Candidates say teaching can be its own reward

They were inspired to be teachers by such things as helping a disabled friend in childhood and watching parents dedicated to the profession. And what's kept them in their careers is the excitement of watching children learn and not knowing what will happen every day in their classrooms.

Four south-metro teachers are among 28 semifinalists for the Minnesota Teacher of the Year award, to be given in May. They are Rose Regan of the Inver Grove Heights district, John Bade of the Northfield district, Pam Schilling of Burnsville-Eagan-Savage and Lynne Meyer of Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan.

The Star Tribune spoke to them last week -- Meyer responded via e-mail -- about why they became teachers, what inspires them and what has kept them in the profession.

Q What brought you into teaching?

A The knowledge from childhood that this was a career I wanted to follow. When I was 7, a friend of mine had a tough accident and was brain damaged. I would go over to her house and work with her and try to instruct her and teacher her. Unfortunately, she never advanced. But the experience of having her respond to the small things that I taught touched my life forever.

Q What has kept you in it?

A I think it's the excitement and the spark that you see happen in students that are learning. Their excitement and their quest and their journey into wanting to know how things work, and wanting to learn in-depth what they're studying. I'd like to say that I've touched their lives, but I think they've also touched mine.

A My mother was a teacher, but I've always enjoyed working with young people. It was a photography professor that turned me toward art education. We were having a conversation in the darkroom one day and he asked me what I was going to do with my life. I didn't know. He guided me through a process of talking about that and it sounded like art education would be a good fit.

Q What kept you there?

A I love working with students. It's the relationships that you build and develop with the students through the educational process that makes it rewarding. It's always changing.

Q Why do you teach middle school?

A In college, I said that middle school was one place I would never teach. It'd be totally crazy. After doing it once, I just fell in love with it. It's just so high energy, and they invigorate my life.

A When I was in fourth grade, I just knew that I was going to be a teacher. It was just a passion from then on. I think it's because my parents were very involved in our school, we were always at school, and my teachers were outstanding.

Q What has kept you in it?

A The kids. The kids give me life. I just come alive around kids. I have a passion to see them learn and grow and be all they can be.

Q Why do you like teaching elementary school kids?

A It's rather fun for me, because I get to open up the whole world of science to them. There is an excitement when they come in here. I teach kids in all the grades. It's tough because you don't have a class all to yourself that you really know well, but you get to know them for six years. You get to watch them year after year.

A I always wanted to play school when I was young, because my mom was a teacher ... I had some terrific teachers growing up in the Bloomington school system, many of whom saw some leadership potential in a shy little girl and gave me opportunities to develop the organizational and people skills it takes to make it in this job.

Q How has education or teaching changed during your years in the profession?

A Teaching has always been an honorable career. However, it has become a tall order. Attracting, training and retaining capable people for this responsibility, who have the stamina to make it a career, are paramount issues in education today. Like doctors, we need teachers with good bedside manner; however, we also need people who have more than a heart for kids.

We need people in classrooms who are effective communicators who can diagnose between 20-45 patients in the examining room all at the same time. We need teachers who can write prescriptions in many languages, administer treatment, follow-up after hours and in many cases, teach their caregivers. The breadth of this career is requiring more than four years of college and compensation will need to follow suit in order to recruit and keep the kind of people we need.

Emily Johns • 952-882-9056