We can all remember a teacher who made a positive impact on our life. For the last 7 years, Mr. Kyle Hammer and his teachings has left a lasting impact on many students.

A Tuesday morning in Mr. Hammer’s fifth period class at Rock Ridge High School, filled with freshmen getting their first taste of a future career.

“I have a business degree and wasn’t liking that and knew I always wanted to be a teacher so ended up finally pulling the pin and going back to school for education,” said Kyle Hammer.

Throughout his seven years of teaching, Kyle Hammer has taught at two schools, Eden Prairie and Rock Ridge, where he’s called home for the last five years. Teaching business education to the wolverines, Mr. Hammer has adapted his business knowledge into new ways of introducing new career paths.

“With our (Rock Ridge) career academy at the end of their first semester of ninth grade they need to pick an academy and then hopefully they explore those careers here for,” said Hammer. “I took a lot of stuff that we were doing in the cities and brought it up here just because we’re not a metro school doesn’t mean our students shouldn’t still get the same experiences and opportunities.”

Rock Ridge’s own DECA Club, an organization that teaches high school students about career paths, was created and formed by Mr. Hammer.

“We started four years ago with seven kids and this year we have 40 so I’m super excited,” said Hammer. “It’s just a great professionalism builder for these kids and pushing them outside of their comfort zone into career fields. They might not think that they’re interested in.”

And Kyle has learned that it’s his relationships with students that makes the biggest impact.

“That’s the best part of my job is building the relationships and having them come back after they graduate having them reach out to me and again having them come back and take more of my classes,” said Hammer.

From current to past students, along with coworkers. Those relationships are what make Mr. Hammer – an Outstanding Teacher of the Northland.

“I just know how hard he works and how much he cares about the kids and is so much more than just a teacher,” said parent nominator Michelle Varda. “I think that Kyle cares about the kids more than just like a grade on the paper. More than just something like that. He really takes the time to care about them as people and care about them in the whole environment of like the school environment.”

“He’s embedding real actual life experiences that take you full circle so when you look at that academy model, he’s going from in class to out of class to employment engagement and ultimately even looking at some work-based learning things for students futuristically so truly full circle educating those students,” said Shannon Malovrh, Career and Technical Education Administrator for Rock Ridge and other Northland schools.

For these reasons, and so many more, Kyle Hammer is an Outstanding Teacher of the Northland.