February 2, 2018
The National Rural Education Association has named Scott Jordan the National Rural Teacher of the Year. Jordan teaches fisheries and wildlife technologies in the Cuba-Rushford Central School District in upstate New York. It took a while for the NREA 
to find Jordan to tell him the big news, because he and his students were hunting in New Zealand. Trips like that are what made Jordan a candidate in the first place, said NREA executive director Allen Pratt.
“It was the impact on the kids,” Pratt told Tom Dinki of the Olean Times Herald, “and, I think, the hands-on approach and that he could reach the highest academic student to the student that may not be at the highest level.” Jordan also teaches the kids with hands-on activities close to home; he built a fish hatchery, log cabin and deer enclosure on the school grounds. The students have a nationally televised show (which they edit) called “CRCS Outdoors” that airs on the Pursuit Channel.
“Hunting and fishing lets kids gain confidence that you don’t see in a lot of other things,” said Jordan, whose program teaches almost 60 high school students. The award includes about $3,000 for Jordan to use in the program.
Written by Heather Chapman
