Welcome to My Blog & Brief Bio

Hello fellow educators, administrators, and change-agents into today's schools.  My name is Adam Zellmer and I am a 2nd year High School Principal at Laurel-Concord/ Coleridge High School in Laurel, NE.  I am going to begin writing this weekly blog as a reflection tool for my own professional development, and I hope others in education will follow me on my journey as I look to provide insight and also learn from each of you.  I thought I would begin with a brief biography of who I am and what my experiences are.

I was born and raised in Kingsley, Iowa a small rural 1A school in northwest Iowa.  I spent my entire k-12 education in the Kingsley-Pierson School District.  One of the first districts in the state of Iowa to truly consolidate.  The k-4 and 9-12 schools were housed together in a state of the art new school in Kingsley.  The 5th-8th grades were in a three story 1900's middle school in Pierson.    I was involved in every activity, club, and sport that the school district had to offer, I was involved in school leadership, and loved every single minute of my school experience.  This is the reason why I wanted to be an educator.  I knew from an early age I want to be a teacher, a coach, and become a school administrator.  I graduated from Kingsley-Pierson High School in 2002 as the Salutatorian of my High School Class.

I went to the best college of education in the state, The University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and purused a degree in busines teaching.  I have always loved business and knew a business background would come in handy as I aspired to be a school administrator.    I graduated from UNI in 2006 having been actively involved coaching, mentoring, and being involved in many educational and business organizations on campus.

In 2006 I was offered my first job at Hartley Melvin Sanborn High School as the Business Teacher and Wrestling Coach.  I later took on the roles of at-risk coordinator, student council sponsor, track coach, football announcer, strength and conditioning coordinator, and prom sponsor as I went through my 5 years at the high school.  HMS was a large 1A and for some activities small 2A school with around 50 to 60 kids per graduating class.

During my time at HMS I purused my educational administrative degree from South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD  which was online during the school year and had some oncampus face to face meeting times during the summer.  In the Spring of 2009 I received my degree and began to contemplate when would be the appropriate time to pursue this next level in my career.

In January of the 2010-2011 school year I knew I was ready to take the next step into school administration.  I knew it wouldn't be easy convincing people that a 27 year old with 5 years of teaching experience was ready to take the next step into administration.

In March of 2011 I was offered my first High School Principal's job at Laurel-Concord/ Coleridge High School.   I am excited to start my 2nd year as a school principal and this past spring I returned to school to begin pursuing and educational specialist and doctorate from the University of South Dakota.

Although at this point in my life the majority of my life is dedicated to my career, I do love the opportunity to spend time at my lake cabin up at Lake Okoboji during the summer and on the monthly weekend I attempt to get away during the school year. 

A great view of the lake from my deck during the fall!  It is much easier to read educational theory with a big pot of coffee and a view like this from the porch!