Amidst tears and laughter, Theresa Graff accepted the Luverne Education Association 2016 Teacher of the Year award.
LEA annually honors one of its own at a celebration on the Monday of American Education Week. The local honoree will be submitted to the state for their Teacher of the Year program.
Becky Rahm, the 2015 LEA Teacher of the Year, made the announcement using comments from the nomination form plus an observation of her own about Graff.
“One person wrote: ‘She truly cares about students and wants them to be successful not only in her classroom but in all environments,’” Rahm said. “‘Part of her role as speech therapist is to teach her students to use their communication and social skills throughout their lives.’”
Graff was first hired at Luverne Elementary School in 1985 as a speech therapist and preschool special needs teacher.
“I also went to Magnolia a couple times a week,” Graff recalled after the recognition ceremony.
Nine years into her job, however, Graff was diagnosed with cancer. She was granted a five-year medical leave to recover her health and be with her husband, Roger, and their three young children.
“There is no way I can do my job without you guys,” Graff told those attending the ceremony in the elementary school commons. “There is no way I could have come back from cancer and know how to teach again and know how to have perspective again.”
Now cancer free, Graff returned to her career in education as a sixth-grade English teacher in 1999. After five years in the classroom, she became the district’s speech therapist.
“She is constantly meeting with parents and coworkers to come up with plans and strategies to help out children of different ages and different levels of abilities,” Rahm read. “She finds her job challenging and extremely rewarding as well.”
Graff said she always wanted to be a teacher, crediting her first-grade teacher in Bridgewater, South Dakota.
“She influenced me by her kindness and love,” Graff recalled. “All I wanted is to be a teacher.”
Heeding the advice from her professors at Northern State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Graff added special education to her elementary education degree. The double major would be advantageous when finding a school job, she said.
It was also while attending college that she discovered her interest in speech therapy and embraced the challenges the position offered.
Rahm said in her introduction of Graff that she personally witnessed the impact that Graff has on her students.
“As evidenced this Halloween, a student ran down the steps and promptly said, ‘Mom, my speech teacher Mrs. Graff lives here!’”
The Graffs have three grown children, Megan, Michael and Thomas, with their first grandchild arriving this spring.
LEA 2016 Friend of Education makes difference in students' livs in Luverne schools
Luverne Public Schools paraprofessional Barb Antoine puts heart into the district’s special education department.
On Monday Antoine was named the Luverne Education Association’s 2016 Friend of Education during an after-school reception in the elementary school commons.
Antoine’s nomination for the Friend of Education honor came from physical education instructors Mike Wenninger and Mary Jo Graphenteen.
“She is amazing,” Graphenteen said. “She goes above and beyond to help students achieve in our classrooms. She many times comes up with her own lesson plan to adapt to the needs of our students.”
Antoine, who begins her 21st year of full-time employment in the district, started working part time and as a substitute paraprofessional until the youngest of her three children started school.
“It was a great choice for my family,” she said.
The job fit perfectly with her husband, Greg’s, teaching scheduled as science instructor, sharing common days off.
The job also satisfies her love of working with children. Those feelings began developing as a young girl growing up in ? .
Thoughts of making working with children a career choice began with trips to the dentist.
Antoine said her experience with her childhood dentist was horrible and dreaded the regular visits. Her brothers, however, attended a different dentist with more positive results.
Since then, she too wanted to make a difference in a child’s life and found the perfect outlet in assisting students at Luverne Public Schools. A full-time paraprofessional opening brought Antoine to working with special education students.
“They touch your heart,” she said.
And sometimes challenge it, too.
“You need to come with a positive attitude. It rubs off on the kids,” Antoine said.
She credits the special education instructors for mentoring her over the years and the changes that occurred in programming that inspire her continual improvement in instruction methods. When first starting as a paraprofessional, Antoine said she worked with a single student each day. Now she works with a different student each hour.
The change from elementary level to the upper grades came in 2004, when she followed a student to the middle and high school levels, where Antoine still works today.
The hourly switch helps both students and paraprofessionals keep positive attitudes.
“She is an inspiration to other paraprofessionals and teachers and anyone she comes in contact with,” Graphenteen added.
Outside of the classroom, Antoine is the music director and Sunday school teacher at First Presbyterian Church. She also coordinates the Wednesday after-school programs.
Antoine and her husband, Greg, have three adult children, Daniel, Rebekah and Dustin, and four grandchildren.