13. Teaching First Grade With Heart

A first-grade classroom can feel like a small town, and Annie Lillard has learned how to lead with steadiness and care. Raised in Kalispell, Annie now teaches at Cornelius Hedges Elementary—the same school where her mother once taught—bringing a multigenerational perspective to a rapidly growing valley. Her path to the classroom runs through Whitworth University, volunteer work in Haiti, early teaching stops in the Bitterroot and New Jersey, and the adoption of two sons from the same place where she once served. Those experiences shape a philosophy rooted in relationships, routines, and meeting kids exactly where they are.

In this conversation, Annie gets candid about what helps classrooms thrive—and what makes the work harder. She breaks down curriculum shifts, the realities of combination classes, and the challenge of supporting advanced learners alongside students navigating absences, IEPs, and real-life stress. We also dig into school funding: how a long-awaited levy finally passed with help from One Brave Pack, what levy dollars actually restore in schools, and why sustainability matters for teachers. Along the way, Annie shares simple ways the community can help—from classroom volunteering to work-based learning programs led by Mike Kelly—and the personal routines that keep her grounded for the long haul.

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Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. Appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement of any goods, services, or opinions discussed. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered professional, legal, medical, or financial advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on the content of this show.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Heart of the Flathead, where we sit down with the change makers, the unsung heroes, and everyday folks who give this place its pulse. If you live here, love here, or just want to know what makes Kalispell and the Valley tick, you're in the right place. And now here's your host, Dave Wigginton.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Welcome to another episode of Heart of the Flathead. Annie Lillard, welcome to Heart of the Flathead. Great to have you here today.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Thanks for having me, Dave.

Annie Lillard beackground

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Absolutely. So Annie Lillard is an elementary school teacher at Cornelius Hedges Elementary. She teaches first grade. And full disclosure, she actually has taught all four of my kids in first grade. So I guess the only teacher at uh thus far that has been able to do so. So Annie, obviously the connection to my family. So I'm grateful that you were able to uh to come on with us today. Anyway, why don't you just start off? I mean, and you're you're a native of the flathead. Maybe give us give us a feel who you are, what your life's journey's been like, and and uh what you do now and how you got into what you're doing right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, sure. You bet. So yeah, I did grow up in Calis Bell, fortunate enough to do so, and I actually attended Hedges as a kid. My mom was a teacher at Hedges as well. So lots of history in our family at that school. Super big lesson.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

First grade teacher, too, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah, first grade teacher in my classroom. So it is just a pretty, pretty small world. Yeah. So attended Flathead High School when we just had the one school here, and then headed to Whitworth University in Spokane. I was a varsity swimmer there and also studied elementary education. After living in Spokane for those four years, I met my husband there and we later got married a couple years later. But I spent a few months in Haiti working at an orphanage childcare facility there and really loved that kind of work. I had a great time doing that and got married and lived in Missoula for a couple of years. I got my first teaching job done in Florence in the Bitterroot Valley, taught second grade and third grade there. And then my husband decided to attend seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. So we made a big move uh to the East Coast and lived there for three years. While we were there, we adopted two little boys from Haiti, coincidentally from the same place that I served at when I was there in 2006 and lived in New Jersey for three years, and we're really fortunate to be able to come back to the Flathead Valley after that.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

So I lived in New Jersey for a couple years too. So I can uh yeah, it's uh different. We'll just put it in a different world.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah, we'll put it in the world. Different world, yeah.

Haiti, Adoption, And Early Career

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Different world. That's great. So, what did you do at the orphanage in Haiti?

SPEAKER_01 2:42

You know, I just kind of filled in wherever they needed it. It was at that point set up really in kind of a traditional orphanage style where it was a big childhouse with separate rooms for kids based on kind of their age or needs. So I hopped in and helped with those kiddos when they needed it. I also got to take care of kind of the more fragile and sick babies as they needed it. So if they needed somebody with them through the night or given meds through an IV, if they were really sick, uh just a lot of that different kind of work and just got to bond with little kids who didn't have a mom and dad, which was just heartbreaking. And also it was a to my surprise, a really happy and wonderful place. And I just loved how tangible that work felt.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

So did you did you meet your boys there then when you were there?

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, good question. Yeah. So Jeff, our oldest son, who is now 21, um, was three years old when I was there in 2006. And so I did meet him there. And then my husband and I spent some more time there in 2008. And our second son, Simon, was there at that point too. He was just one when we were there in 2008. So yeah, that is where we met them and had the opportunity to adopt them and felt like we couldn't say no because we knew that we knew we wanted to adopt, but knew that we likely would never have an opportunity where we would know the kids that we were to adopt, you know, ahead of time.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

So that's pretty unique. Yeah, because most people don't. So that's interesting. So was your time in Haiti pre or post the earthquake?

