Excellent Educator: Heights Community School's Brenda Allal

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- This morning, the WCCO Morning Show is honoring another excellent educator in the metro who has gone above and beyond to make a difference in students' lives.

Like the rest of us, teachers have to balance home life and work. As busy and this week's Excellent Educator is, she seems to be managing things just fine.

A caravan of love joined WCCO for the big moment when Brenda Allal was named this week's honoree.

The gifted and talented teacher at The Heights Community School in St. Paul also works on the yearbook, student council and Destination Imagination, part of the reason one of her student's parents nominated her.

"I'm with the PTA at the school, and she volunteers for a lot of our events," Holly Heaser said. "I see her presence a lot."

Allal has been a teacher for 18 years. She even went back to school so she would have even more to offer her gifted and talented students.

Allal's husband and her two children brought the cake for her big surprise. Like any working mother, she says balancing home life and career is a challenge -- until she gets to class.

"You miss your kids at home, but when they come and hug you or they say 'Hi, Miss Allal,' and they miss you when you're not there, that's the thing that keeps you going," Allal said. "You feel like a movie star."

You can nominate a deserving educator by going to the WCCO Morning Show's Facebook page, telling us their name and why they should be WCCO's Excellent Educator of the week.