Salina Journal
Stepping into Chris Michel's classroom at Heusner Elementary is a little like a quick trip to the islands, with tiki torches and dried grass decorating the room and tiki cups hanging from the ceiling.
"We went to Maui this summer on our honeymoon, and I thought the kids would like it," Michel said. "I want coming into my class to be something different, an adventure."
That kind of thinking, along with his willingness "to make a fool of myself in front of the kids, talking with different voices and accents," are part of the reason Michel, who teaches fourth grade, was recently given a Kansas Horizon Award for teaching, one of just 32 teachers statewide given the award from the Kansas Department of Education.
"I like to use humor -- the kids never know what I'm going to do or say," Michel said, explaining that he might use "an English voice, or a cowboy voice" in some of his lessons to help get the point across. "I'm just trying to make it different and fun."
Michel's first year as a teacher was teaching third grade at Heusner, and because he's teaching fourth grade this year, he's gotten to know many of his students better than usual.
"I know them, and they know me and my expectations," he said.
"He has wonderful energy and excitement," Heusner principal Lori Munsell said. "He really captures the kids' attention. He has a little chant for his class: 'Who's the best -- we're the best,' and it really gets the kids going. You can tell he has a strong relationship with the kids."
Michel, who grew up in Salina, did his student teaching at Grace Stewart Elementary, and "when he interviewed with us, we knew he was somebody we wanted."
Michel, who turns 32 in June, has really good classroom management skills, Munsell said, and that's something teachers often have to work on in their first couple years of teaching.
Because of that, she said, "He was able to go so much further in his first year."
Michel didn't go directly to college from high school and then into teaching; instead, he worked for 14 years for Dillon's on South Ohio and earned a degree in commercial art from Salina Area Technical School. But he still hadn't decided what he wanted to do long-term.
A few years ago, he enrolled at Kansas Wesleyan University, seeking a teaching degree.
"I always felt comfortable working with kids," Michel said, adding that he'd supervised lots of teenagers while working at Dillon's and decided he wanted to work with elementary-age students.
As part of his Horizon award, Michel is now part of the Kansas Exemplary Educators Network. He said he's looking forward to the meetings that group has as an opportunity to "interact with other exemplary teachers across the state." For while he says his second year of teaching has been much easier than the first, "every day is a learning experience -- and I think it always will be."
n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.
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