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, so it was pre-earthquake. I was there in 2006 and 2008. The earthquake was in 2010. And so our adoption process actually got expedited because of that earthquake. There was they granted humanitarian parole to kiddos who were in process of adoption just to speed things along since the fam fam since the country was in such crisis.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Now, have have your boys ever been back since they came here?

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Gosh, we wish, we wish they had. Things have gotten just so tumultuous in Haiti, just kind of, I mean, since the earthquake, but you know, in the last five to ten years, it's been really rough. We had a goal probably about five years to get five years ago to get back there. And right as we were really kind of trying to make a decision to go back, there had there were some pretty major kidnappings, often of missionaries, foreigners, and things like that. And we just have not felt like we could do it safely and aren't willing to risk the safety of our family to do it. So I really hope that they will that I and I hope to go back to someday, but it has to be safe.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

So yeah, it's definitely been in disarray for a number of years. So what are uh what are Simon and and Jeff doing now?

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, so Jeff is a junior at Montana State University studying business marketing, just spent a few weeks in Costa Rica on a trip. So he's doing great. Simon graduated from Glacier High School last year. He's a he's working for a roofing company here in the Valley, so getting some good work experience.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

And you've got two other kids that are a little bit younger, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yeah, we have two kiddos at Hedges right now. It's two. So our third and fourth kids to go through Hedges. Gregory's a fifth grader and Cora's a second grader.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

How long have you been been a teacher at uh at Hedges?

SPEAKER_01 5:55

I just told my kids today I have been a teacher for 19 years, which is starting to feel like a lot of years.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

So is that total or is that your total time at Hedges?

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yeah, that's total. So I had five years in before I came to Hedges. So this is a 14th year at Hedges.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

What do you enjoy most about being a teacher at Hedges?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

You know, I love the population we serve. That's kind of the heart of it. I taught at a I've taught at a private school in New Jersey, and I love those kids that came from a ton of privilege. And it was a little bit harder for me to connect with them because I didn't quite have the same kind of priorities and things like that. Our families here, we have kind of a mix. We have kids that do have a lot of privilege, and we have we have some kids with just kind of rough stories that need a lot of support. And so I really love our demographics because I get to work with just kind of a variety of kids and families. Another one of the great joys is getting to teach multiple kids from one family, like your family. That's been so great. And there's a couple other families that I got to teach four out of their four kids, which has been super fun. But I love having siblings and cousins and things like that in class.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

So how how different are the personalities between siblings?

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Do you always so different? You think you're gonna get the same, and they are just their own little humans. All of them are so different. Yeah.

Challenges of being an educator

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah, that's that's been our experience as parents, too. It's just amazing how they all grow up together, but they are so different and have so many different interests and priorities and and those sorts of things. So obviously, education is a big deal in our community, you know, a big deal in every community. And what are the biggest challenges to being to being an educator, teacher, administrator, whatever?

Disconnect on funding

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, for sure. I think there's some things about about teaching that are just inherently challenging. Kids are different every day. Kids can have a great day, and then the next day can be really, really hard emotionally, or something happened at home and things are really hard. And you know, you just always have a variety of kids who have different learning needs throughout the year. And that's kind of just the like, that's just what you step into when you become an educator. You know that things are going to be like that. Doesn't make it any less challenging every year. I'm, you know, trying to figure out how to meet the needs of all the different kids in my class and their different backgrounds and the way they learn to read or the way they learn to write. So that is that part is a really big challenge. We are always having new things, for lack of a better word, tossed at us. We adopted two new curriculums this year, and our administrators are, you know, aware that this is a heavy lift, and also we still just get to do it. And so it's it's a big adjustment when you've got kind of one way of doing things and you're asked to do it a different way. And, you know, hopefully, and usually it's for the betterment of their education. But obviously, learning new things takes time and practice, so that can be challenging. And then finally, the, you know, funding is a tricky piece with education. Our schools are not fully funded by the state. And so we have to run levies in order to fully fund our schools. And we don't always get the support that we hope and need. We just last last spring passed a high school levy in this valley for the first time in 18 years, which was just really hard to see, you know, all of those years that it did not pass and it finally did pass, which is great news. I'm hoping we're having a shift in just kind of better, better funding and more support for our districts.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Most people seem to be supportive of education. What do you think the disconnect is with appear apparent support and passing the necessary uh levies to keep funding school and the way it needs to be funded?

