Minnesota Teacher of the Year

No matter how many years I teach, I always wake up well before I need to during the first week back to school. Last night I set my alarm for 6:00A.M., but this morning I snapped wide awake at four in the morning, ready to go. I sat there for an hour trying to fall [...]

A few weeks ago I stumbled onto this video:

The piece speaks for itself, but it has to be one of the more uplifting things I’ve seen in a long time. It’s hard to look at the clip and not feel that somehow, some way, we’ll eventually get things right. I also think there are a [...]

Every year, Education Minnesota invites present and past Minnesota Teachers of the Year to spend some time at the Education Minnesota booth at the Minnesota State Fair. This coming Tuesday, August 26, is this year’s Teacher of the Year Day at the fair. Derek Olson will be at the booth after 4:30PM. I will be [...]

Mike Geisen, the 2008 National Teacher of the Year, has started blogging about his adventures this school year. As National Teacher of the Year, Mike leaves the classroom for one school year to travel the world and speak about education. He will serve in this role through May of 2009. In addition to his sharp [...]

Congratulations to Derek Olson for being named our new 2008 Minnesota Teacher of the Year! Derek received the award in the wake of Carleen Gulstad’s resignation for personal reasons in June of this year. Derek will make an excellent Teacher of the Year, and is incredibly deserving of the honor. He is a highly respected [...]

I wanted to make a quick post first and foremost to congratulate our new Minnesota Teacher of the Year, Carleen Gulstad. She is both articulate and enthusiastic, and will be a wonderful representative for Minnesota educators! Congratulations, Carleen! I’m very happy for you!
In speaking with Carleen about the future of this blog, we decided that [...]

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink, talks about the snap decisions human beings make and their accuracy. The book is a fascinating read that touches on a wide range of subject matter. One chapter of the book, interestingly enough, talks about an experiment on evaluating teachers done by Tufts psychologist Nalini Ambady.
In her series of [...]