One question has shaped Melyssa Ferro’s entire career: “Why?”
“I’ve just always been fascinated with the world around me and wanting to know more about it, and wanting to learn why things happened,” she said.
That perpetual question, and Ferro’s ability to inspire the same thirst for answers in her students, is just one of the reasons the longtime Caldwell Education Association member was honored on Feb. 13 at the National Education Association Foundation Salute to Excellence in Education Gala in Washington, D.C. Ferro was one of only five recipients nationwide to receive a Horace Mann Award.
“Melyssa Ferro thoroughly deserves this honor and to be recognized on a national stage,” said Layne McInelly, Idaho Education Association president. “She brings science to life for her students, challenges them to think critically, and refuses to let circumstances or limited resources stand in the way of meaningful learning. For more than 25 years, she has been a powerful force for public education in Idaho.”
A Love for Science That Stuck
Ferro was one of those kids who would decoct potions from leaves and berries gathered in her backyard or go down a dinosaur rabbit hole. “I’ve just always been fascinated with the world around me and wanting to know more about it, and wanting to learn why things happened,” she said.
Even as a child, she knew she would be a scientist. She trained for it in college, but the traditional role of a scientist just didn’t fit.
“I got to the point where I couldn’t picture myself living in a laboratory,” she said. “It was too cold. It was too sterile.”
Ferro is the daughter of educators but never thought she would wind up leading a classroom herself. But in college, her focus changed. “I think I finally just had the realization that I’m not meant to be a scientist,” she said. “I’m meant to be a science educator.”
Not just any science educator, though. From the beginning of her career, Ferro has been intentional in her profession. She chose to work in the same classroom where she studied as a student, at Syringa Middle School in Caldwell, because she wanted to teach middle-school students.
“You can have conversations with them about, ‘Why does climate change matter?’ ‘How do humans impact the Earth?’” she explains. “But on the other hand, they will still freaking do anything for a Dora the Explorer sticker.”
Her classroom is famously energetic and hands-on and meets students where they are — Ferro is a master of educational technology, which helps her engage with digital natives. Students make memes to explain geology theories, for example. The work may be engaging, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
“If this class is easy for you, I’m not doing my job,” Ferro tells her students. “My job is to help you make some brain connections and to let you struggle for a little bit and know that that’s OK.”
In an era of polished AI perfection, Ferro is an advocate of messing up. “One of my mottos is to fail forward,” she said. “I expect you to fail in my class … but I don’t want you to just wallow in it. I need you to move forward from it.”
Creating Resources Where There Are None
That same philosophy extends beyond her classroom. Ferro is also a prolific educator of other educators, mentoring new teachers, leading professional learning, and helping colleagues think critically about how learning happens. She now spends 20% of her time teaching in the classroom and the other 80% focused on educational technology instruction for other educators.
Vallivue Education Association member Amber Ford, who got to know Ferro through union work, said that the learning doesn't stop for Ferro, either.
"I quickly learned that she is a force of nature and she is passionate about growing as a professional," Ford said. "She is willing to step up and learn new things that she believes are beneficial for her students and community; in addition, she wants to help other education professionals grow. If you see a training being offered regarding technology integration in this area, there's a good chance that Dr. Ferro is leading it."
Ferro is an early adopter and tells her fellow educators to not be afraid of tools like artificial intelligence, which she uses every day.
“You can’t put that genie back in the bottle,” she said. “I do think that not all screen time is created equal … whatever you do with technology has to be thought out. It has to be integrated intentionally, with purpose. I want my kids collaborating. I want my kids using AI as a thought partner.”
But a dystopian vision of AI displacing flesh-and-blood educators? Ferro isn’t seeing it.
“Technology is never going to replace people in the world of education,” she said. “There’s some professional judgment there. There’s that relationship component. The humanity of what we do as educators — a computer can’t do that.”
AI also can’t do the behind-the-scenes work that Ferro pulls off for her students. “I feel like I’m constantly looking for grants, finding partners, finding communities,” she said. She has written grants for everything from equipment to field trips and specialized lessons; her knack for grant writing has served her students, many of whom come from families that are struggling economically.
“I think the idea that people have about Idaho kids is that they’re these super outdoorsy, super-nature kinds of kids,” she said. “And while there are Idaho kids like that, those are not my Idaho kids. My Idaho kids don’t have access to resources to go do outdoor things.”
That means her science closet is stuffed with snow pants and snow boots for the students’ stint at Snow School at Bogus Basin every year. Sleeping bags take up space in the back of the room, waiting for the next excursion to Yellowstone National Park or Oregon.
“We spend a lot of time on things you wouldn’t think about, making sure our kids have access to food and transportation and gear and all of the things that they really need to explore themselves, explore their world,” she said. “Those are things that don’t fall into a traditional school funding budget.”
That’s a gap most legislators don’t think about, she said — which legislators would include things like snow pants and 22 pepperoni pizzas for a science class field trip in a budget?
“And yet, I would say these things are almost more important than textbooks,” she said.
That sense of what students need makes her a powerful voice within the union, Ford said. "Dr. Ferro knows that this profession, and our union, only work when we step up. Instead of waiting for things to happen, she actively steps in to make it happen. Instead of simply bemoaning the state of things, Dr. Ferro wants to be part of the solution. That is why she is an asset to the whole profession."
That advocacy for students and the profession is part of what attracted the attention of the NEA Foundation. Ferro summed it up best in the award video the foundation played in her honor at the gala on Feb. 13.
“Public education matters, my students matter, and science matters,” she said. “We need scientifically literate people to be voting in the polls. We need scientifically literate people to be making decisions for our country.”
