National Rural Teacher of the Year is a hunting and fishing teacher in upstate New York

Scott Jordan

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.