Teacher of the Year Zimpel humbly accepts award

by Frank Lee

operations@thenewsleaders.com

Cory Zimpel didn’t expect to be named this year’s “Teacher of the Year” by the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District, but he said he was honored nevertheless by the recognition from his peers.

The industrial-technology teacher at the high school had never won the award, but he had unsuccessfully interviewed for the honor last year when he was nominated by his colleagues.

“You never feel bad losing to people in our district because I think all of our teachers work so hard,” Zimpel said of his loss last year to an “awesome” kindergarten teacher in the district.

The 38-year-old husband to Jill and father of two – Erica, 13, and Abigail, 9 – lives in Sauk Rapids and has been teaching in the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District for 18 years.

“Sauk Rapids is a great place to teach, and I don’t see myself being anywhere else,” Zimpel said. “And being in the industrial-tech area just allows the students to have a lot of freedom to be creative. And being able to watch them be successful is super rewarding.”

The ISD 47 District serves all or parts of Sauk Rapids and Rice, with three elementary schools, one middle school, a high school and one additional school building housing the district’s Early Childhood and Adult Basic Education programs.

“Some of our students are coming in now with higher needs than they’ve ever had before, whether it be family situations or mental-health issues or a variety of different things,” Zimpel said. “Teaching is definitely a more difficult career than when I started, that’s for sure.”

The Sauk Rapids resident and volunteer firefighter graduated from St. Cloud State University with an industrial technology degree and an emphasis in communication before obtaining a master’s degree related to education from Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.

“Industrial tech is a pretty wide area,” Zimpel said. “It covers everything from carpentry, cabinetry, machining, metal, metal fabrication, welding, and we do computer-aided drafting, electronics. We have a great robotics curriculum that started; we do pre-engineering stuff.”

Zimpel was born in Mora in Kanabec County and grew up in McGrath in Aitkin County. He said he had a couple of great teachers in high school who inspired him to become a teacher.

“Most teachers are pretty humble; they don’t need the extra stuff, and if they do, they’re like ‘Oh, my gosh! I can’t believe it!’” he said of being named “Teacher of the Year.” He will go on to compete at the state level against other districts’ “Teacher of the Year” winners.

Zimpel said he concentrates on the digital arts in his classes that he teaches, such as photography, graphic design and yearbook but admitted it can be challenging with the rapidly-changing and ever-evolving technology.

“The biggest thing for me is just making kids feel welcome in the classroom – being able to relate to them and making sure they are comfortable in the situation because if they are then the education process can actually happen,” Zimpel said. “These kids come in with so many different issues and if you can’t break down those barriers, you’ll never get through to them with the learning. And education still needs to be fun because if you can’t make it fun for them, they just don’t hold onto it.”