Glenwood Middle School Educator Named Recipient Of Charles E. Laking Outstanding Teacher Award

Glenwood Middle School language arts teacher Melanie Howard has been honored as the recipient of a $10,000 Outstanding Teacher Award from the Charles E. Lakin Foundation, recognizing her “exceptional dedication to student connection and engagement.”

Howard, who is completing her 34th year as an educator in the Glenwood Community School District, was presented with the award during a school assembly last Wednesday. Howard said the award is both “humbling” and “validating.”

“After 34 years with the same district, the place I grew up – this is what I chose to do, chose to stay here – this is so validating,” she said. “The hard work I’ve really tried to put into this job, it has paid off. People know how hard I work and the extra hours I try to put in – all the extra I try to put into the kiddos.”

The Charles E. Lakin Foundation annually selects four public school teachers from non-urban districts within a 40-mile radius of Emerson, Iowa—the hometown of the late philanthropist Charles E. Lakin—to receive this prestigious award. The foundation celebrates outstanding teachers who create inclusive, inspiring classrooms where students feel valued and excited to learn. In 2025, 123 nominations were submitted from across southwest Iowa, highlighting educators who go above and beyond to make a difference in students’ lives.

Award presenters said Howard’s nomination emphasized her powerful ability to connect with students and cultivate meaningful relationships—a critical skill in today’s classrooms.

“I truly believe the first thing a teacher needs to do, before academics come to play, is to make a connection with a student,” said Howard. “You make a connection by seeing them every day and talking to them. You shouldn’t leave any student in your room invisible. I’ve truly believed in that philosophy for the last 34 years and I try to go by that. I try to make a connection and talk to each kiddo that’s in my room at least once a day and take it further than that by finding out what interests them, what they’re involved in, things like that. Going to their games – I coached for 25 years, so that’s in my blood, so I try to attend things like that and support them outside of school.”

Of course, Howard also makes sure her students understand the importance of academics.

“I want to make sure students know the importance of academics - it has to be a priority in their life,” she said.  “I want them to grow from year to year and for them to understand how important that is.”

Glenwood Middle School Principal Heidi Stanley said Howard “truly is all about what’s best for kids.”

“I think the biggest thing that sets her off and makes her most deserving for this award is how she always puts kids first,” said Stanley. “She works very hard to build relationships with all of her kids, which then means they’re more engaged in her class and the learning is higher.”

Howard teaches sixth grade language arts and yearbook and newspaper electives for seventh- and eighth-grade students. Her first 15 years in the school district were spent as a special education teacher.

Howard said she knew at a young age that she wanted to be a teacher. She was inspired by her second-grade teacher Mavis (Uehling) Miller.

“I think why the connection is so important to me is when I was a second grader in her classroom, I lost my grandfather at a very young age,” she recalled. “Before school that day, before academics, before Spelling, she took the time to talk to me. She said she was sorry and said, ‘I know this is going to be a tough day for you.’ She just sat down and she talked to me. From then, I just knew that teachers were much more than just here to teach academics.

“She was just a fabulous person.”

Ironically, Miller was teaching at the middle school when Howard was hired by the school district in 1991.

“I got to teach with her when we were up in the old middle school building up on the (Glenwood Resource Center) campus,” Howard noted. “She was the Talented and Gifted (TAG) teacher there.

“(Growing up), she was my favorite teacher and up until the time she retired, I always told her that. She knew she had a special place in my heart,”
Along with the relationships she builds with her students, Stanley noted another important attribute of Howard’s is her willingness to support and mentor to her fellow educators.

“She is also a team player for her colleagues,” said Stanley. “She’s always willing to step up and help out her colleagues. We need that kind of leadership. She mentors young teachers, she helps the veteran teachers, she helps me a ton behind the scenes doing things and getting things done.”

Next to the interaction with her students, helping and supporting her colleagues is one of the most enjoyable aspects of teaching, Howard said.

“I always try to make a connection with everybody on the staff as well because I think that is very, very important,” she said. “I try to lend myself to them as far as a role model of what can you do in your classroom, but if there’s just something that’s bothering you, I have an open door policy. I do have a lot of people come in and out every day and I love that.”

Howard said she works in a positive, team-first environment at the middle school and she credits her principal for setting the tone.

“I just love the people that I work with,” she said. “I just think that if your team is comfortable with each other, you just have a better foundation in your building. I absolutely think it starts with Heidi, she’s amazing.

“The people I work with make me want to be a better educator each day: my principal, our teachers, secretaries and all other staff  around me.  I am so thankful for them.”

Since winning the award, Howard said her students have been asking her what she’s going to do with the $10,000 that comes with the award. Nearing retirement, she said plans to save some of the money and make a contribution to her granddaughter’s trust fund.

In addition to the individual honor for Howard, the Glenwood Community School District will receive an additional $2,500 to support future educational initiatives.

The Lakin Foundation Award is the second major teaching award Howard has received in the past two years. In 2023, she was named the recipient of the Glenwood Community School Foundation’s John A. Gregory Teacher of the Year Award.

Howard said his current intentions are to continuing teaching for at least another year or two.