Dorothy Krob is the Austin Rotary Club’s Teacher of the Year.

Wednesday, July 12, 2000

Dorothy Krob is the Austin Rotary Club’s Teacher of the Year.

The Southgate Elementary School second grade teacher received the honor at Monday’s Rotary meeting at Holiday Inn of Austin.

"Thank you for this honor," Krob told the Rotary audience. "I will be using these funds to provide a variety of teaching tools to promote higher level thinking skills for all learners; also to expand my fine arts program with a puppet stage and meet basic skills with a working grocery. They’ll be able to county change when they wait on you at the store."

According to Clark Toland, chairman of the club’s Teacher of the Year award selection committee, "We had several outstanding nominees for the honor."

Maryann Law, Belita Schindler and James A. Hess shared the selection committee duties with Toland.

Last year’s recipient of the Rotary educator honor was Katie Ulwelling, who is the current Austin Education Association Teacher of the Year award-recipient. Ulwelling is a candidate for the AEA’s state and national educator honors.

The Rotary honoree was accompanied by her daughter, Amy, a speech therapist in the Lakeville Independent School District, who lives in Apple Valley.

Steve Krob, the honoree’s husband, works for Hormel Foods Corp. and is well-known for his basketball and football officiating and playing in the Austin Community Band.

In addition to their oldest daughter, Amy, the couple has a daughter, Nicole, who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., with her husband and is a media specialist with an apartment corporation; and another daughter, Heidi, a senior majoring in elementary education at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and completing a summer of teaching inner city students at a rescue mission in downtown Milwaukee, Wis.

The award recipient was nominated by Mary Giese, principal at Southgate Elementary School, who attended Monday’s award presentation with her husband, David.

Krob told the Rotary audience teachers have "wonderful opportunities."

She said, "Who else gets to start their job over every year and reevaluate how to best meet the needs of students?"

"You need look no further than the hugs and secrets, the heart-felt trust children place in you to love what you do and know that your work matters greatly," she said.

"I feel that teaching is like making a down payment on a better world," she said.

Krob had praise for the Rotary organization’s members.

"Another wonderful opportunity is speaking to a group of community leaders like you," she said. "This award that you have given me is much appreciated. It is an honor and a privilege and a great responsibility to be a teacher. One really never knows where one’s influence with others will stop."

"And," she continued, "when you think that each one of us here is a teacher by the examples we set and the leadership we show, it is something to ponder."

"For truly we help to share the citizens of tomorrow – the teachers and the Rotarians – and most everyone else," she said.

Krob concluded her remarks expressing her appreciation for "recognizing this very important profession in we which we all share."