Excellent Educator: Chris Myers At McGuire Middle School
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's Wednesday and it's time to celebrate a teacher going above and beyond in the Twin Cities. Your nomination letters sent WCCO This Morning to Lakeville.
Chris Myers is a Social Studies teacher at McGuire Middle School. He gives his heart to his students every day and even his Christmas presents! His generosity and passion is what makes Mr. Myers an Excellent Educator.
Myers is right where he wants to be: middle school.
"They're right in the middle, so they still want to make a connection with the teachers. They're not too cool, but they have a sense of independence and are willing to make some decisions on their own and I like to help them make those decisions," he said.
As a social studies teacher, he tries to make history relevant for students.
"We're talking about the Cold War and how students had to prepare for events that maybe might happen, using that to talk about nuclear war and the Cold War and preparation and tying it into some of the drills we do currently," he said.
Myers took a five year break from the classroom to help pioneer a program that put iPads into the hands of Lakeville students and staff.
"I think that in this day and age technology is ubiquitous, so we can either gripe about the way students use technology or we can embrace it and figure out ways to make it useful for them and make it relevant to their education because it's going to be relevant to their lives from here on out," he said.
Lunch room supervisor, is another title he wears every day. Instead of gifts at his family Christmas this year, he requested donations to a program that help pays for meals for disadvantaged students.
"I'd rather have students eat rather than needing a new shirt because that's what I would have gotten any how so it was a better use for it," he said.
A teacher who gives so much, but believes he gets so much more from his students.
"They give me energy, I spent some time out of the classroom for medical issues and I missed every moment and they mean a lot to me, I draw energy from them and hopefully they draw energy and knowledge form me," he said.
Myers was diagnosed with a tumor in January. He is currently getting treatment, but says the best form of medicine is being in the classroom every day.