![Adding a tray of canned corn to the pile, junior Michael Collop assists in transporting donations for the Holiday Food Drive. The event, hosted schoolwide from Dec. 10-17, raised over 5,000 food items to deliver to the Parkway Food Pantry, helping several families in need. [The drive] is a great thing for us to do because you're giving to those who are less fortunate, and it helps provide for people who can't provide for themselves. [The] competition is always fun, too. It was fun to be in [social studies teacher Jess] Chazen’s class, because he always gets worked up over [the competition]. He made it exciting, and was always convincing us to turn in cans for the drive,” Collop said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/feature-photo-unsung-2.png)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
On Aug. 6, Vice President Kamala Harris announced her running mate as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. States outside of Minnesota may not have known who Gov. Walz was before Harris’s announcement, but those who did know him because of his work as a public servant, former teacher, and coach. Gov. Walz’s background in education has caused him to form personal relationships through academics and helps him elevate the voice of educators.
Before becoming a governor, Walz taught at Mankato West High School (MWHS) along with his wife, Gwen Walz. It was at MWHS where Edina High School math teacher David Boone first met both of the Walzes. When Boone expressed that he needed a place to stay, the family offered their home’s granny flat. “They took me in, recogniz[ing] that I needed a place and also some other connection with some friends and some teaching colleagues,” Boone said.
During his time living in that granny flat, Boone got to know the Walzes and the depths of their character. “It’s just those times when my daughter would be playing in the backyard and they would come out to the backyard and hang out with us too,” Boone said. “The general aura around them. They were just very family-oriented [and] very caring. They just wanted the best for people.”
While Boone has a unique personal relationship with the Walz family, their impact has stretched to teachers in general. Jennifer Stone, another math teacher at EHS who also serves on the Eastern Carver County School Board, mentioned that Gov. Walz hosted weekly Zoom meetings for educators to help guide teachers through the COVID-19 years. “Every week, we got on a Zoom call where he answered questions and explained the three-tiered system that we had,” Stone said. “It was really powerful. He explained everything step by step… He made time every week to go through a Q&A for us.”
Similarly, Mark Schmiesing, a former Mankato East High School teacher and current Education Minnesota employee, mentions Walz’s impact during the pandemic. “During that time we were in the pandemic, there were guidelines that had to be put in place for how schools operated… Having a teacher’s voice in the governor’s office, I think, made it a much better environment than it could have been,” he said.
The general consensus about Gov. Walz is that his past as an educator brings advocacy for education within the government. “As a teacher, it means a lot to me because then we know we’ve got a voice. At the state level, we knew we had his ear in terms of what we feel we need and what we feel we’re not getting. As he moves into the national perspective, hopefully, he can bring that to the nation as well,” Boone said.
With Gov. Walz being elevated to such a high level of conversation, his role as a teacher can seem like a small part of his life, but it’s this experience that shows his genuineness. “I can honestly say what you are seeing in the media about Tim Walz being everybody’s dad and just his personality, the way he’s acting, the way he laughs, the way he interacts with people, is what you see. There’s nothing fake about that,” Boone said. “This is a good guy. Win or lose, whatever your politics are, he’s a nice guy.”
This story was originally published on Zephryus on November 4, 2024.
