“I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have fun,” Erickson said. “There’s many other things in the world you can do, so why be miserable every day? I enjoy what I do. It’s a blast coming in the school and getting to meet kids and work with kids and bs with staff. It’s enjoyable.”
Erickson has been teaching Special Education and English courses at Blaine High School for 11 years. He’s also been the Bengals baseball coach for six seasons and graduated from Blaine in 2003.
“Blaine through and through,” Erickson said. “Grew up down the street.”
Erickson is a Bengal to the core and is honored to be one of the 61 semifinalists for Minnesota teacher of year.
“I’m probably the biggest underdog in the group,” Erickson said. “I probably shouldn’t win.”
Others however, disagree with Erickson’s humble opinion of himself.
“I don’t feel like there’s anyone more deserving,” said Blaine Paraeducator Chris Ford. “He’s really been putting his heart and soul into his position here at Blaine High School.”
“He connects with people,” said Derek Schlomann who plays baseball for the Bengals. “He’s not just there to show up and coach. He does it for the love of the game and for getting kids and athletes better…I think it’s a great accomplishment to be nominated for teacher of the year for Ted.”
Connecting and unplugging
The ability to connect with his students and players is one of Erickson’s strengths. He doesn’t take himself too seriously and genuinely cares about the youngsters he interacts with at Blaine.
“At the end of the day nobody cares about your lesson honestly,” Erickson said. “They care about what kind of relationship you build with them and know that you care about them. I think that’s more important. That’s kind of my goal.”
Erickson keeps things loose when teaching and coaching.
“In order to have success you can’t be uptight in the classroom or on the baseball field,” Erickson said. “I like to make sure everybody feels comfortable, they feel like they’re safe and that they’re going to be supported with success or failure. We fail a lot in baseball – seven times out of 10 you’re still successful and the students I work with often times fail a lot too. They’re working with me to try to find some success.”
“I think he’s able to take that stuff from the baseball field and apply it to the classroom,” Ford said. “We all know that playing sports is just an extension of the classroom.”
One of Erickson’s goals is to convince this generation of students to occasionally unplug from their devices and be in the moment. Last season the Bengals baseball team went to St. John’s for a weekend trip and Erickson banned cell phones.
“The feedback from that is they were very scared initially and we had a few parents say, ‘how will I get a hold of my son if I need to,’ ” Erickson said. “I said, ‘you have my number, call me anytime day or night and I will make sure they get the message.’ It was nice to be able to disconnect from social media and buy into each other from the team aspect of it, so it was a lot of fun.”
The Minnesota Teacher of the Year will be announced on May 4th.
