Governor Names Iowa's 2018 Teacher Of The Year

AMES, IA — A veteran chemistry teacher at Ames High School was named the 2018 Iowa Teacher of the Year by Gov. Kim Reynolds at a surprise event Thursday at the school. Aileen Sullivan, who has taught at the school since 1996, will travel across the state over the next year as a representative for the Iowa Department of Education.

Sullivan learned of the honor in advance but was not allowed to share the news, according to a story on the school district website. She said she was shocked when the call came that she had been selected after being nominated by her husband, who is also a teacher at Ames High School.

Sullivan is known for challenging her students, her colleagues and herself to grow and improve, the story said. Ames Principal Spence Evans added: “Aileen has the skill set to do whatever she wants in education, and we are very lucky that what she has chosen to do is teach the students of the Ames community. I know that our Ames High family could not be any more proud that she will represent our state as the Teacher of the Year.”

Superintendent Tim Taylor, who hired Sullivan in 1996, dubbed her a “kid magnet" and said she has “that hidden ability to understand and relate to young people that draws them in and allows her to push them to their potential.”

Sullivan also has served as the chief negotiator for the Ames Education Association in the district for more than 15 years, and Taylor said she "has been instrumental in keeping this school system financially sound, saved many jobs, and helped us maintain both curricular and co-curricular student programs to keep us as the No. 1 school district in the state and No. 1 high school in Iowa.”

Sullivan said a pivotal shift in her teaching style came when she realized she was dictating notes and students were "passive partakers" of what she was teaching. Since then she has made students the "active creators of understanding."

“Students are always in control of what they learn and teaching needs to be a constant endeavor to allow students to do their own thinking," she told the district.

YouTube video and photo via Ames Community School District