If you walk past the sixth-grade science room at Litchfield Middle School, you know immediately where you are. The hallway itself gives it away. There's always something hanging there—a poster, a project, some clever visual translation of what the students are learning. Recently, it was a collection of "Rock Stars," each one a metamorphic, igneous, or sedimentary specimen reimagined as a musician, complete with a backstory about how they "formed." It's playful, a little bit quirky, and unmistakably tied to the work happening inside the room. And it's exactly the kind of atmosphere that teacher Jostlin Rademacher believes brings science to life.

Now in her tenth year in the district, Jostlin didn't begin her career teaching middle school. She served as an aide first, then taught fourth grade for two years before moving up. She loved her younger students, but she knew herself well enough to recognize where she belonged. "I just felt like my personality and the way that I do things as far as classroom management, I was a better fit for middle school," she said. And once she stepped into sixth grade, she found her place.

Her students begin the year with an introduction to the periodic table—not a deep dive, just enough to lay the foundation. From there, they work through the scientific method, then minerals and the Mohs scale, and then rocks. Jostlin threads everything together intentionally, each unit supporting the next. It's a pace she's refined over several years, and it's designed to help kids build knowledge without losing confidence.

The pandemic years disrupted that confidence for many students. "I felt like when I started doing it, I was able to get my feet under me a lot better. And they had already had a lot of background knowledge. Right now, I feel like they don't have as much background knowledge." She doesn't blame them. She simply adjusts. "I just meet the kids where they are," she said. "It was kind of a hard pill for me to swallow at first because I was like, well, this is where we all should be. And then when they're looking at me like, well, that's not where I'm at, then it's like, okay, I have to reassess myself and see where I'm at and what I can do better for them"

One thing she refuses to do is slow to a crawl. "I also know that sometimes you just have to move on. You either gotta jump on the bus or you gotta figure it out," she tells her students. And they do.

That's why the visitor who showed up recently—a retired educator named Don Reid—created such a moment. His grandson, Travis Farris, one of Jostlin's sixth graders, had created a wanted poster for a periodic table element and gone home excited about what he'd learned. Don, who had spent a career teaching science—including Jostlin herself years ago at Lincoln Land—offered to come in. "It was like coming back full circle," Jostlin said. He arrived with dry ice experiments and decades of enthusiasm, and he lit up the room. "They thought it was amazing. They made me look like...thanks," she laughed. Watching a child proudly share his grandfather with his classmates was a reminder that science is generational—a thread that runs through families, through communities, through time.

Jostlin has built similar bridges in her Science and Technology class, a course she completely reshaped. When the old superintendent told her she could change it if she could justify it, she spent her summer researching human body systems and built an entirely new curriculum. Now she brings in real medical professionals: a surgery nurse for the skeletal system, a respiratory therapist for the respiratory system, physical and occupational therapists for the muscular system, and her sister-in-law—a medical lab scientist at Hillsboro Hospital—for the cardiovascular system. "It's gone really great," she said.

The same commitment runs through the district. Litchfield doesn't just celebrate athletes—though their wrestling program has surged, with Jostlin's own seven-year-old and four-year-old both participating. They also showcase artists, musicians, scholars, and kids who are simply steady, hardworking, and kind. "We are really good at recognizing students for all levels of capabilities and in every way, shape, and form," Jostlin said.

She credits the people around her—Team Six, a group she speaks of with deep affection. She praises math teacher Jill Huff, retiring this year; language arts teacher Shannon Dively; and her FCA co-advisor Jenny Schwab, who helps welcome thirty kids each week at lunchtime meetings. "I love the team that I work with," she said. "There's nobody who's just here for just the quote-unquote paycheck. There's some sort of tie to our district."

And that may be the most telling part. In a district where teachers feel connected and invested, students can feel it. They respond to it. They lean into their learning because the adults around them are leaning in, too.