Career and technical education teacher Terry Carlson has been named the 2014 Austin Public Schools Teacher of the Year.

“His name rose to the top,” said David Brown, sixth-grade teacher at I.J. Holton Intermediate School and chair of the Austin Teacher of the Year Committee.

Carlson has been a teacher for 25 years and teaches freshman through senior students at Austin High School. Brown said Carlson’s strength in teaching comes from his lessons, which often extend outside the classroom. He was key in assisting students build Hy-Vee of Austin’s Sprouts program garden. He is also noted for helping with holiday city decorations downtown, and he, his students, and Riverland Community College carpentry students built the dog agility course for the Austin Police Department’s K-9 units. In addition, Carlson and his students have built several sheds for Austin schools.

“His students often don’t get the recognition they deserve,” Brown said.

Carlson was shocked upon receiving the award, according to Brown.

Carlson describes building relationships with his students, his innovative attempts at career and technical education, and the real-life skills he instills in students as his strengths as a teacher.

“One of my greatest rewards as an educator is when many students come back to visit me after graduation,” Carlson said. “Also, having three former students become tech. ed. teachers.”

He will join more than 100 teachers across Minnesota to compete for this school year’s state Teacher of the Year Award.