Bringing experience and understanding to the classroom

SEELEY LAKE – As a young child, Julee Samuli loved to set up a classroom and teach to her stuffed animals. After getting a degree in music therapy in 1991 and then taking a break from teaching to raise her children, Samuli is back in the classroom teaching sixth grade at Seeley Lake Elementary. She looks forward to fostering success in her students academically, socially and emotionally while incorporating different learning styles, problem solving from different perspectives and teaching life skills.

"I want to do my best to help prepare them for junior high, high school and beyond for whatever they want to do with their lives in the future and keep as many of those doors of opportunity open for them as possible," said Samuli.

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Samuli grew up with a very musical family. She could easily pick out melodies and play them on the piano.

In high school, Samuli's choir teacher told her about the music therapy degree. While she loved to teach and work with young students, this was broader than simply teaching music and wasn't confined to the classroom.

"The psychology was more interesting to me, working with the kids individually and helping them to get to the next step or achieve something," said Samuli. "It is not always about school. I could help kids that had physical disabilities or impairments."

Samuli gradated in 1991 with a degree in music therapy with an emphasis in the young child from the University of Pacific in Stockton, California. Through her early childhood education credits, she also received an early childhood education degree .

Her degree allowed her to work with students with special needs using music therapy to give them an alternate way of learning and remembering the material.

"We can support the child academically, socially and emotionally," said Samuli. "When I did my internships, I just loved it."

Samuli taught in an integrated classroom at a preschool – eighth grade school in Freemont, California for five years. Along with teaching in the preschool classroom, she did music therapy and worked with the other therapists with the students with special needs. She also led an after school kindergarten program.

When Samuli had her children in 1996, she became a stay at home mom and worked as a nanny. When her boys started school, she started working as the outdoor activities supervisor and substitute taught at their elementary school. Since that was only part time, she also started her dog training business.

After purchasing their home in Seeley Lake in 2005, the Samulies moved to Seeley Lake permanently in January 2016. After her youngest son graduated from Seeley-Swan High School Samuli was looking for something productive to do with her time. She chose to substitute teach at Seeley Lake Elementary during the 2019-2020 school year because she saw a need at the school and she missed being in the classroom.

"Working with the kids again put a smile on my face every day," said Samuli who loved being back in the classroom. "Seeing those kids and being there for them, helping them out and hearing how they were excited about things and seeing their achievements even just in the capacity as a [substitute] was huge for me. I totally missed that."

When several teaching positions opened, teachers at SLE encouraged Samuli to apply. She met with Superintendent Josh Gibbs and agreed to come back into the classroom. Because Montana teaching credentials are more broad, Samuli is teaching sixth grade with a provisional license while pursuing her Masters in K-8 Education.

Because of her experience teaching and personal struggle learning how to read, Samuli said she has learned different learning strategies and is very adept at working with different types of learners – those that need to hear it, those that need to see it and those who need to do it.

"I think that is really helpful - I understand that struggle [they] are going through," said Samuli. "Communicating to them that just because I'm a teacher, doesn't mean that I am perfect. We are all human beings. We are going to make mistakes along the way and our job is to learn from our mistakes."

Samuli feels sixth grade helps students prepare for junior high, not only academically but learning life skills including organization, self discipline and accountability. She wants her students to understand that there are different ways to take notes and solve problems and she hopes to help them identify what works best for them.

Samuli looks forward to getting to know the kids, understanding what motivates them and getting them excited about achievements and things that they accomplish over the year. They have established a baseline so at the end of the year they can see how far they progressed.

"Getting them excited about those little tiny steps and those little tiny achievements makes a big difference in the long run," said Samuli. "When they reflect back and they look, I can say 'Look how far you've gone.'"

For Samuli the biggest challenge has been getting the students back into the swing of things. She feels there is already a big leap from fifth grade to sixth grade because it is more rigorous academically, there are more expectations and this year they lost several months at the end of last year due to COVID-19.

"Sixth grade is that transition year. [Students] are not quite junior high but are not in elementary. For some kids they are ready but others are not," said Samuli explaining there are big gaps in developmental stages even though the students are the same age.

To overcome these challenges, Samuli is trying to differentiate her curriculum to address the individual needs of her students – challenging those who need it and helping those that need a little extra help. She added she also has a great support network at SLE from her colleagues and from Sharon Teague, the past sixth grade teacher.

"Thank heavens for Sharon," said Samuli. "She is my resource when I have questions, she is right there helping me out. She left tons of resources for me so I didn't have to completely reinvent the wheel."

When Samuli is not in the classroom, she enjoys playing with her dogs and going for razer rides and fishing with her husband. She also loves spending time with her sons when they come home from college, listening to music and playing the keyboard when she has the time.