He’s ‘life-changing’: Meet Johnson County educator named Kansas Teacher of the Year
On Tuesday morning, Olathe students and staff lined the halls of Prairie Trail Middle School, cheering and high-fiving as the marching band played and teacher Taylor Bussinger ran laps around them.
The Olathe school is celebrating after Bussinger, who has taught social studies there for nearly a decade, was named 2024 Kansas Teacher of the Year on Saturday, during a ceremony in Wichita. The 34-year-old, who students call Mr. Buss, was awarded the state’s top honor for teachers from among more than 120 nominees. He is now a candidate for National Teacher of the Year.
“I’m in shock,” Bussinger told The Star on Tuesday. “My first reaction was just thankfulness for my friends and family and community that support me, especially my students. But also realizing there are millions of amazing teachers out there, and so it’s a feeling of disbelief that this is where I’m at.”
Along with teaching eighth grade U.S. history, Bussinger serves as head boys’ basketball coach and cross-country coach at Prairie Trail, and is co-founder and sponsor of the school’s diversity club. He works at the school alongside his wife, math teacher Jill Bussinger.
“I wanted to be the teacher who finds a community and invests in it. And it’s kind of become part of who I am,” said Bussinger, who is from Lawrence and graduated from the University of Kansas, earning a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction.
“During our time together, I have observed that Taylor shows the inspirational leadership, resourcefulness and passion for teaching and coaching to make him stand out as a top candidate for this most prestigious honor in the state of Kansas,” said Jennifer Stoskopf, assistant principal at Prairie Trail. “He is a teacher that knows his content inside and out. He has high expectations for himself as an educator, but more importantly, high expectations for his students’ success. He is humble. He cares about people first and programs second. He believes in the process of learning.”
Growing up in Lawrence, Bussinger said, he “would never have considered myself a model student or somebody who got good grades or loved being in the classroom.
“Like all of us, we struggle during our teenage years with identity,” he said. “And I really always appreciated teachers who saw me for the complex individual I was. They didn’t define me by my grades, but invested time in getting to know who I was.”
Reaching students in that same way, Bussinger said, is part of what fuels his passion for teaching.
“Middle school in general is really tough. Kids bring the weight of so many things they’re dealing with in their personal life,” Bussinger said. “My goal is to see the whole kid, and to understand that kids wear a lot of hats, just as adults do.”
Kansas Commissioner of Education Randy Watson said in a news release that Bussinger was selected because he, “brings history alive for his students at Prairie Trail and continuously inspires curiosity in them.”
“When I talk about teaching history,” Bussinger said, “I really focus on perspectives. We may not always agree on certain things, especially in today’s world, but we can learn how to talk to each other, be empathetic, disagree effectively. We’re preparing human beings to better navigate the world today.
“My job is not necessarily teaching history, but putting kids in a position where they’re doing the work of a historian, considering a topic and looking at it from multiple perspectives.”
Ellie Willson, one of his former students, wrote a letter of recommendation for him during the nomination process, according to the state education department. She said Bussinger created a “classroom environment that fosters collaboration and community at an unparalleled level.”
“To pull an excerpt from my graduation speech as the class of 2021 student body president: One of the most important lessons I have learned in chasing my dreams was taught in my eighth-grade history class,” Willson wrote. “Not only did this teacher challenge everything I thought I believed, but he also showed me how to see things from a different point of view. All while sponsoring somewhat civil debates between 20 13-year-olds. This class helped me to actualize my dreams by revealing to me my passion for politics and history.”
“I cannot overstate how deserving of this honor he truly is,” she wrote. “I speak for all of his former students when I say that he is one of the most life-changing teachers I have had the honor of learning from.”
Bussinger was awarded Kansas Teacher of the Year from a field of eight finalists, including Michelle Tapko, a sixth-grade teacher at Roesland Elementary School in the Shawnee Mission district. The finalists received a $2,000 cash award and will travel together and do advocate work.
Bussinger, who said he is committed to staying in Olathe, won a $4,000 cash award, along with a lifelong learning scholarship to attend participating universities free of charge as long as he continues teaching in Kansas.
“This is a very humbling process,” Bussinger said. “Whatever is next in the process, I hope it is focused on the voices of students and uplifting the teaching profession. I don’t know who I am without being a teacher. It has allowed me to figure out who I am and what I’m passionate about. Whatever we do next as the Kansas Teacher of the Year team, I hope we can highlight the amazing work teachers from across the state are doing, as well as the success of our students.”
