WORTHINGTON — Within the confines of the four brick walls of his Worthington Middle School classroom, teacher Lonnie Myrom can bring the whole world to his students, sparking enthusiasm for learning.
“I teach global studies, eighth grade,” Myrom said. “We learn all about the cultures all over the world — wonderful things about the world.”
It’s a geography class with a strong emphasis on culture and history, particularly recent history, and Myrom has focused on tying textbook knowledge back to Worthington.
Lately, his students have been studying East Africa.
“We try to give them some understanding of why we need to know what’s going on in the world,” he said, including how past events have shaped and influenced current events, impacting people’s lives even today.
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Myrom has been teaching in District 518 for 34 years, with one year of subbing and three years of teaching in northern Minnesota before that.
He’s wrapping up his 38-year teaching career at the end of this school year to retire, but like many other teachers, he’s still planning to return to the schools to help substitute teach.
“I’ll miss the kids, but I’ll come back and do some subbing,” Myrom said. “I’ll miss my fellow teachers and working with them too. I’ll miss inspiring kids.”
He and his wife, Nancy Myrom, plan to stay in Worthington.
Myrom, who was named Teacher of the Year by Education Minnesota Worthington last week, has seen significant changes during his time in the classroom.
“I go from Dittos to digital,” he said. “The method of copying worksheets was, when I started out, a Ditto machine.”
Now schools use printers and copy machines for duplication, and often students work directly on their tablets, writing their answers there and turning in homework digitally.
“The kids remain the same. They just have a lot more challenges,” Myrom said, listing social media and the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think compared with my childhood, they’ve got more things to deal with than I did. But kids are still kids.”
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COVID-19, he said, was extremely challenging, and even tougher on the kids than it was on the educators. Interaction between teachers and students is crucial, not just for educational purposes but for social development as well.
It was a challenge that, Myrom said, “we met as well as we could.”
Social media has been another new challenge for students and educators alike, as society in general worked to establish new norms and communication methods and young people had to learn and adapt to that.
Middle school can be a difficult time in a person’s life, but Myrom likes working with students in that age group.
“The eighth grade kids are still open to discussion. I just enjoy the interaction, and the kids’ enthusiasm is still there,” he said. “I want to capture their enthusiasm.”
He has taught high school students too, and enjoyed that as well. His favorite thing about teaching is seeing the kids enjoy and love learning. Sometimes students come back to see him and tell him they still remember something he said.
“I like to see the number of kids who are really interested in learning,” he said. “The kids are great, really, overall. It’s been a very worthwhile profession.”
For those interested in becoming a teacher, Myrom quoted the old advice about choosing a profession you love so that you never have to work a day in your life. He also advised new teachers to be enthusiastic but structured, as kids want to be given parameters and boundaries.
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“You have the opportunity to help a child or a young person develop into a great person, help them on their way,” he said.
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