In many ways, Tiffany Smith tells herself the same things she tells her students: Always strive to do just a bit better. Reach higher. Explore new opportunities.

It’s in that extra effort that the magic happens.

Smith, an eighth-grade science teacher at Kingsley Middle School, finds the greatest joy when her students truly connect with a project or lesson. If they’re laughing while learning, if they’re wide-eyed and focused, you’re doing something right.

But in a world where students are more distracted than perhaps ever before, with social media, video games and million other things competing for their attention, Smith knows she needs to keep working, keep finding new ways to make those eyes light up.

“When you go home, you should feel like you can’t wait to do it again. That feeling gets contagious,” she tells The Ticker. “No matter how many years I teach, it’s like “Ok, how can I get that again? And what if I tried this? What else could I add to it?”

Smith, who has been with the district for 13 years, is well-known for her off-beat lessons and personality, both of which serve to engage her students. She’s got at least 60 costumes she might be in at any given time – a lobster for invertebrate lessons, for example, or one that has external human organs for anatomy – and she’s always working on her next goofy, AI-generated song to welcome kids to the classroom.

In addition to traditional earth and life sciences (think plate tectonics, cells, etc.) she now teaches sustainable science, which is essentially a rebranded home economics class. In this class they grow, prepare and cook food, sew and repair clothes and learn other practical skills that get missed in traditional formal education.

“It’s amazing to see the results. Maybe they use turkey burger instead of hamburger, or they’ll add zucchini in things because it’s healthier for them,” she says. “Then it’s amazing how many parents email me and say a student came home and made dinner for them, and that they were excited about it. Or that a button fell off something, and instead of saying they need a new shirt, they’ll sew it back on themselves.”

Smith started this class with a strong desire to make kids more self-sufficient, regardless of their paths in life.

“I think there’s sometimes this negative image of home ec, that we’re just cooking and making frilly, lacy things. But we’re not. We’re saying: In the real world, what would you need to do?” she says. “I think it’s important we are teaching the next generation how to do things with their hands.”

There is, in many ways, a war on science within some segments of the population. Smith strictly avoids political matters inside the classroom, but she feels good about teaching her kids to think critically as they navigate an increasingly turbulent world.

“Science is important because I think it's good for us to understand how our world works, and then you can have your systems of belief after that,” she says. “And it’s great that kids can now test out what other people are saying.”

That goes hand-in-hand with something else Smith imparts upon her students: It’s safe, normal – and indeed important, at times – to be incorrect.

“I find a lot of middle school students are almost afraid of being wrong, and I have to remind them that it’s okay to be wrong,” she says. “It’s okay to test it out, see the results, and make another prediction.”

Middle school is a tough age to teach. It’s a tough age to be. But Smith considers herself lucky to have the opportunity to connect with these kids.

“I love that I have the ability to speak into this generation. There’s a certain percentage of jobs that haven’t been created yet, and this generation is going to create them,” she says. “I always tell them that you guys are going to create jobs that never existed.”

Smith is also grateful to the Kingsley area community at large, which she says has gotten involved in her science classes in a variety of ways.

"My freezer is filled with deer hearts (for dissection), and the farmers will sometimes donate cow hearts, or meat for our cooking," she says. "I have a local farm that donates pumpkins for our kids every year, so we an carve them and make pumpkin pie...the support is really cool."

Kingsley Middle School principal John Arnold says he “can’t say enough good things” about Smith, who puts in a ton of extra time to ensure her students have the best experience. Her personality and classroom make for a welcoming space that get the most out of students.

“The kids just enjoy being in there. And when you walk into that kind of an environment, I think you're already going to be more attuned to soaking up that information,” he says. “She’s just really good at engaging those kids.”