There is one gas station, a hardware supply store, a hair salon, grocery store, and many gift stores and recreational businesses on the 55.8 square miles of Beaver Island, Michigan. Beaver Island Community School is one of the buildings nestled among a tight knit community surrounded by water. A popular tourist destination, Beaver Island is the largest island in Lake Michigan and sits between Traverse City and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Amanda Bedell of Charlevoix County, Michigan, grew up in rural Ohio before moving to Beaver Island. Beaver Island is mostly known for beaches, forests, a recreational harbor, and seclusion. The beauty of the island and previous experiences brought Amanda to the island to teach. Amanda teaches in a multi-age classroom with third and fourth grade students, where she is encouraged to use the island as her classroom.

In a town with roughly 600 year-round residents, the school is the community. Oftentimes the school building gets used for many different things; it has housed students traveling to the island for sports, and served as a venue for community luncheons, medical clinics, and funerals. It has the only public gym equipment available, too.
Living on the island means everyone is your neighbor. When Amanda taught prior to moving to Beaver Island, she could go to work, interact with students, leave school, and not see her students until the next day. Now, Amanda often sees her students and their families after school. She knows their families, and they know hers. Amanda shares that “throughout the summer my students see me and my family biking around town. We may even attend church together or share the same beach. These little moments truly help build a stronger relationship with my students and their families and is what keeps me in the rural community.”
Sometimes teaching on an island can be isolating, literally and figuratively. As Amanda is the only educator teaching third grade and fourth grade, she doesn't have grade level partner teacher peers, which can be challenging. Amanda had teaching experience before her time on the island, but still finds it helpful to collaborate about best practices. Thankfully for Amanda, her administration encourages professional development, and with experienced staff to collaborate alongside.
Amanda’s community is 32 miles from the mainland, which can either be a ~15 minute plane ride or a 2+ hour seasonal ferry ride. With travel as a barrier, her students do not always get to visit museums or other places as often as she would like. Despite these challenges, Amanda’s district prioritizes field trips to the mainland multiple times a year to learn outside of the small island.

Amanda was very excited to go on her first field trip with her students to see a Mo Willems play off-island. It was a big deal, as it would be the first time many of the students would be flying without a parent directly beside them. As can happen in remote places, the weather did not allow them to have this exciting experience. Amanda was on the mainland for a doctor’s appointment, however, and was able to attend the play and bring back Mo Willems books for the students. She also helped with a school transportation errand while she was off island, highlighting how educators wear many hats and must try to remain flexible when it comes to planning.
Using the community as her classroom manifests most clearly in Amanda’s history lessons. Amanda’s students conducted research projects that turned into books, which can be checked out at their local library. The theme of the books were "Memorable People of Beaver Island.” They started out focusing on James Jessie Strang, the “Beaver Island Mormon King” of the mid-1800s. Since that first project, honing in on the strong Irish and Indigenous heritage on the island has made classroom projects more meaningful for Amanda and her class.
In some ways, teaching third and fourth grade is a lot like looping after the school day ends. Amanda notes that “the students change from year to year and the combination of students can change as well.” In Amanda’s small class, there is no hiding in a classroom with less than 10 students. "Individualized learning" better describes the environment in Amanda’s rural classroom. In offering advice for rural teachers, Amanda encourages them to “experiment! Experiment with your schedule, your lesson plans, physical layout of your classroom, what you consider ‘classroom’, etc.”
Amanda’s “why” for teaching in a rural setting is to meet the needs of each individual learner, in every subject, throughout the day. “This is not something I will admit that I have mastered, but is a beautiful evolving puzzle that motivates me to come to work each day.” The relationships Amanda builds with students and families over the multiple years of working together and true autonomy in her classroom is what keeps Amanda on the island.
Thank you Amanda Bedell for sharing your rural teacher story with Rural Schools Collaborative. Want to share your story as a rural educator? Fill out our online submission form here.