Education Minnesota announces finalists for 2024 Teacher of the Year award

Eleven finalists have been named for the 2024 Minnesota Teacher of the Year award, an annual honor bestowed by Education Minnesota, the statewide teachers union.

The teachers were selected from a group of 27 semifinalists and will be interviewed by a selection panel a day before the May 5 award ceremony in St. Paul.

The finalists are:

Rachel Betterley, a secondary visual arts teacher at North Woods School in the St. Louis County school district

Rebecca Buck, a music teacher at Gideon Pond Elementary School in Burnsville

Tracy Byrd, a ninth-grade English language arts teacher at Washburn High School in Minneapolis

Susanne Collins, a sixth-grade teacher at Edgerton Elementary School in Roseville

Sarah Dallum, a fifth-grade teacher at Valley View Elementary School in Bloomington

Marie Hansen, a 10th- and 11th-grade AVID/English teacher at Burnsville High School

Laura Jensen, a seventh-grade language and literature teacher at Hopkins North Middle School

Jason Jirsa, a social studies teacher at Washburn High School in Minneapolis

Michelle Morse-Wendt, a fourth-grade teacher at Turtle Lake Elementary School in Shoreview

Jamie Williams, a seventh-grade U.S. history teacher at Capitol Hill Gifted and Talented Magnet in St. Paul

Ellen Wu, a kindergarten teacher at Alice Smith Elementary in Hopkins.

The 2024 Teacher of the Year award will be presented by last year’s winner, Michael Houston of Harding High School in St. Paul, at the May 5 banquet at the RiverCentre in St. Paul.

All public and private school teachers working in prekindergarten through high school, early childhood family education and adult basic education teachers are eligible to be nominated.