Style Magazine June 2024
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get to know<br />
— Teacher of the Year —<br />
Aaron MacDonald<br />
by CAROLINE KINGS<br />
Aaron MacDonald<br />
Five hundred and 00 100<br />
500. 00<br />
<strong>Style</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> Techer of the Year<br />
5.14.<strong>2024</strong><br />
“I want my<br />
classroom to be<br />
the happiest place<br />
on Earth…a safe<br />
place. I want the<br />
students to want to<br />
go to school. I look<br />
forward to seeing<br />
them every day.”<br />
The famous expression, “Find a job you<br />
love, and you’ll never work again,” was<br />
written for Folsom Middle School’s Aaron<br />
MacDonald. As STYLE’s newly crowned<br />
“Teacher of the Year” for 2023/<strong>2024</strong> says<br />
himself, “I absolutely love my job; when<br />
you love something so much, you don’t<br />
think of it as work. It’s my way of life. I want<br />
my classroom to be the happiest place on<br />
Earth…a safe place. I want the kids to want<br />
to go to school. I look forward to seeing<br />
them every day.”<br />
This passion for the role of teacher<br />
comes through in everything Aaron says.<br />
A word he returns to throughout our<br />
conversation is “connection.” Connecting<br />
with the students—be that in class or as<br />
a coach, before school, after school, or at<br />
lunchtime—is important to him. Aaron<br />
even goes to watch students in sports<br />
outside of school, such is the connection<br />
he builds.<br />
“Receiving this award is so humbling. I<br />
don’t feel I deserve it, as it’s just something<br />
I love doing.”<br />
Mr. MacDonald, to his students, is<br />
a sixth-grade math teacher as well as<br />
athletic director, coach of eighth grade<br />
girls’ volleyball and basketball, and head<br />
coach of track at Folsom Middle School.<br />
His love of teaching is evident through his<br />
involvement in so much of school life, but<br />
it wasn’t on his career horizon initially.<br />
He was a chemistry major at Graceland<br />
University in Iowa, a life-changing and<br />
wonderful experience, he tells me, as that’s<br />
where he met his late wife, Michelle. Upon<br />
graduation, he became a research scientist,<br />
which he didn’t enjoy, and it was a member<br />
of Michelle’s family who suggested he<br />
become a teacher. They had observed<br />
how well Aaron connected with children<br />
and although he couldn’t believe he was<br />
returning to the classroom, he now admits<br />
Photo by Jyo Bhamidipati ©stylereadersmedia.<br />
24 stylemg.com | JUNE <strong>2024</strong> | /stylemediagroup /stylemediagroup /stylemediagroup /stylemags
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