Great Achievements

*Warning* The following post contains some major bragging, over enthusiastic pride, and a lot of "ick" factor. You have been warned.

You know how I am always saying how great and talented my husband is? What an amazing teacher and mentor he is to his students. Well now the entire country agrees with me...finally! He and his yearbook staff have the honor of being nominated for the "Yearbook Top 10". Here is an excerpt from a letter written by his Yearbook rep informing the principal of his school about his accomplishments.

I wanted to drop you a note to let you know how excited I am about some recent events honoring Ryan Hansen and The Spud Annual 2010 yearbook staff! Earlier this month I was at a Jostens Yearbook conference where they unveiled a promotion called the "YEARBOOK TOP 10". What's the "TOP 10" you might ask? Jostens has gone to great lengths to uncover the reasoning behind students buying and not buying their yearbooks. Jostens hired an outside firm to survey students to find out the top ten reasons students DON'T buy their yearbooks. What they found was that students want to be included.

Ryan Hansen, The Spud Annual adviser at Idaho Falls High School, was featured in the presentation for doing just that! He has definitely taken the "all inclusive coverage" idea to a whole new level! ...This presentation is being rolled out nationally among the entire Jostens force-and our Ryan Hansen is the star! The presenters will talk about Idaho Falls High School and the great (and diverse) coverage that Ryan and his staff(s) have managed to capture in The Spud Annual. Idaho Falls High School is talked about several times throughout the presentation.

In addition to being featured in the "TOP 10" presentation, The Spud Annual is being featured in this book as one of the top 50 yearbooks in the country!

Not only is he featured in these areas, he was also nominated for the Pace Setter award this year. This is like the Pulitzer Prize for yearbooks...not a joke. At the National Journalism Convention in Anaheim in April (which I am attending as a chaperon) they will announce the winner. Ry has been wanting this award since He was on staff at his high school yearbook. This is a super prestigious award that not many people are given, so just to be nominated is a huge honor! AND he has only been at this for 7 years! I told you he was good at what he does!

I am so proud of him and his drive to be the very best he can be at whatever he does. He truly is achieving greatness in areas he has dreamt about and worked hard to master. I love that his goals are being reached and his hard work is paying off. It is difficult to be under appreciated and under paid for all your effort. He is "one of the good ones" when it comes to teachers. It makes me heartbroken to hear the media bash teachers and blame them for parents not being involved in the lives of their children. Sadly, they think teachers have the sole responsibility for the downfall of education. It is too easy to point a finger at someone else rather than admit your own failings as a parent.

I am proud of Ryan and his colleagues for being the kind of people students can follow as an example and a guide. True there are teachers who do not measure up. This is another one of those "few ruining it for the masses" kind of situations. Even still, they continue to do the very best they can to inspire and teach these teenagers how to learn and grow in a society that ignores them and discounts their ability to achieve anything worth while.

In conclusion, I am super proud of my sweety! I am his number one fan and feel so blessed to be a small part of the recognition I know he so greatly deserves! You are AWESOME!