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Best Teacher in Stateline Gets to be Silly Year-Round
For 28 of the past 29 years, Kristin Hosey has spent 10 months a year playing games, occasionally dressing in silly costumes and singing songs to kindergartners.
“It definitely keeps me young,” said Hosey, a 1990 Beloit Memorial High School graduate who spent the last 15 years of her teaching career at Gaston Elementary. “At this age, they all love their teachers, they love school, they love to work.”
Hosey was the winner of the Best Teacher category for this year’s Best of Stateline competition. A full list of the winners and top finishers in 102 categories will appear in a special section in the Thursday edition of the Beloit Daily News.
Hosey has been at it long enough that she routinely teaches the children of children she taught when she was starting out.
“I can’t remember the first time I heard ‘you taught my mom or dad,’ but now I hear it every year,” said Hosey, who earned her teaching degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a master’s degree from UW-La Crosse. The only year she wasn’t a kindergarten teacher was 2019-2020 when she taught second grade.
“We didn’t even finish that year because of COVID,” she said. “So I’ve been a kindergarten teacher every full year.”
With 29 years of teaching in, Hosey could begin thinking about retirement. She says she would miss the excitement of the kids.
“There’s a lot of noise outside of the classroom that makes you think about how long you want to keep going,” Hosey said. “In the classroom, being around these kids every day cancels that out. I have no plans to retire right now.”
She was happy but humble to learn she is the recipient of the Best Teacher title.
“There are so many teachers I would nominate for best teacher. I’m around great teachers every day,” Hosey said. “This is a recognition for all of us.”