By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

ELLIS -- Sally Cauble looked quite comfortable holding open doors for teachers who were touring Ellis High School Wednesday afternoon.

No, she wasn't preparing for a retirement job as greeter at the local Wal-Mart store.

And she isn't even a teacher or staff member at Ellis.

But Cauble will tell you that she absolutely loves education, and she was in her element.

"I love this," said Cauble, a former elementary education teacher who is in her first term on the 5th district's seat on the Kansas Board of Education.

Cauble, who said she was more than happy to make the long trip from her home in Liberal to Ellis, wasn't the only adult going back to school Wednesday.

Five regional nominees for the state BOE's Kansas Teacher of the Year were being treated to a day of education by fellow teacher-of-the-year nominee Karen Madorin.

Madorin, language arts teacher at Ellis High, organized tours of both the elementary and high schools, as well as several presentations on various programs in the high school auditorium.

"You cannot imagine how much we learn on these days," said Kim Guesnier, one of the visiting teachers.

Guesnier is in her 28th year of teaching, including the past 24 at Great Bend, and she said it was welcome change to see what other schools are doing in the classroom.

"I've been in my own little world for so long that this is very educational for me," Guesnier said.

Madorin said that despite being a little stressful, she welcomed the opportunity to plan her tour during an already always-busy spring semester, as well as get the chance to tour other schools.

"It's only good for the teachers, which makes it good for the students," Madorin said. "It's a chance to show what our districts are doing, promote our schools, a chance to meet others in our profession."

Best of all, Madorin said, "we get to learn from one another."

The teachers already have visited Dodge City, home of Paula Ripple, a language arts teacher and one of the regional nominees. They are scheduled to tour Guesnier's school on April 29, the same day they also will get a tour from Hoisington science teacher London Reif.

A tour also is scheduled next month at Wilson, where both Christine Slechta (art) and Adel Schrant (math) were regional nominees.

"In education, you want to see and learn about what's successful at other schools," said Corey Burton, principal at Ellis High. "This program is pretty powerful."

Madorin agreed.

"It gives us a chance to go see new ideas and bring them back to our school," Madorin said. "It's an incubator for growth."

Madorin took the opportunity to showcase programs outside the classroom, too.

While eating lunch, the tour group was entertained by a high school musician at the piano and forensics students.

They got to meet Perry Mick, coach of the girls' basketball team -- the Class 2A state runner-up -- who also gave the teachers a demonstration on physics using a hovercraft in the school gymnasium.

The teachers seemed particularly interested in a presentation by Steve Herrman, technology director for the district, and the hanging-out space of agriculture instructor Bob Kohman.

Herrman talked about the district's plans to possibly go to the smaller netbooks for the one-to-one laptop program for high school students next year. Ellis is nearing the end of its three-year lease for a third of the district's 300 regular-sized laptops and is considering different options for the new batch of computers.

Hohman got to "show off" the school's spacious agriculture room, explaining that students get the chance to work on about 20 small engines a year and talking about the success of the school's FFA program.

Cauble commented on how the hands-on training ties right into the current thinking on successful education.

"The new term is project-based learning. That's what business and industry is saying we need," she said. "More of working with others as a team, being able to solve problems together."

"This," she said, "definitely shows that."