Amanda Hahn of Poplar Grove has taught at North Boone Upper Elementary the past four of her 18 years of teaching. She teaches Fifth Grade Reading and Language, co-teaching with a special education teacher. She carefully plans her curriculum to include discussion about such important topics as civil rights, physical disabilities and prejudices, hoping to guide students to be more open minded and less judgmental. Former co-teacher, Robert Wagner, wrote, “She has demonstrated a rare ability to build a positive relationship with all her students through structure, humor, compassion and grace. Amanda’s students know that while her goal is to improve their academics, they also know her drive to challenge them to be the best version of themselves.” Amanda’s commitment doesn’t end when the bell rings. She may tutor, attend performances, or check up on students years later to assure them that someone’s on their side. Amanda’s essay included one example of her drive and commitment: she wrote about a student who was struggling, but who would become defiant if singled out. She arranged to tutor him after school, not just that year, but the next year also. She attended his basketball games, where he could “shine and be proud, when he still struggled so much in the classroom.” Still on her mind years later, Amanda was teaching his youngest sibling and learned he was no longer attending high school. When she ran into him at the sibling’s basketball game, he eagerly asked why she’d been asking about him since it had been such a long time since he’d been in her class. She told him, “’teachers don’t simply forget students when they move on.’ I was still invested in making sure he made the right choices and finished school like I knew he could.” North Boone Principal Jarrod Peterson added that Amanda is “the kind of teacher [who] inspires young people to want to be teachers … and is a shining example of everything that is good about public schools.”