and getting to see people they know more often.
“It’s kinda like our ideal place because we can leave our house and be on trails within a mile or two, which is pretty cool,” explained Gwaltney.
Gwaltney has multiple hobbies including running; reading; snow shoeing; biking; and cross country, downhill and water skiing. Since moving here three months ago, she has been loving the tight knit community of Salida.
“Working at the school, it feels like I am connected to my day to day life and feels very in touch with students and families in a way that I haven’t before. School community is part of my life this year more than others. At the school I feel more connected to everything and it is a bigger part of my life,” says Gwaltney.
This year, one of Gwaltney’s goals is to observe the systems and structures that are already implanted at the Salida High School before incorporating her own aspects of learning including critical thinking, organization, and the ability to interpret learning resources.
“I’m trying to be open minded about the systems and structures that are here and trying not to judge how I would fix them or how I would change them based on my experience,” she said.
Students and staff are thrilled to welcome Lou Gwaltney into the community of Salida High School!
