Column: Mary Hinnenkamp, No. 2 Pencil

My mother never referred to anyone as elderly or as a senior citizen. She would say that a person was “getting up there in years.” My mother is long gone, and as someone who is herself “getting up there in years,” I am increasingly struck by the changes I see in education.

When I was taking my education courses in the early 1970s, I learned how to thread a film in a projector, use a film strip projector and an overhead projector. This year I am learning to use a Smart Board, which may indeed be smarter than I am.

When I began teaching at the old high school in this school district 30 or so years ago, there was one phone in the building for students to use. It was a big deal for students to get a pass to go down to use it outside the principal’s office — an emergency of sorts.

Today many students call or text parents or friends multiple times during a school day, hopefully between classes.

When I started, attendance was taken on a sheet of paper and hung on a door for office staff to pick up. Now it is a matter of a click, click, click on a computer. I wrote my college papers and first student tests on a manual typewriter, and then ran them off on a ditto machine. I write this column on a laptop and then will e-mail it to the Tribune. So many changes!

But education is a human business. And the relationship between the student and the teacher is in some ways untouched by time. I see evidence of that each year when as a member of the Teacher of the Year Committee, I have the great privilege and honor of reading the testimonies to great teachers and great teaching in the Albert Lea School District.

Each year parents, students, community members and teachers nominate those teachers they most admire to our committee as candidates for Teacher of the Year. Their comments demonstrate what a skilled and talented group of teachers works in this district.

This year our committee received 40 nominations for teacher of the year. Each year it is difficult to sort through and somehow present this wide-ranging list of nominations in a sort of snapshot. But it seems to me that teachers are nominated for two reasons: Their skills in teaching their subject matter and their skills in interacting and working with students.

Students, parents and other teachers appreciate teachers who “incorporate the whole child,” who “prepare meaningful lessons,” who are able to “communicate, sympathize, and redirect,” who are “organized,” who “puts in many extra hours,” who “works hard,” “lets us read a lot,” “has innate teaching abilities,” “teaches us to spell,” and “will not move on until you completely understand,” someone who has a “highly interactive classroom,” demonstrates “tireless efforts and willingness to help make our school district a better place to be,” and “is a leader.”

But each year, it seems that it is those human characteristics, those qualities that make teaching an art as well as a science, that are mentioned most. The nominees are “fun,” “make learning fun,” “cares about each student,” “treats everyone equally,” “builds positive relationships,” “helps me to be a better person,” “never gives up on us,” “sees the good in everyone,” “expects the best in everyone,” “treats us as one of hers,” “has contagious energy,” “nurtures her students,” and is “compassionate,” “understanding,” “sympathetic,” “kind,” “caring,” “passionate,” “creative,” “patient, kind, and caring” and “wants what’s best for kids.”

A first-grade teacher was nominated because “she wants all of her students to be able to achieve their goals, to feel confident, and to love school.” And a varsity coach was nominated because in working with his athletes “he has prepared them to take on the challenges of life with ambition, courage, character, and confidence.”

As member of the Albert Lea Teacher of the Year Committee, when I read these nominations I feel proud to be part of such a noble undertaking — teaching. What could be more important than teaching our next generation of citizens to think and learn, but also to become confident and caring people who will go out and do good things in the world?

Congratulations to all of the nominees for Teacher of the Year. And thank you to all the great teachers everywhere who work so hard and care so much.

Mary Hinnenkamp is on the Teacher of the Year Committee for Albert Lea Area Schools.