MILWAUKEE (SPECTRUM NEWS)- Susan Richardson has been teaching third grade at the Milwaukee German Immersion School since 2013.

She’s one of five Wisconsin teachers chosen as 2021 Teacher of the Year.

“We found out two weeks ago and I was like ‘They have the wrong person,”' she says.  “Most of the time, I don’t even think I’m the best teacher in the hallway and it just shows you how we all need each other.”

It’s clear to others why she received this honor, especially given how she responded to transitioning to online learning in less than one week.

“We all just kind of panicked and we came into school on that Tuesday to grab our personal items,” she says.  “My team grabbed everything we could for the students and we made bundles and I delivered them to my students so they could keep learning somehow.”

Principal Frank Lammers says that’s how Richardson has always been.

“She’s a very innovative teacher and she’s very much willing to constantly learn and always willing to help other people and most importantly her students,” he says.  “She’s a go-getter, so when this pandemic hit, she knew what she had to do and immediately reached out to her families.”

The fall semester has just begun for MPS and Richardson admits it is going smoother than last spring.  

“A couple kids couldn’t put their screen on and I couldn’t help them,” she says.  “I’d say, ‘Let’s open up this new link,’ and I’d have four kids crying in their kitchen because they couldn’t figure out how to open it.”

It’s the lack of in-person interaction that Richardson says has been the hardest part to get used to.

“When I ask a question in class, I can see on your face 'She doesn’t get it,”' she says.  “I know I need to stand next to her and nudge her a little bit and that’s really hard to do virtually.”

Richardson says she sent parents a questionnaire last spring, asking what they thought she needed to do to effectively teach their children in an online setting. She says it made a big difference.

“As teachers, we all want to do better,” she says.

She hopes virtual learning will only be temporary, but is prepared to teach that way until further notice.  She asks both educators and parents to be patient with one another.