SPEAKER_01 9:37

I mean, I think it's a financial issue for sure. Families are tapped out, taxes are, you know, consists consistently being raised, and it just feels hard for families to give more to something. And then I think also we're as a district, I know we're kind of working on our marketing and trying to be very specific about what are what we're running levies for and what this money goes to. And we had an awesome group of parents and supporters put together an organization called One Brave Pack last year to really communicate to the community exactly what our dollars were going for and also all of the fantastic things that we do in our schools. And I think that that sometimes gets hidden as well. We just kind of as educators do our jobs and even if it's hard, pull through and just do it because we're asked to do it. And I think sometimes we're probably too quiet about the great things that are happening in our schools, and people don't know what they would be supporting if they were voting yes for a levy or a bond.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

So that's a fair point. And you know, and making getting that or building that public awareness is hard. I having kids in schools, I've got a kid at Flathead KMS, and and at Hedges. And so I see it, but I also am a part of civic organizations where we get to interact with a lot of the youth and the kids at the high schools and uh mostly at the high schools, but just to see all the great things that are going on there, what these kids are accomplishing and how amazing they are. And that's not by accident, it's because there's been this deliberate education program that's brought them up and obviously their families and their parents and other life's experience. But you know, like they say, it takes a village, and all of these folks working together, including the teachers and educators, contribute to that. So I it's yeah, it's quite the conundrum building that awareness. I do think I I the last year the superintendent did a really good job of, in my mind, communicating what the levy was for. And obviously, the One Brave Pack was a great coalition of parents that built a lot of awareness and helped people understand what what it was all about. So, but that was a high school levy. That was not a middle school or elementary levy, correct?

Funding districts

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah, so we actually, um, in terms of funding, run two separate districts. So our high school district is one, and then our elementaries and middle school go together is another. So I just spoke to one of our board members who said that, and actually our superintendent told us as well in a meeting this month that they're gonna be looking to run an elementary levy this spring and that those dollars will go to essentially supporting teachers. We haven't passed one of those in three years, and so unfortunately, inflation starts to add up. And we had to do some cuts to elementary and middle school last year, which is resulting in these combo classes. So, like if our numbers get low enough, we've had, I think most of the schools have like a first, second combo class or a fourth, fifth combo class. And there's some great things that can happen in there, and it's also a pretty heavy lift for teachers to try to teach two grade levels with the same number of kids in the classroom. So that so those levy dollars could potentially bring some positions back, is what I was told by the school board member. So that would be really fantastic as well.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Do do those combo classes impact the students' experience and their ability to learn and prove competency in in the curriculum?

SPEAKER_01 14:04

You know, the teachers that they have asked to do it are such fantastic teachers that I don't I I, you know, when my daughter is one in one of the classes and she's having an awesome year and she's learning all the skills she needs to do. And I think one of the great pieces of it is that she's learning to be more independent. Now, one of the pieces there is that she was in my class last year and trying to get your daughter to be independent when you're the teacher is a little bit trickier than I thought it would be. Um so she's becoming a lot more independent because her teacher needs to be with the first graders during certain times while the second graders work independently. And so I think that's a great job. I think I think what's happening is our teachers are just working extra hard to make sure that their kids are meeting all those competencies, which is maybe doable for a period of time, but maybe not a long-term solution, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

It seems like you'll need a burn burnout, right? I mean, it kind of could get to that pretty quickly because being a teacher has to be emotionally strenuous. Is that a fair conclusion?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yes, absolutely. It is. You know, I I think I don't know a teacher who isn't just super invested in the well-being of their kids, you know, and you're trying, you know, you're trying to keep kids who are brilliant challenged all day, which is a joy of it. And then you might have a kid who's chronically absent and you're trying to figure out how to work with that family to get them to school without knowing really the truth of the matter. Typically, you might be trying to get certain kids IEPs who have learning challenges. Yeah. And so all of this, uh on top of the fact that as a teacher, you're on all day long. You know, we have a couple recesses and a prep time and things like that, but we're really on all day. And I think all of those pieces combined do make it pretty emotionally exhausting.

Annie's community involvement

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Well, what do you do to to recharge and and refocus and kind of make it possible to get up every day and and really keep doing what you do?

SPEAKER_01 16:02

As the older I get, the earlier to bed I go in the evenings. But I'm also a morning exerciser, and that is a big piece of what just kind of gets me up and gets me going for the day. I learned really early in my teaching career, even before we had kids that would, you know, kind of be in the way of it as the exercising after school wasn't going to happen for me. So that time, and often it's with friends. I think I swim with a group at the summit and they're friends of mine, and I really enjoy that, or I run with friends in the morning. So that's kind of my like not necessarily recharge, but charge up time, I guess, for the day. And then yeah, early to bed and squeezing in as much time outside as I can.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Yeah, I'm sure. Be especially being a native, he probably love the outdoors. So it's uh that's good stuff. So what do you when you guys swim, what do you do?

