Overstreet teacher Niki Mulrooney, a 14 year teaching veteran, is honored for always going the extra yard for her students. Mississippi State University recognized Mulrooney on Saturday with the College Football Playoff Foundation Extra Yard For Teachers Award which champions great classroom teachers and elevates the teaching profession by inspiring and empowering teachers.
As a teacher as Overstreet Elementary School, Mulrooney has encouraged her students through service learning. For the past three years, her students write a business plan to create and sell wood block art for a purpose. Since 2017, her students have raised $7500, and the students share their profits among several school clubs and community charities.
Most recently, Mulrooney has added chickens to her winning teacher game plan as a way to teach values and life skills of empathy and caring for others. Mulrooney and her students have constructed a chicken coop at Overstreet that houses a flock of 5 chickens of varying breeds. Students care for the chickens with an assigned checklist of observations to make and duties to perform each day.
Mulrooney is a National Board Certified teacher, and she holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in education from Mississippi State University.
