Kara Welty is an award-winning educator located Kansas City and she was a speaker at the 2017 Midwest Educational Technology Community’s (METC) conference. She highlighted the importance of digital connections.

“I believe that in this world we live in now, everything is digital, everything is online, and the resources of the world is at our fingertips,” Welty said.

During her presentation titled “Engage Students and Families” on Feb. 14, she told a story about when her class met her then-boyfriend (and now fiancé), and said the kids hounded him with questions.

Do you love her? Do you want to marry her? Do you want to have kids with her?

When her fiancé popped the big question, she had to tell her former students. She made an Instagram post talking about a student who sent her a letter. She went on to thank the girl and told her that she believes in her. At the end, she sneakily added in that she got engaged.

“Students feel like teachers are trying to understand them more when they use social media and that makes them excited to come to school.”