Edina's Roehl One of 10 Teacher of the Year Finalists

There are probably days when Jackie Roehl doesn't really feel like teaching.

Probably.

Ask any of her colleagues in 's English Department, though, and they'll likely tell you they have yet to witness one.

"She's the kind of person who at 9:30 on a Saturday night is emailing me a newspaper article she thinks we need to use in our next unit," co-worker Rachel Hatten said. "I really think she can't kind of turn it off."

Roehl is among 10 finalists for Minnesota's 2012 Teacher of the Year award, as announced Monday morning by Education Minnesota. The award recipient won't be announced until this year's banquet on Sunday, May 6, following one final round of interviews with all 10 candidates.

Roehl has been teaching at EHS for 12 years now, but shows no signs of slowing down. For someone who didn't actually start teaching until she was 34, that's saying something.

Hatten said Roehl still teaches with the energy of someone who just got into the profession, constantly tweaking her curriculum and bringing new, innovative concepts to the high school.

"We always say that talking with Jackie is like getting on a moving train," Hatten joked. "She doesn't really slow down. You kind of have to be at her speed."

Take a stroll through her classroom and you'll find students clustered around circular tables talking with one another rather than sitting in the typical rows. Roehl finds putting students in those clusters—she calls them "base groups"—helps bring a cooperative aspect to the classroom.

Almost every day is different in Roehl's classes, which goes hand-in-hand with her philosophy for education: "The brain loves novelty."

"We'll make posters together one day, then the next I'll have students debate a controversial issue," Roehl said. "A lot of students tell me they never knew what was coming next. That's a good thing."

Brian Barnett, a senior at EHS, said Roehl is the sort of teacher "who genuinely cares about all of her students."

"One thing that I loved about her classroom was that it was so unique and innovative," Barnett said. "Ms. Roehl constantly changed the structure and format of in-class activities and discussions … to try to meet the needs of all her students."

Barnett, who is also a member of the high school's Dare To Be Real group, said some of his favorite memories of Roehl are times he has watched her lead EHS staff meetings about race issues. He admires the courage it takes on her end to lead discussions related to such a sensitive issue, braving "silence and the looks of judgment that she may get."

"It's pretty cool to see your teacher step up to the plate and do that," Barnett said.

Roehl doesn't know why she is able to so deftly tackle such heavy subject matter, but feels it's important she continues to push both her co-workers and students to talk about things outside of their comfort zones.

"If you don't talk about it, it's just an elephant in the room," she said.

EHS Principal Bruce Locklear said Roehl has been an "exceptional teacher" for as long as he can remember.

"She's innovative, hard-working, dedicated and truly an outside-of-the-box thinker," Locklear said. "She has worked for transformational change in this building and has been a major player in this school."

Locklear—who has been at EHS for five years—said he has made 20 nominations and even sat on the committee one year. Still, the school hasn't had a single Teacher of the Year winner in its lengthy history.

"I don't know if it's one of those 'Edina' things or whatever," Locklear said. "Award or not, I will say that we have some absolutely exceptional teachers in this building."

As for Roehl, she hopes winning the award could helps her raise awareness around the state that "everyone benefits when we close the achievement gap."

"It's not just for black and brown students, but closing the gap benefits white students and the economy of our country," she said. "If we don't solve a crisis like this, where will we be in 2050 when white is the minority in our country? It's really on public school teachers to solve this issue."

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