Venerable Velzke is validated

Nicole Velzke remembers her third-grade teacher Rita Navis’ big smile and how she treated children.

“She had a way of making students feel really special and that they mattered. That always stuck with me,” she said.

“I wanted to do that.”

That is exactly what she has been doing for the last 20 years, the last 19 of them in the school that inspired her passion for education.

Her dedication hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Cedar Grove-Belgium Elementary School Principal Jeff Kondrakiewicz nominated Velzke for a Kohl Fellowship, which recognizes “superior ability to inspire a love of learning in their students, their ability to motivate others and their leadership and service within and outside the classroom.”

Velzke received the award, but she wasn’t the first to know.

Her husband Carl called her on her cell phone but she was on the floor teaching math and didn’t pick up.

“Mr. Kondrakiewicz came into the room and said, ‘Tell me you checked your email,’” she said.

Velzke hadn’t seen the email yet but Carl saw the press release.

Her students stood up and had an impromptu dance party to celebrate.

“It was very exciting in here,” Velzke said.

She and Carl went out to dinner to celebrate, and her three children gave her chocolate and flowers.

Kondrakiewicz said the award, given to 101 teachers across the state this year, is well deserved.

“We often speak of teaching as a craft or an art. Spending five minutes in Nicole’s room, it is very easy to see why. Teaching is more than a job for her, but a passion that she is perfectly suited to do,” he said. “She gives everything to her students and finds ways to reach each individual based on what their learning needs are at any given moment during the school year.”

Velzke said her goal is to have students love school when they leave for the day. She tries to form relationships with students so they want to learn and grow.

“Every kid needs to know I believe in them and they can do hard things,” she said. “My biggest thing is I always want to make kids feel like they’re somebody.”

Kindergarten, she said, is an important stepping stone.

“If we don’t start out on the right foot, it can affect their learning,” she said.

The Kohl Fellowship tells her she’s on the right track, she said. The application process included several essays on her teaching philosophy and letters of recommendation.

“It’s cool to have someone understand what you go through and value you for it,” she said.

Going through the past year was the most difficult in her two decades of teaching for obvious reasons. Velzke taught online last spring when schools closed, and at one point this year had five students learning from home due to Covid-19. She even got the virus herself and had to teach from home while an aide supervised her students in school.

Velzke said the district did a good job setting up technology and providing safety measures, but she missed comforting students who miss their parents or are upset because someone hurt their feelings or if they fell on the playground.

“It’s so hands-on in kindergarten. It just is not the same through a screen,” she said.

In-person school isn’t the same either — she misses the high fives and hugs —  but, Velzke said, kindergartners handle change well.

“Kindergartners are fabulous with routine. They just know that when I’m in the classroom the mask is on,” she said.

Curriculum was tweaked accordingly. Play time is limited to groups of two students and handouts are either laminated or put into plastic sleeves.

The kindergarten classes used to get together in November to watch “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and devour a traditional feast of jelly, pretzel sticks, toast and popcorn. This year, each class stayed in its own room to watch the show and teachers brought in the food.

“We still tried to give them the experience,” Velzke said.

Velzke earned a degree in education with a special education minor from Northwestern College in Iowa. She later earned a master’s degree from Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon.

She student taught at Cedar Grove-Belgium Elementary and, after a year at Sheboygan Christian, was glad to return to her old school to teach kindergarten.

“Kindergartners have a way of sneaking into your heart,” she said.

Velzke and the school each receive $6,000 for the Kohl Fellowship. She said she plans to spend some of the money on her classroom when she switches to second grade next year due to changes in enrollment. She looks forward to reconnecting with some of her former students.

“It will be exciting to see their growth,” she said.