ST PAUL, Minn. — For the fifth time in the award's history, a St. Paul educator has been named Minnesota Teacher of the Year.
Michael Houston, a mathematics teacher at St. Paul Public Schools' Harding High School, was named the 59th recipient of the prestigious award on Sunday.
"Shocked. Like I had to look back on the screen and make sure it was my face and not someone else's," Houston recalled to KARE 11 on Monday.
“His ability to engage all students, particularly students of color, is exceptional; partly due to his lived experiences as a teacher of color and to his determination to help all students achieve success,” wrote Kimberley Nichols, a Gordon Parks High School math teacher who previously worked with Houston at Harding and served with him on the SPPS district mathematics team, in a statement.
Recruiting and retaining teachers of color is important to Houston.
"Going through school, I only had one Black teacher and he was a teacher of history and also my track coach. I just felt so comfortable with him because he looked like me and he was really motivating," Houston said. "I poll a lot of my students every year and they say either I'm the second or the only one that they've had."
As 2023 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, Houston will serve as an ambassador for the teaching profession. He wants to see more financial literacy in classrooms and more mental health support in schools.
"Therapy saved my life. I wouldn't be here today without going through therapy and that's something that's hard to admit because... it's something that, in our community, we kind of tend to bottle things up," Houston said. "So for me, mental health and just having someone in your corner has helped me grow as a person and helped me grow emotionally so that I could be there for my students and others around me."
Recently, Harding High School has gone through some tough times.
"We lost a colleague suddenly late last year, and we had a student take their own life, and we had a fatal stabbing," Houston said. "We didn't lose many students after all those events. They keep coming back because they need us and they know that we need them."
Houston went on to say, "It's definitely a community I'm proud to be a part of and this award is not only for me but it's also for east St. Paul and the Harding community."
Houston, previously a finalist for the award in 2017, has been at Harding for 19 years and serves as a mathematics department chair, learning team facilitator and union steward. He also has coached football and track and field at Harding.
Raised by a single mother, with help from his grandparents, Houston became the first college graduate of his family after earning a bachelor's degree from Concordia University, St. Paul. He would go on to earn a master's degree from Hamline University.
Besides his work at Harding, Houston also serves as an adjunct professor at Concordia, St. Paul where he teaches math classes to prospective elementary school teachers.
Houston's teaching philosophy “has always been centered upon creating a classroom community," he said in a released statement announcing his award. "In the wake of the pandemic and the ongoing trauma our Harding students have endured, my goal every day is to make sure they have fun in their learning and know they are loved.”
The Minnesota Teacher of the Year is chosen by a selection committee, and is underwritten by Education Minnesota.
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