Each month, a school-wide Teacher of the Month is selected by the student body. A poll of several randomly selected staff members is emailed to everyone in the school. After the votes are tallied, the teacher with the most votes is pronounced teacher of the Month. For January, Mr. Dueck was the big winner. I took an opportunity to interview him about his life and his personal history with Holy Family.

Mr. Dueck attended the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and the University of Bologna in Italy. He has previous work experience at Blake High School and Mary’s Place, a Christian, non-profit homeless shelter in Minneapolis. Mr. Dueck ended up as a languages teacher at Holy Family through a series of coincidental relationships. His wife was a student at the previous school where Mr. Walker and Mrs. Brown worked. He noticed a newspaper ad for jobs at Holy Family that mentioned Mrs. Brown as the principal. He knew Mrs. Brown through his wife, so he decided to pursue the opportunity.

Mr. Dueck feels that “it is a privilege to be part of a Christian education.” He takes great joy in sharing his faith with the student body. The students are fun, and there’s never a dull moment. He feels that his biggest individual contribution to the school has been Holy Family’s unique Italian language program.

Mr. Dueck is fluent in Italian and English. He is competent in French and Latin, and he speaks some German and Spanish. He cheers for the Vikings, although he admits it’s been a rough couple of decades. One of his favorite book series is the trilogy of space novels by C.S. Lewis. In terms of TV shows, he enjoys The Chosen. If he could go anywhere in the world tomorrow, he would visit Italy again.

Make sure to vote in the next teacher of the month poll when it releases! Look forward to interviews with each future Teacher of the Month.