MELANIE BLOOM: IOWA'S 2025 TEACHER OF THE YEAR

For 24 years, Melanie Bloom has worked at Sioux Central Community School District in Sioux Rapids, Iowa as an agricultural educator. Bloom is just finishing her sabbatical as the 2025 Iowa Teacher of the Year. 

MELANIE BLOOM ('25 IOWA TEACHER OF THE YEAR) AND MARISSA MOORE ('26 IOWA TEACHER OF THE YEAR FINALIST) POSE TOGETHER AFTER A SPRING CLASSROOM VISIT.

Agriculture courses are Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses. “Part of CTE courses include career exploration,” Bloom says. “I like to lead students through interest inventories, job shadows, financial literacy, career and technical skill attainment, and a wide variety of work-based learning opportunities — internships, entrepreneurship, school-based enterprises, and more. I also have students out in the community working at agricultural jobs as well as starting their own agribusiness entrepreneurship and I hope that all of them are using knowledge and skills that they learned through my classes.” Agriculture is vital to Iowa, and Iowa is vital to agriculture, so letting students explore in structured ways the various careers in agriculture is very important.

CTE courses are often group project-based, as are most careers explored through them. “I love that project-based learning presents natural differentiation for students of all abilities and interests,” Bloom says. “It engages students in asking and answering their own questions about a topic.” Students at Sioux Central enjoy “using a greenhouse to learn about growing plants, then running plant production and sales projects.” Bloom says, “Using the actual tools, equipment, and supplies used in real-world settings (such as fields, barns, laboratories, and greenhouses) also inspires students to learn valuable skills that will serve them well in their future careers.”

A lot has changed since Bloom started teaching. Learning has become largely digital and artificial intelligence has become more sophisticated. “Technology will be important in nearly every career, so it's important for our students to be able to use technology appropriately to solve problems. However, it's also important to use classroom activities that are best for students' brain and skill development…. I think students really crave personal connections with other people and sometimes that is hard to achieve in a high-tech environment.”

With her dedication to students and their future success, it’s no wonder that Melanie Bloom won Teacher of the Year.