Jamie Boelter likes to think outside the box when teaching language arts classes at Austin High School.

“In composition class, I was just thinking of different activities to do during the course of the year to mix things up … that can get kind of monotonous,” he said.

Boelter, 26, has taught composition, interpersonal skills, public speaking and journalism for three years at AHS.

Searching for a way to connect to his students, Boelter intersperses his love of music into his teaching.

“Kids today are so into music,” he said. “Everywhere you go, they are so tied in to their iPods and cell phones.

“So I decided to pick up a guitar and analyze song lyrics,” Boelter said. “Hopefully, I’m opening up their eyes a little bit.”

He also found that reading about local news can be an integral part of his classes.

“Reading and writing go hand in hand, so I thought about doing some reading,” Boelter said. “Kids actually enjoy reading the newspaper.”

In his public speaking class, Boelter encourages students to open up with their opinions and to interact with each other. A popular activity is his “go-arounds” in which students form a circle and Boelter poses a question, like, “Do you believe in aliens?” Each students must participate in the discussion.

“It’s just kind of a warm-up idea kids enjoy,” Boelter said. “It allows students to know that everyone’s human.

“I’m a human being too, and I’m a person outside of school,” he added.

Boelter attributes his “firm but fair” teaching style to being the son of two teachers.

His mother, Sally, teaches third grade and his father, Tarry, teaches psychology, sociology and history at Murray County Central (Slayton, Minn.), where Boelter graduated from.

Boelter said that students at Austin High School are much more diverse than where he went to school.

“You have extremes on every end of it,” he said. “Their family backgrounds are completely different.

“I think the staff and community works really hard to understand each other,” Boelter said. “Every teacher here works really, really hard with their jobs.”

Boelter said that “finding that common interest” with students has been important in his teaching here.

“I wish I was a musician,” he said with a laugh. “In high school, I was in a lot of different sports … I had season-ending injuries in baseball back to back.”

He learned to play guitar while rehabbing from surgeries, and has tried to apply that unique interest in a fun way.

The one concern Boelter has is, his playing abilities include 90s rock music, which students can usually identify, although maybe not for much longer.

“Some day the students won’t know it, and I worry about that,” he said.

Boelter graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and student-taught in Albert Lea. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in English education online through Southwest State University. His wife is Michelle Boelter, a ninth grade math teacher at AHS. They have a 6-month-old daughter.