Springsteen-Haupt named Middle School Teacher of the Year for English

At the Conference for the Iowa Council of Teachers of English on October 6 and 7, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Middle School English teacher Melissa Springsteen-Haupt was named Middle School Teacher of the Year.

Springsteen-Haupt earned both her BA in English Teaching and MA in English from the University of Northern Iowa. She has taught at Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Middle School for close to ten years, and sees about 130 13 and 14-year-old students in her classroom a day. She said many of her eighth-grade students were excited for her when she told them about the award.

Springsteen-Haupt didn’t realize she’d been nominated until a few days before the conference, when she was notified by email that she won the Teacher of the Year award. She was surprised, because board members make a point to avoid nominating themselves; as a volunteer on the board, “I kind of imagined I would never win one of the ICTE wards,” she said. “It was a surprise to hear I’d had a nomination from outside the organization.”

For the full story, see the October 28 edition of the Monitor.