Head of the Class

Underwood’s Darchuk up for ‘teacher of the year’

By Jeff Hage (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, March 7, 2008

Deb Darchuk picks up a Scrabble tile and smiles. As she places it on the board to spell out a word, the Underwood English teacher knows that her record of being undefeated at Scrabble among her students will stand for another week.

It’s a typical Friday afternoon in Darchuk’s classroom. As the hands on her classroom clock near the 3 o’clock hour, the teacher and her students are often finishing a heated battle with the Scrabble tiles.

“They always think they can beat me, but no one has yet,” Darchuk says proudly.

Deb Darchuk loves words, whether they are spelled out with tiles on a Scrabble board or found typed on the white pages of a new novel.

Words have not only defined her life, but her 31-year career as a teacher in North Minneapolis and Underwood.

Today she finds herself as a finalist for Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year. If she were to win, it would be yet another honor bestowed upon the Underwood School District, which in January was named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation’s top high schools.

“I have a real love for words and reading, and that’s how it all started,” Durchuk said.

“For 31 years I have been teaching, and today I love words more so than ever,” she said.

Durchuk’s teaching career began in North Minneapolis where she taught for four years.

She then moved to Underwood where she has now taught for 27 years and has been the foundation of the school district’s English program.

In addition to teaching English, she served as speech coach for 25 years and the high school play director for 22 years.

But after a long career the dedication to student development can take a toll on a teacher.

“Teaching everyday and then being around every night with speech or the play got to be a little much for me,” Durchek confessed.

But some of her former students who themselves are now teachers have taken over the extra-curricular activities, she said.

“That happens when you’ve been around long enough. You find yourself working with former students or sitting across from them during conferences with their own children who are now my students,” she said.

As a matter of fact, she estimates that she taught the parents of about a third of her current students.

Today those students are taking a number of different classes from Durchek, who still has a youthful enthusiasm for teaching Underwood’s youth.

She’s sure that enthusiasm is transferred over to her students.

“I think they enjoy my classes and understand the importance of being a good reader and a good writer,” Durchuk said.

“The last few years I’ve been teaching 10th through 12th graders subjects like Minnesota authors, non-fiction, fiction, and speech,” Durchuk said.

“It spices up my day teaching a variety of things,” she said.

Durchuk is a humble teacher who doesn’t see herself as one of the State’s top teachers, but instead sees herself as a good teacher who has found a niche that allowed her success in doing her job.

“I’m blessed forever - and think about that all the time,” she said.