Rush Hour’s Rookie of the Week: 1st Year Catholic School Teacher

ST. CLOUD -- Shaping the next generation of minds is the goal of Rush Hour's newest "Rookie of the Week", Hallee Curtis.

Curtis is a 3rd-grade teacher at St. Katharine Drexel School in St. Cloud. She was nominated by her teaching partner at the school. Curtis says, teaching actually wasn't her first choice, but since she switched from medicine, she's loved it.

"I took a class and loved it. Absolutely loved it, it suddenly clicked, and I knew I liked kids, but I never thought I'd be a teacher."

Curtis says part of why she loves teaching is how many different things she gets to do throughout her day, as she teaches a range of subjects.

"I teach social studies, math, there's some religion because it's a Catholic school, a lot of language arts, so plenty of different things."

Her advice to others getting into their young teaching careers: have some fun, both out of the job and in. She says the staff and students at St. Katharine Drexel help her maintain a great attitude.

"Make sure you continue to have fun, that's one thing that's awesome about St. Katharine Drexel, the staff, the kids all have a great attitude so it's so fun to be there."

Curtis went to the College of St. Benedict and came highly recommended to both WJON and St. Katharine Drexel. Her nominator says, when the school was hiring last spring, one of Curtis' supervising teachers said: "you WANT her."

Besides teaching, she's also a cross country coach at Cathedral, and she'll coach track & field there this spring.

Every week, Rush Hour hosts Richard Leguil and Chrissy Gaetke bring on someone who's a rookie in their position or field. If you have anyone you'd like to nominate, email either richard@wjon.com or chrissy@wjon.

You can hear "Rookie of the Week" on Rush Hour, weeknights from 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. on AM1240 WJON.