The Daily Dispatch

Three new teachers joining the Breckenridge School District this year say they share the excitement of meeting students and teaching in a smaller community.

Teresa "Terry" Malum, the special education instructor, has spent the last 12 years teaching elementary students at the Bismarck School District in Bismarck, N.D. She anticipates working with older students and simply loves teaching.

"I'm excited for a new assignment. It's different than what I've done in the past," she said.

Malum is accustomed to a larger district population - Bismarck has a total 10,000 students - but looks forward to teaching in a smaller district. The job also offers her a first-time chance living in Minnesota. A former country girl from Montana, Malum feels some kinship with the area after being raised on a sugar beet farm. When she was young, she participated in rodeos from "little britches" to high school and experienced a few scrapes along the way.

"You haven't ridden much if you haven't been thrown off," she said.

Malum and her husband, Duane, share three grown children. Her two sons live in Washington state and Duluth, Minn., and her daughter lives in Japan.

Stephanie Ebsen, family and consumer science teacher, visited eight different countries during her formative years. Ebsen's father was a lieutenant colonel in the Army, which meant frequent traveling for the family. When she was a seventh-grader, she spent a little more than a month with him at the Injirlik Air Force Base in Turkey.

"It was very different from what we're used to," she said. "It was a crazy experience for a kid in junior high."

Now approaching her second year of teaching, Ebsen said she will be covering a wide variety of classes with students, such as housing and design and consumer foods. She will also be advising the student council.

Ebsen last taught in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc., which held 1,450 sophomore to senior level students. A native of Cameron, Wisc., Ebsen said she anticipates returning to a small town.

"That's just kind of what I know and what I really enjoy," she said. "Wisconsin Rapids was a very large city, and I'm really looking forward to getting back to a small town school."

Ebsen and her husband, Jason, share two young children. A picture of Ebsen was not available.

Kristie Sullivan, language arts teacher, also shares a love of travel. After high school, she traveled with the Minnesota Ambassadors of Music choir to nine European countries as a singer and clarinet player. Their repertoire included religious music, jazz and Olympic-themed songs.

"We tried to make our concerts fit each country," she said.

For the past three years, she taught in Grand Forks, N.D. While she loved the location and the school, she said she wanted to move back home.

"My family is here, and I want my children to grow up around family," she said.

As Sullivan was raised in the area between Rothsay and Foxhome, Minn., and she looks forward to getting involved in the Breckenridge community. Sullivan and her husband, Craig, share two daughters.

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