Why be a teacher?

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Well, my husband actually coaches an adult, it's kind of like an adult master's group, an adult coach swim. So he writes a workout and we grumble a little bit and then we do it.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Some things never change, I guess. That's great. What other ways do you get involved with the community or do you give back even more than you're already giving back?

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Well, yeah, I f I guess I wish I had more time for that than I do. We are members of First Presbyterian Church and try to serve there in some ways. My husband preaches once a month there currently, and I try to be involved with some of the youth ministry kiddo stuff that goes on. Yeah, my my son Gregory is involved with Glacier Aquatic Club. So there's some service that goes along with meets and things like that for for that organization. So yeah, and then just trying to keep everybody living and breathing in my own house.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

So that's a yeah, Herculan effort on its own, right? So that's uh that's great. So, you know, this is always uh something I'm always fascinated by. My my mom was an educator and she she taught and she did administration for gosh, I don't know how many years, 30 or 40 years. What kind of got you to to this point where you wanted to be a teacher and what keeps you motivated to keep doing this?

How can the community support teachers?

SPEAKER_01 18:09

I have known that I wanted to be a teacher like for as long as I can remember. I don't, I never really had another thing that I wanted to be. My mom was a first-grade teacher and she was really, really fantastic. She was a really incredible teacher. She is a person who has a lot of energy and a lot of motivation. And I just watched that my whole life. And I distinctly remember coming home and, you know, we would ask each other how our days were. And I don't ever remember her saying anything, but it was great. It was fantastic. And I just admired that so much. I thought, I don't like, why would I I want a job that that can be, you know, the way it feels each day. And she really believed that it was just remarkable. So yeah, that was just kind of always what I wanted to do. You know, we are also fortunate as kids to have our mom available on Christmas breaks and Thanksgiving breaks and in the summers. We had amazing summers together as families. And so I just I loved that that way of growing up and having having somebody available. And I knew that I would want to be available for my kids in that way too.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

That's that's great. Thanks for sharing that. You know, I also think about teachers and just the the challenges of teaching, the there are many fold. We won't dive into those today, but what what could our community do to be more supportive of teachers and education in general, maybe apart from passing levies and whatnot, but what what are some things that would be good for parents, grandparents, and just community members in general to know, like how we could be more supportive of education in general?

What does a better future look like?

SPEAKER_01 19:44

You know, over the last few years, we've had kind of a push for more volunteers and involvement within our schools. So, like if there are parents or grandparents who are interested in volunteering at schools, there can often be an opportunity for that. I had a high school friend of mine whose mom said to him, a cup, it's been three or four years ago, I just feel like I need to get out of the house more. And she's in her 70s. And he said, Why don't you what if we contact Annie and see if you can help? And she's been coming to my room weekly for, I think this is our third or fourth year together. And it is just a delight. Like I love getting to see her every week, and she is great with the kids, and of course the kids love her too. And it is, we can just often use an extra set of hands in a classroom when there's 20 kids and one adult. And so that has been a gift to me for sure. We also are doing a big push in the high schools for more like work-based learning with internships. And I got to participate on my end for the first time this year. I had a high school intern. And so the way it works is they get credit for working in a different in different settings. It could be like in a grocery store or in a school. I know like physical therapy clinics have taken them. I saw the Starbucks at Target had somebody. And so this student, we kind of arranged a schedule and she came a couple of times a week for a couple hours for the semester. And she was somebody I'd known before from another class that she had worked with my class with. And so That was a super awesome experience too. So supporting those work-based learning opportunities, if you're a business owner or a teacher or anything like that, would be just a cool way to kind of help prep our high school age kids for work after high school.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

So how would somebody get involved with that?

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah, good question. So Mike Kelly is our I wish I knew his title. I don't know his actual title, but he works with the work-based learning and he can help direct your path on that one. And definitely I would think that things are listed on our KPS website as well.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Mike's Mike's a great guy, and he is so passionate about education and helping our students here. Great, great guy to have in that position. So Mike Kelly with School District 5, if you're interested in, you know, helping some of our high school students get some experience to the beneficial to them after graduation. So, you know, you you've been here for the majority of your life. Obviously you left for Whitworth and Princeton and Haiti. I mean you've seen a lot of change here over the years. As you look at where, you know, think about what the flathead was when you grew up, what it is now. I mean, how how do you think about the future of the flathead and what what does a better, stronger future here look like to you?

