UW alum honored as National Teacher of the Year

For Michael Geisen, a lot has changed in a year. This time last year, he’d never even heard of an award called National Teacher of the Year. This year, he’s it.

Geisen teaches seventh grade science at Crook County Middle School in Prineville, Ore. He was announced as the Oregon Teacher of the Year in October, after being nominated last year by the parent of a student. Each state’s Teacher of the Year was entered into the running for the national title.

In April, Geisen found out that he’d won. The experience has been a humbling one, he said.

“All of a sudden, my opinion on things makes people think,” he said.

What he’d like people to think about is that there are so many different means of intelligence. Children need more than just the math, verbal and writing skills we seem to value, he said.

In one of his Teacher of the Year application essays, he stressed the importance of seeing the whole child, not just what test scores indicate they might be capable of.

“We’re heading down a very narrow path,” Geisen said. “We need to see a change ­— more balance between basic analytical skills and more pressing 21st-century-type skills.”

Geisen won’t be teaching next year. Instead, he’ll be on loan to the nation. Recipients spend a year traveling the country, making appearances and giving presentations.

Geisen teaches in the city of Prineville, Ore., where he said he tries to incorporate as much creativity and collaboration as possible. Sometimes, he writes and sings songs with science concepts.

“Science is a pretty analytical field,” he said. “Cut and dry, logical. A lot of kids don’t think like that.”

Prineville and its surrounding areas have a combined population of only 11,000. There’s also a lot of poverty in the community, and education isn’t valued very highly, Geisen said.

“It was a challenging environment to get into, but I was excited about it,” he said.

Winning Teacher of the Year has been an honor not only for Geisen but also for the entire community, he said. This award has garnered a lot of interest from other school districts.

“People around here are pretty thrilled about it,” Geisen said.

Teaching wasn’t always in Geisen’s career plans. After graduating magna cum laude from the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources, he worked as a forester for several years. It wasn’t long, though, before he realized he needed to do something that got him excited about getting out of bed every morning. So he went back to school.

A quarter spent working in the experimental forest through the College of Forest Resources made him think about teaching. Geisen said he had great professors and forestry was “pretty fascinating,” but he just wasn’t passionate about it.

As far as advice for soon-to-be UW graduates, Geisen urges them to consider teaching.

“It’s a career where you really get to express yourself,” he said. “And you get summers off.”

This year’s Teacher of the Year award ceremony was held in the Rose Garden of the White House, and he met the president.

“I have to be very careful about how I say things now,” he said, with a laugh. “George W. Bush was a very charming host and a very nice guy.”