The Kimball High School Gym bustled with excitement on Monday, February 27th as a ceremony was held that presented the second annual diversiCOM Teacher of the Year award to Howard Bahn of Kimball High School. Students Cheered as they discovered that one of their teachers was the recipient of the award that was presented by Tim Brinkman, Marketing Manager for diversiCOM.
Last year diversiCOM decided to extend their current scholarship program to include a diversiCOM Teacher of the Year Award in an effort to reward excellence in teaching. The diversiCOM Teacher of the Year award will be a yearly award presented to a teacher located within the diversiCOM service areas, who demonstrates an excellence towards their students. The winning teacher receives a solid granite trophy that reflects their commitment to teaching and a $2000 cash prize to use as they see fit.
In December diversiCOM starting asking for nominations from area residents and in turn received nominations for 7 different teachers throughout the diversiCOM service area. All nominations where then reviewed and scored by a Selection Committee that consisted of five community members and school officials from the various School Districts that are served by diversiCOM. The nominations for the diversiCOM Teacher of the Year award where scored by the Selection Committee based on criteria such as individual teaching style, creativity in encouraging student achievement, consistent support of students’ growth, and community involvement.
After a long and difficult selection process a teacher was finally selected. The 2006 diversiCOM teacher of the year winner, Howard Bahn, is a very special teacher that has proven to be a extraordinary teacher. Mr. Bahn believes that teaching is an honorable profession which demands a lot of time, energy, patience, respect and care for the students that he works with. He believes that a teacher’s purpose is to work together with the parents and the community to raise children to be the very best citizens they can be. He feels that teachers need to expand the students dreams and opportunities and do all that you can to help them realize their goals.
A few of the qualities that set Mr. Bahn apart from other teachers are his enthusiasm for math and his desire to help students succeed. It would be rare for someone to sit in on a math class and not see Mr. Bahn get so exited about math that he quick finishes the problem and then has to go back and explain the problem to the students because he was so excited that he forgot to explain it the first time. This excitement often makes students think that he is crazy, but for other students, it really gets them excited about math. Mr. Bahn is often found spending extra hours outside of the regular school day to help out students with questions and it is not surprising to see him in at 6:30 in the morning.
For most of Mr. Bahns teaching career he has spent his weekends at the school gym so the gym would be open for students to play basketball. Over the past two summers, he along with another teacher, have worked with FFA students to refurbish the swimming beach at Lake Carnelian.
These are just a few of the many great aspects that make Mr. Bahn worthy of the diversiCOM Teacher of the Year award. This also happens to be his final year of teaching as he will be retiring at the end of the 2005-2006 school year.
diversiCOM cable television customers can see the award presentation along with interviews of students and fellow teachers airing on SCTV19 which is only available to diversiCOM cable television subscribers.
diversiCOM Melrose Telephone Company has been in existence for over 78 years and has been part of the Kimball community since the 1950’s. diversiCOM Mainstreet Communications has served the city of Sauk Centre since 1998. diversiCOM believes that strong communities depend on active residents and businesses and we are willing to do our part to make a difference in the communities that it serves. With this in mind, an effort has been made to address the needs of the communities within it’s service area, especially the educational needs of the community. They have long been a strong supporter of educational opportunities, whether it is internet classes to senior citizens, donating to elementary projects, presenting scholarships to college bound high school seniors or any of the other educational programs that they support.
Since 1985 diversiCOM has been awarding scholarships to area high school seniors in our service areas and since that time we have awarded more than $68,000 in memory of their long time owner L.H. Arvig.
Melrose Telephone Company and Mainstreet Communications are full-service telecommunications companies providing local and long distance telephone service, cable television, high-speed Internet access, and more.