RAVENNA, Mich. — Our newest Teacher of the Week could have retired years ago but says she’s sticking around because of her love for the students. Tammi Kantola teaches at Ravenna Middle School.
After the surprise she said, “I was shocked, actually, because I was down in the principal’s office talking about a writing contest.”
Our 13 ON YOUR SIDE crew explained how she had been chosen as Teacher of the Week and she said she was “overwhelmed, because there are so many teachers that are worthy of it.”
She also said it makes her extra time in the classroom even more worth it.
“I’m only teaching right now because of the kids. I’m past my retirement age and I’m doing it because I love the children,” she said. “I am teaching 34 years this year, I think, and I am four years past retirement.”
Rob Nista is the Ravenna Middle School principal. He said, “Teachers today just give so much and have so much more to do on their plate than we have ever before, and it’s just amazing the amount of time and effort – especially Mrs. Kantola, how she just can dedicate so much of her life to other people’s kids.”
He’s not just saying that. This educator stays busy. She teaches English, world geography and podcasting. Plus, she leads a group of students who compete against students from across the globe on a variety of challenges.
“Destination Imagination is sort of our Gifted and Talented and they meet at night. So, a lot of times I’ll go from here and work until 9, 10 o’clock at night with them.”
“It’s all things. It hits all intelligences,” said Kantola.
That’s not all.
“And I’m on the building improvement team,” she explained. “And then I take the pictures for the kids.”
“She shows up to all the events. She’s at all the band concerts, the choir concerts, the basketball games, soccer, track and field, wrestling. She’s always somewhere with a camera and just gives all she can to the kids,” said Nista.
Kantola also runs “the middle school Be Nice team which is mental health, and we just try to build up mental health in the middle school and get kids to notice when someone else might need some help.”
We asked if she ever goes home. She said, “No, and it needs to be, actually. My husband keeps telling me that,” laughing.
Not to mention, she was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery to have it removed all just this year.
She said the success of her students motivates her to keep going.
“When they get excited about what they’ve learned, or they achieve something they didn’t think they could do because I encouraged them to do it, or their face lights up and they teach me something,” said Kantola.
“Man, it is hard to find someone in education – especially our teachers – that are not just going above and beyond all the time. We can’t celebrate our teachers enough,” said Nista.
If you have someone you’d like to nominate as our next Teacher of the Week, just text the word “teacher” to 616-559-1310.
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