Teacher spotlight: Meet Lindsey Kronemeyer

PICKFORD — As part of an ongoing series, the Sault Evening News is highlighting local educators. This week, we are writing about local special education teacher Lindsey Kronemeyer.

Kronemyer was a Pickford schools student herself only eight years ago. Born and raised in Pickford, Kronemeyer has wanted to be a teacher ever since she was a child.

"When I was a young kid in Pickford Elementary School, I used to draw pictures of what I wanted my classroom to look like, and me and my friends decided we were gonna be teachers together," Kronemeyer said. "After that point, I never stopped wanting to be a teacher."

She was recently recognized by the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District as the Spotlight Teacher of November because of the leadership qualities she has shown in her first year as a teacher.

Kronemeyer began her job in Pickford schools this year after completing her special education teaching degree at Michigan State University.

Kronemeyer continued to follow her goal and she found a passion in working with people with special needs.

When in high school, Kronemeyer began volunteering with the Special Olympics, donating her time to help special needs athletes. It was during this time that she decided she wanted to focus her area of teaching on children with special needs, who generally need more attention in a classroom.

"The most rewarding part is probably seeing the kids actually improve their grades and seeing that they can do stuff that they didn't think they could do," Kronemeyer said.

Being a special needs teacher for Kronemeyer was a rewarding experience because she felt that kids who needed more help to learn and excel in classes were also more appreciative of having a dedicated teacher.

"Special needs kids were always so happy to see other people and to have you there to help them with their games that they participated in," Kronemeyer said. "And it was just a nice change to see that kids actually appreciated you, because I feel like as a general education teacher, you don't get that all the time."

As a special education teacher, she must be qualified to teach every subject for students between seventh and 12th grades, and she has to alter the way she teaches based on the specific disabilities and personalities of each of her students.

"What works for one kid doesn't always work for another kid so that I had to learn a different technique to work with that specific kid, because there's such a broad area of what kids can have disabilities in, so I'm learning multiple times how to do something in different ways just to help each student," Kronemeyer said. "I'm supposed to be good at math, science, history and English, I'm supposed to be good at everything, I have to be on top of my game with all subjects."

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Kronemeyer had some experience teaching at another school before coming home to Pickford. Before she moved back earlier this year, she had one of her most defining moments as a teacher when she was recognized by her peers.

"I used to work downstate, at the Maple Valley Junior Senior High School," she said. "The first couple months, I was starting to feel really stressed out and and thought I wasn't doing a good job. And then we had a staff meeting and they awarded me with this 'Cheer to Peers' award where everybody told me they thought I was actually doing a really good job and that they also didn't really want me to leave. But I really wanted to come home, coming home was more important to me than staying there."

Now that she has returned to Pickford, Kronemeyer works alongside some of the teachers who taught her as a student. She also gets to live near her family and friends.

Kronemeyer said she plans on staying in Pickford schools teaching special needs students for the foreseeable future.

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Teacher spotlight: Meet Lindsey Kronemeyer