The Flathead Five

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Gosh, things have changed so much. And, you know, I we were gone for 10 years. I don't know that I was necessarily of like age to really notice those things when I when we kind of came back. We also came back frequently when we lived away, but you know, there's obviously a lot more people here than there were when I was growing up. It was a small town that really hadn't been discovered. And we are just growing exponentially, as as we all know. So my parents will often joke about how when we were when we were kids, you would go out to dinner and you knew most of the people in the restaurant. So you would stop and talk to people and and I think I think my husband kind of rolls my eyes at he'll rolls his eyes at me. He did not grow up here, but when I'm like, I cannot believe I didn't see anybody I knew in there. Like it just was a normal thing that you ran into people you know. So but I guess what I hope, even as we grow, and I because I think the flathead has been rooted a lot in relationships, you know, like you say you say Mike Kelly is a great guy. I swam with Mike Kelly's kids, so I've known Mike Kelly most of my life. And there's just, you know, and my parents have known Mike because they went to, we've gone to church together. And there's just kind of these like, it doesn't take too long, not too many degrees of separation to figure out who you know or who you know who knows who, you know. And I just think those, like those actual relationships are what make the Flathead Valley a really special place. And I think continuing to just invest in people and say hello and get to know people is the thing that's gonna continue to make this a great place to live.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

Well said, very well said. And that's that's the whole point of this podcast, Heart of the Flathead, is just for us to build that connection and and get to know people that we might not otherwise get to know. And and so thank you so much for for stating that. So to wrap up today, we're going to we're gonna do our flathead five. These are five questions we ask everybody. They're meant to be rapid fire, so don't need to put a lot of thought into it, just kind of what comes to mind first and foremost, and we'll start there. So, what is your your favorite hidden gem in the community?

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Oh, I have a new one to share with you that I just discovered on Sunday. I some friends and I went to the cabins at Blacktail, which are these cute little cabins that they have built off the Blacktail Road. I have not stayed there. However, they have a sauna and cold plunge that if you continue down past the down past the cabins, there is a really nice sauna that is very toasty warm. And they have kind of diverted the creek into a small kind of hot tub-shaped cold plunge. And so you can get really nice and toasty in the sauna and then do the cold plunge, which is the first time I've ever done something like this. But I really enjoyed it. And they are you can like reserve an hour time slot online.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

So you do the cold, you do the cold plunge too, then.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Well, here's the thing: I did not think I was going to. And my friend said, We are adults, we can make our own decisions. And I was like, there's no way I'm gonna do that. But you get pretty hot in the sauna, so the cold plunge feels good.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Nice, very nice. That's great. Okay, Grizz or Bobcats?

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Well, we never really cared too much in our family. We I wasn't a big football fan growing up or other sports fan necessarily in that way, but we have a son at Montana State University, so definitely Bobcats now.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Yeah, and national champions at that. So wow, good for them, right? So, what's your uh favorite outdoor activity in the valley?

SPEAKER_01 26:00

It is a tie between hiking and running on the trails in Glacier Park and spending time on my parents' dock at McGregor Lake.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

Ooh, McGregor Lake. That's a nice spot. What do you know today that you wish you knew when everything started for you?

SPEAKER_01 26:17

You know, I I didn't talk too much about adoption, but adoption is a really special challenge. It's a joy and a privilege and uh in a lot of ways a big challenge. And I guess what I wish I had known is that yes, things were gonna be hard, but also like I've really experienced that God's been super faithful to us in equipping us for the things that have been hard and that he has given us just incredible people along the way to to help us through the challenges.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

A powerful lesson. And when it's all over, when everything's said and done, what do you want the uh the one or two sentence review on your life to be?

SPEAKER_01 26:54

I asked my husband if it was okay if I said this. I was like, it's gotta be true if I'm gonna say this. I said that I hope people would think or would know that I was kind and that I served other people well.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Yeah, well, I think that's gonna be pretty apparent based on your just your profession alone, everything you've done. So thank you for all that you do. Honestly, I know teachers are greatly underappreciated, and I am grateful for you and appreciate everything you've done for our family, but that you do for all the kids and our community and all for all teachers for that matter. So thank you for that. Thank you for coming on Heart of the Flathead. Great to get to know you a little bit more, and uh yeah, look forward to maybe having you back in the future.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Thanks for listening to this episode of Heart of the Flathead. We'd love to hear your thoughts about today's episode and the podcast in general. You can listen at heart of the flathead.com or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can reach David via the contact page at heart of the flathead.com or by clicking on the send us feedback link at the top of the episode description and your favorite podcast app.