Jackson chamber honors educators of the year

Jackson High School teacher Becky Bockelman wasn't sure she would make a good teacher.

Now, after teaching for 18 years, she has received one of the five Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year awards.

After graduating from college, she traveled to Slovakia for a year as a missionary and taught English as a second language. From there, she continued her career and has only become more confident in her skills, and her peers have noticed.

Each year, the five educators chosen for this award are nominated by a parent, student, principal or chamber member and are completely unaware of the nomination, said Linda Puchbauer, chairwoman of the 2015 Education Committee.

"Anyone can nominate a teacher for educator of the year. So they fill out a one-page essay on why they think this individual needs to be educator of the year, and we as a committee read through each one, and we have the daunting task of trying to pick five people out of 50 applications of who's the best. It's very difficult," Puchbauer said.

When the five individuals are chosen, Puchbauer and her committee surprise the teachers in their classrooms, which Puchbauer said is her favorite part.

This year, Dee Wren from Jackson won the elementary award, Jay Spurgeon from Jackson won for junior high/middle school, Bockelman won high school, Chris Crawford from Jackson won the specialty award, and Larry Cleair of Saxony Lutheran High School won best educator of a private school.

The crowd of nearly 200 rose to their feet when the recipients accepted their awards. Educators from Jackson, Saxony Lutheran, St. Paul Lutheran and Immaculate Conception attended the event.

Each year after the recipients are chosen, they make a short video talking about their history and what they enjoy about teaching.

"I love when five years later, kids come back and say, 'Remember me?' and I say, 'Why, yes I do.' And sometimes that's a good thing, and sometimes it's not," Spurgeon said with a smile during his video interview.

This year, a particularly special educator was recognized: Ron Anderson, the Jackson superintendent for the last 16 years.

Anderson is retiring at the end of June after spending the last 50 years as an educator.

Chamber executive director Brian Gerau recalled the first time he met Anderson and how influential his presence was from that first day.

"His sage advice has led a lot of our kids and a lot of our educators to places where they probably didn't know they could go," Gerau said.

smaue@semissourian.com

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