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Excellent Educator: Valley View's Heather Young

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In the age of television, computers, and video games, it can be hard to get kids to put down the devices and pick up a book. But a teacher in Bloomington's love of reading is so contagious, it's rubbing off on her kids.

This week's Excellent Educator award goes to Heather Young at Valley View Middle School in Bloomington. She has only been teaching reading to 6th graders for 5 years, but she's already left big impressions.

When it comes to getting students to pick up a book, Young has picked up a trick that seems to be working.

"The biggest thing that you have to do is get to know your students. And if you know what they enjoy, then you plug them into a book. So taking them into a library and saying 'Give me 4 things you like,' and then finding a book that matches that," she said.

In only the third week of school, her students have caught the reading bug.

"She told us that reading helps you go to college and get scholarships," student Liban Mohamud said.

Young's time at Valley View actually goes way back. When she was a student here, a social studies teacher inspired her.

"I would have problems in math and kind of struggled, and he would stay late and help me with a different subject even though that wasn't his area," Young said.

That teacher, Greg Erbisch, still works at Valley View. The two are now co-workers.

"It's a fun story for me because as a teacher that's what you hope," Erbisch said, "(that) someday some of the things you're doing is to inspire other people to give back and help young people."

You could say helping young people is her namesake, but for Young it's so much more.

"I love showing kids that in this age of technology, where you have all these computers and iPads, that there is something great about opening up a book," she said.

Young is known for having her own reading library in the classroom and kids from other classes will come by and ask for books.

Another fun part of her class is she'll play music during transitions. When WCCO was there, it was Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal."

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