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T TEACHINGEACHING

Summer/Back to School 2025
MINNESOTA’S K–12 EDUCATION CONNECTIONTODAYTODAY MN ™
MN

Jordan’s Building Trades Course Meet Minnesota’s Teacher of
the Year, Linda Wallenberg
“Students leave prepared to jump into the trades after taking this class!”
Congratulations Wally!
Linda Wallenberg, an English teacher at
Eden Prairie High School, is the 2025 Minne-
sota Teacher of the Year.
Wallenberg — known affectionately
as “Wally” by generations of students — is
now in her 49th year of teaching. She is the
61st recipient of the prestigious award and
the first from the Eden Prairie district to be
named Minnesota Teacher of the Year. An
independent selection committee representing
Minnesota leaders in education, business and
government chooses the Teacher of the Year
from individuals who are nominated and who
then choose to become a candidate.
“Teaching is about the journey — the
opportunity every fall and every single day
to begin anew, to guide students along their
own journeys, to build people, not just schol-
Jordan Public Schools students have had the unique opportunity of ars,” Wallenberg said. “I believe teaching is a 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Linda
For the past four years, Jordan High experiencing a school building construction calling of love, an awakening of sorts — cre- Wallenberg
School students have had the opportunity to project on our campus at Jordan Elementary ating a sacred space where students can feel
take a Building Trades course in grades 11 or School first-hand. Building Trades student job seen, believe in themselves, and trust their ing the first certified Swedish teacher in
12. Students taking this course complete work site visits have included meetings with trades own authentic voices to take them out to the Minnesota. She taught 8th-grade English at
in fields including electrical wiring, plumbing, foremen, viewing in-progress and completed world.” Faribault Junior High for a year and a half
carpentry, and various other projects that give work, and even a site safety consultation with “Before meeting ‘Wally,’ I did not under- before coming to Eden Prairie High School in
them a taste of a future career in building and OSHA. Additionally, a few of the students stand what true, unbridled devotion looked 1977 as an English and Swedish teacher and
trades. In the past, students have worked on have met individually with trades foremen like,” said Sophia Yoerks, an Eden Prairie head gymnastics coach.
projects ranging from constructing camper to learn more in-depth information about the High School 2024 graduate, in a recommenda- Wallenberg has a master’s degree in
cabins and storage sheds to focusing on work they do, to see if it may be a good fit for tion letter for Wallenberg. “Not only does she English education and has additionally taught
roofing and fascia. them in the future. teach impactful and informative material, but in Canterbury, England, and for the past 42
“Our Building and Trades class is a great This spring with the help of our she also finds countless ways to connect both summers has been both the director and a
opportunity for students. It allows them to get construction partners (a professional firm), herself and her students with it. Even though I Swedish teacher at a nearby college’s Swedish
skills in the construction trades in everything half of the Building Trades students have been have known her for almost five years, she still Language Village.
from building sheds to concrete structures to working on the replacement of a memorial continues to amaze me.” She has been named Eden Prairie Teacher
wiring,” said Jordan High School Principal, garden at Jordan Elementary School. They have Wallenberg began teaching after gradu- of the Year three times, a finalist for Minnesota
Jeff Vizenor. “Students leave prepared to jump been working with the Project Superintendent ating from college in 1975, which followed Teacher of the Year in 2005 and 2025, named
into the trades after taking this class!” and carpentry foreman to design, obtain her studies in Sweden. She earned a degree National Gymnastics Coach of the Year twice
During the 2024-2025 school year, in English and Scandinavian studies, becom-
Continued on Page 8 Continued on Page 24

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