Harvard Grad Wins Minnesota Teacher Of The Year
Michael Smart said he is used to addressing groups of 20 to 25 students at a time, so it was understandable that his heart was racing when he stepped to the microphone on Sunday after being named the 2007 Minnesota Teacher of the Year.. . .Smart gave his remarks in English, but he is just as comfortable conversing in Japanese, a subject he teaches at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School in Plymouth through Intermediate School District 287's Global Languages Program.
He also teaches online classes in Japanese.
Smart, a teacher for 20 years, was one of 11 finalists and one of 130 candidates for the annual award from Education Minnesota, which represents more than 70,000 educators.
Four Minnesota teachers who have won the award in its 43-year history have gone on to become the National Teacher of the Year.
"When I started teaching, I wanted to become a great teacher," said Smart, 45, of Golden Valley. "But classes went much better when I stopped focusing on becoming the best teacher I could be and started focusing on helping my students become the best students they could be."
In choosing Smart, Education Minnesota noted his use of nearly every available means to keep students engaged and involved, including interactive cable TV, videos, computers, the Internet, role playing and games to personalize learning.
"I love to see kids laughing. I love to see kids learning. When you have laughing, learning and bring relevance to the classroom it makes my job so easy it is a joy," he said.
Smart's enthusiasm for his subject and his students might explain why enrollment in his courses has jumped from 12 students in 1991 to more than 100 this year.
. . .Smart earned an economics degree from Harvard in 1984 and a master's degree in education from the University of Minnesota in 2003.
He spent four years teaching at the ECC Foreign Language Institute in Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s before coming to Minnesota to teach Japanese to students at Cooper, Armstrong, Osseo, Park Center and Maple Grove high schools through District 287, a district created by 13 school districts in the Twin Cities area to provide specialized services.
Yes, it takes extra-ordinary people to be able to teach kids as effectively as he does. Especially in the public schools where you don't get to choose your students. But more often than not, extra-ordinary people tend not to get into the education business because of the high stress and low pay. Why the hell should you get a graduate degree for a job that pays, at best, bachelor degree wages? And look at this Michael Smart guy. He survives Marty Feldsteins class(es?) to get a degree in Economics and instead of becoming rich elected to impart his knowledge on high-school students. That is a rare breed indeed. But as long as we pay babysitters more than we do teachers, the Michael Smarts of the world will remain the exceptions that prove the rule.