03-04-2025
Kelly Elementary teacher Emily Dawes named Grand Forks Public Schools' teacher of the year
Apr. 3—GRAND FORKS — A first-grade teacher from Kelly Elementary is Grand Forks Public Schools' Teacher of the Year.
Emily Dawes was honored Wednesday afternoon at Kelly's April student assembly. Dawes has worked as an elementary school teacher in the district for the last 10 years, spending the last four years teaching first grade at Kelly.
"Emily Dawes embodies what it means to be an outstanding educator," Principal Kelli Tannahill said, reading from a testimonial provided by one of her coworkers. "Her No. 1 focus is always her students, as well as the students of her teammates."
Dawes, her coworkers also wrote, is a team player, a consummate professional, and has a genuine passion for teaching.
Superintendent Terry Brenner visited Kelly to announce the award.
"Today, we give her the recognition she so richly deserves, not just for her instructional talent but for the heart she brings to our schools and the difference she makes," Brenner said.
Dawes was joined in Kelly's gymnasium by her husband and three of her four children as she was honored.
She said she was still processing the award when asked for her reaction from the Herald.
"I teach with so many wonderful teachers and to be picked, this is pretty amazing," she said.
Every year, parents, students and district employees submit nominations for teacher of the year, which are reviewed by a committee of around a dozen principals, administrative staff, and a representative from the Grand Forks Foundation for Education.
Assistant Superintendent Matt Bakke, who served on the committee for the first time this year, said committee membership was meant to reflect a "wide plethora" of views within the district.
Dawes first worked as a teacher before leaving the classroom to raise her kids.
She substitute-taught in the district while her kids were young, and later taught music and health classes to kindergartners and first- and second-graders as an instructional paraprofessional at Century Elementary School.
In 2014, she applied for a full-time teaching position at Lewis and Clark Elementary.
"I needed a class, I wanted a classroom," she said. "I wanted my own little people."
Tannahill, then at Lewis and Clark, said Dawes was already well-liked as a parent and educator when the latter was hired to teach third grade.
After six years at Lewis and Clark, Dawes moved over with Tannahill to Kelly, where she's worked as a first-grade teacher ever since.
Dawes says she feels like she's "at home" in a first-grade classroom.
Her first-graders seem to think so too: she was mobbed by her students in a dogpile as they returned to the classroom after the assembly.
Tannahill said one of Dawes' best assets as a teacher is her ability to adapt and stay current with changing mores in elementary education.
"In education now, with the way things change rapidly, you need to do that along with your students," Tannahill said. "She's willing to take risks and do that without hesitation, because she's willing to do what's best for kids."
As part of the award, Dawes received a check for $500 from the Grand Forks Foundation for Education.
Previous award recipients each received $1,000 in 2023 and 2024, according to Herald reporting and a district press release, respectively.
Dawes will also be considered to be Grand Forks County's Teacher of the Year, a prerequisite for the statewide teaching award given by the Department of Public Instruction to one North Dakota teacher.
