by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
If Sauk Rapids-Rice Teacher of the Year Carol Mead could clone her prestigious award, she would do so and give one to all of her colleagues at Mississippi Heights Elementary School.
“I believe you are only as good as the people you surround yourself with, and my colleagues are amazing,” she said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without their help and support through(out) the journey. They are an important part of why I received this award.”
Mead never had a second thought about deciding to become a teacher.
“I still love it,” she said. “I absolutely love it.”
She was nominated as Teacher of the Year by Kathy Kopetka, a third-grade teacher at Mississippi Heights. Once nominated, she was interviewed by a panel that included other teachers, the principal and union reps.
What did she feel when she learned of the honor?
“I was excited,” she said. “Excited but humbled.”
Mead has taught kindergarten for nine years at Mississippi Heights and currently has 23 kindergartners under her wing. The lucky girls and boys get to go on adventures of one kind or another every day. They’ve taken trips – well, virtual trips, that is – to Africa, Australia, France, Hawaii and most recently, Mexico. During their “trips,” Mead wears a stewardess uniform and welcomes each student into the airplane, the outline of which is masking tape on the classroom floor. During the “flight,” the students see a movie about the country where they are about to “land.” In the case of Mexico, they speak some Spanish phrases, enjoy tacos and refried beans and then they become active and festive with music and dance.
Imagination, Mead said, is one of the keys to learning.
“I dislike cookie-cutter teaching,” she said, adding every day in the classroom is different, fun and exciting for the children. She greets every student individually every morning when they arrive, trying to sense the mood of each child. If a student is feeling a little blue or down, Mead will make sure to keep that in mind, putting extra effort into ways to boost the child’s mood.
“That’s so important – to keep communication open, to know each student’s interests and needs,” she said. “It’s also important to keep parents informed with daily photos and activities posted online. I build relationships with children and their parents.”
Another vital aspect of Mead’s teaching is to involve students, to make them connective to the larger world outside the classroom and the school. One of her favorite ways to do that revolves around her favorite cause – the fight against cancer via the American Cancer Society. Mead lost her grandmother, Evelyn Schmitz of Cold Spring, to leukemia. A female cousin now has cancer, and an 8-year-old student she once tutored died of cancer.
At Mississippi Heights, teachers and students have what they call the “Holiday Store.” The nearly 1,000 students make homemade arts and crafts and sell the items at the store. The proceeds are then given to the American Cancer Society. And each Friday, students do special activities and sell items, also for the ACS. A month-long fundraiser in May, the Walk for Life, is chaired by Mead and at the end of the month-long efforts for cancer research, there is a Walk for Life in which all students, teachers, administrators and staff can participate.
Born when her family lived in Sauk Rapids, Carol Mead is the daughter of Ralph and Kathy Schmitz. She was raised in Sartell and lived on land her father later sold to the city, the 180 acres of land at and near the current Sartell City Hall and Bernick’s Arena. The city bought some of that land; neighborhood developers also bought some of it. They owned a lot of land because her father loved to hunt, and at that time the area was entirely wooded and rural.
“The house is still there, along Two-1/2 Street S.,” she said. “But back then that whole area was in the middle of nowhere.”
She graduated from Sartell High School in 1997, then earned a degree in elementary education from St. Cloud State University in 2002. Later, she earned a master’s degree in education from Bethel University.
Mead is a member of the LeSauk Lions and just won an award for her 10 years of service to that organization. She is the chair for the Lions’ annual fundraising golf tournament.
She and her husband, Eric, have a daughter, 2-year-old Savannah.
The number-one requirement for anyone pondering an elementary teaching career, is an abiding love for children, Mead noted.
“You must be nurturing and caring,” she said. “And you must have patience.”
Other prerequisites, she said are a passion for lifetime learning and an ability to “think outside the box” so the teaching-learning experience never goes stale. And those are qualities Mead has in abundance. Anyone who doubts it should just ask one of her students after they get off the plane from one of the trips to some exotic country.
Sauk Rapids-Rice Teacher of the Year Carol Mead was presented a vase of roses and daisies as part of her honor. She is a kindergarten teacher at Mississippi Heights Elementary School in Sauk Rapids.
