Two area teachers have been announced as candidates for the 2015 Minnesota Teacher of the Year.

Paula Buendorf, a special education teacher at Southwest Middle School, and Kristen Hoiland, a math teacher at Alden-Conger Public School, were nominated for the award last fall. Education Minnesota released the list of 123 teachers who are award candidates on Tuesday.

 

Paula Buendorf

Buendorf was the 2014 Teacher of the Year for Albert Lea Schools. She teaches special education at Southwest Middle School.

Buendorf is in her 18th year of teaching at Albert Lea, out of 21 years total. She is on the district autism task force and is working towards an autism spectrum licensure.

She is from Crookston and earned a master’s degree in education from Southwest Minnesota State University.

Buendorf said just being Teacher of the Year in Albert Lea was overwhelming, and she said she had a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that it could come down to her.

“It’s beyond your expectations,” she said.

However, Buendorf said it is very validating to know someone thinks she makes a difference.

With her Albert Lea Teacher of the Year award, Buendorf said she got to have a lot of experiences she wouldn’t normally have. She said she gave out scholarships for the Albert Lea Education Association, was on stage during last year’s commencement and addressed the staff last August before school started.

For the Minnesota Teacher of the Year award, Buendorf said she initially found out she was nominated in October or November, and then had to submit a portfolio of her work.

She said the portfolio process was a “neat” experience and gave her time to reflect on her career. Buendorf said while she was digging through the things she saved from former classes and students she remembered a lot of things and said it sparked her imagination for some ideas for her classes.

In class, there is no typical day for Buendorf. She sees a variety of students who all have different needs, but she focuses on the core curriculum areas of reading, math and writing as well as skills like self-regulation, social awareness and executive functioning.

Executive functioning skills include the ability to know how to stay organized and manage time. Self regulation skills are the ability to put things into perspective.

For example, Buendorf said, if a student drops a pencil it doesn’t mean he or she has to scream, which may be a common response out of frustration. Self regulation skills allow students to keep their behavior in check even though emotions may be strong, Buendorf said.

Buendorf lives on a farm with her husband and sons Mason, 10, and Henry, 8.

 

Kristen Hoiland

Hoiland has been teaching for six years, five of which have been at Alden-Conger. She grew up in Bagley and went to the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Hoiland, first and foremost, said she was extremely honored to be nominated though she thinks she has a lot more to learn. Personally she said she doesn’t think she’s at the level of Minnesota Teacher of the Year yet, but she said she’s striving to be the best she can be.

Hoiland said her father told her when she was younger to pick a job she loved to do so it wouldn’t feel like work, and teaching is definitely her passion. She said it’s something she actually loves and has a passion for.

For Hoiland, the portfolio process came at a busy time, but it reminded her of things she had to do while she was in college.

However, she said she has a hard time bragging herself up on paper and said it’s better for someone to visit with her, see who she is and see how she does things.

In Hoiland’s class, every day varies. Because she teaches at a small school she said she is half the department so she teaches middle schoolers, high schoolers and remedial students.

During her time at Alden-Conger she said she’s taught about 12 or 13 different classes, and has had to create her own curriculum at times.

Hoiland’s passion is teaching students who struggle with math or dislike math. While her aim isn’t to make students love math, she hopes to instill in her students an appreciation of math and for them to realize it is vital to daily life.

For her high school classes, Hoiland has a more traditional model, but for younger students she does a lot of hands-on work. For her remedial classes, Hoiland uses small groups and other activities to teach her students.

Some of the activities she’s done with her classes include building castles using math and her seventh-graders create a shoebox apartment and find measurements and volumes of it.

“I’m always willing to try new things,” Hoiland said. “Whatever will make my students learn.”

Hoiland said many of her former students have congratulated her on the nomination, and she said that’s what her job is all about.

“It’s all about the students,” she said. “I’m here for my students.”

 

Minnesota Teacher of the Year selection process

Teachers must be nominated to be eligible to receive the Minnesota Teacher of the Year award. Teachers can be nominated by faculty, parents and students.

The Teacher of the Year will be selected by a 25-member panel of Minnesota leaders, and the winning teacher will be announced May 3 at the Radisson Blu Mall of America in Boomington.

Now in its 51st year, the Minnesota Teacher of the Year “is the oldest and most prestigious recognition program in Minnesota to honor excellence in education,” according to Education Minnesota’s website. “The program chooses one teacher to represent Minnesota’s thousands of excellent educators.”