Minnesota Teacher of the Year

I always compare Labor Day weekend to the that silent spot at the top of a rollercoaster, right before the coaster makes its first big drop. The stark contrast of pace in a teacher’s life is never so pronounced as it is on that September weekend before the first classes start.
For me, I always [...]

I’ve spent some time in the past week over at Scott McLeod’s Dangerously Irrelevant blog. I’m impressed at the consistently interesting posts he puts up. This week, for example, is Change Week. It focuses on elements of technological change in K-12 education. This post is a good example of the quality of stuff he puts [...]

This morning, I had the honor of giving the commencement address at the Ridgedale Alternative Program (RAP) in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. RAP is one of the several alternative learning centers that Intermediate District 287 administers.
An Alternative Learning Center (ALC) is generally a place where students come after they have had difficulties with traditional educational [...]

A few people have asked to see the essays that I wrote for the Teacher of the Year application. They have been included in the official press release, but for the sake of easy access, I’m posting them here in PDF format. Clicking on the links below will allow you to save them to your [...]

The most moving aspect of receiving the Teacher of the Year award has been the emails and letters that I’ve received from former students. For two weeks, letters and emails have been coming in from everywhere. I’ve gotten calls from Japan, emails from New Zealand, and letters from all over the United States. Many of [...]