Teacher makes it to the sweet 16

UNIVERSAL CITY — Kris Kohlmeier, a teacher at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, leads mock trials and investigations with his history students that resemble a plot from “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” more often than giving classwork.

Students prep cases and duel as prosecutors and defense attorneys in a communitywide assembly, a mix that earned a spot Tuesday as one of 16 people named Los Angeles County Teachers of the Year, and the only one from Glendale Unified School District.

Glendale Unified School District board member Joylene Wagner and President Mary Boger and Supt. Michael Escalante attended the ceremony at the Universal Hilton to see Kohlmeier receive $1,000 as part of her award. The “Sweet 16” will move on with other county winners to the California Teachers of the Year competition in November, where five teachers will be chosen to represent California at the national level next spring.

The last area teacher selected as a statewide teacher of the year was Kim Labinger, of Edison Elementary School, in 2005.

Kohlmeier said the experience was like the Academy Awards.

“I’m truly honored,” he said. “But getting an e-mail or a note from a former student thanking me for what I did in middle school is better than this. There are hundreds of outstanding teachers in Glendale . . . Don’t get me wrong, I’m very honored, but I keep those in a box to reflect on what I’ve done.”

He brings in technology and multimedia into his classrooms, he said. Students think they are doing an “interactive cyber hunt,” but in actuality, they are having fun working, reading and learning.

“It’s a neat name for research, but they don’t know it,” Kohlmeier said.

Kohlmeier went through two rounds of essay-writing this summer, as part of the application process that began in May. He wrote three essays about teaching trends and his philosophy of education, his classroom was observed, and county education officials interviewed him.

Kohlmeier, of La Crescenta, is in his 23rd year teaching and is a former softball coach at Glendale High School. He said his secret to instructing is connecting with students individually.

“We have to be about kids first,” he said. “They come to school with a lot of baggage these days that when I was coming to school, I didn’t have to deal with.”