CCMHS English teacher, Michelle Fobert named a top 10 finalist for the Colts Classroom Quarterbacks competition
CULVER — Michelle Fobert, an English teacher at Culver Community Middle High School was recently named a top 10 finalist in the Colts Classroom Quarterbacks competition. This competition recognizes teachers, administrators, nurses and staff members who go above and beyond for their school, students and community.
Finalists for this award were selected by a panelist of educational professionals, the Indianapolis Colts and anthem blue Cross and blue Shield.
These finalists were chosen based off three criteria, amount of involvement in their school and/ or community, degree of positive impact on the school and/or community and demonstration of commitment to education, health and wellness initiatives and other programming.
Fobert has been a teacher for 10 years, nine of these years have been at Culver. She has taught many different grades for English. Currently she teaches the English 11 Honors high ability american Literature class, English 12 Honors, a college credit class called advanced Literature and Composition, the other English 12 classes which focuses on british literature and a speech class.
She said that her favorite class based off the curriculum is English 11. She enjoys the american Literature aspect where they read the work of Fitzgerald, Steinbeck and Tennessee Williams. She also thinks that her speech class is fun because the students get to stand up and really explore topics that they care about. She said that it is usually an entertaining class and that it is more of a family environment due to the smaller size of the class.
She explained what led her to a career in the field of education.
“Probably my other teachers, they were obviously a big inspiration for me. I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing and when I was younger, I thought I wanted to be an author or an illustrator or both. Growing up and having some very fundamental teachers that pushed me that this would be a good vocation to do,” Fobert said.
She shared what being a finalist means to her.
“I was really shocked by it and very very humbled. I think teachers in general, usually we do a lot, so I don’t consider myself to be any better than anyone else, so it came by a big surprise,” Fobert said.
To be in the running for this award a person needs to be nominated by a fellow staff-member. Fobert shared that Theresa Hammond had nominated her, she had to fill out a paragraph to explain why she thought that Fobert fit the credentials of the award.
Besides being a teacher, Fobert is involved in the school through the therapy dog program, the HNAC writing competition and CAVS Club.
Fobert explained what led her to having a therapy dog. She said that her aunt is a big dog person and as she grew up around her, she saw that her aunt always had at least one therapy dog.
“When I got my own dog, I always had a goal of having one be a therapy dog,” Fobert said.
Her first dog did not make the cut, but she said that the dog is still wonderful. Her second dog, Odin, is a five year old golden retriever. She has had him since he was four months old. She said that he has had a Cinderella story.
“His mom was a puppy mill dog, when he was born, he had a heart murmur, so the rescue didn’t want to adopt him out. My friend, who was a vet, was fostering him for as long as she needed to. I was working a 4H clinic and he was there, and I ended up bringing him home. He was a very calm, easy going dog. I thought maybe he would be a good therapy dog,” Fobert said.
After seeing how calm he was around people she decided to work towards having him be a therapy dog. In June of 2021 Odin passed all of his tests and he is certified through Therapy Dog International. Now that he is a therapy dog, Fobert takes him to school twice a week and she takes him to Miller’s Merry Manor as well as the Culver-union Township Public Library.
“It means a lot. I’m a big animal person. Animals have helped me a lot in my life with any stress or times of trial and tribulation. I just think that they bring such a calming demeanor to the classroom,” Fobert said when talking about what it means to her to be part of the therapy dog program.
Fobert is a co-chair of the HNAC writing competition. She explained that in this position she has to help secure judges to judge the material that students write. They have to judge it, collect it, grade it, get certificates made, set up an awards ceremony and also put on a breakfast for the ceremony.
“It’s just a lot of organization of getting it done but again it means a lot to the students, especially those that are big writers. Sometimes I feel like athletics are the core part of high school and that's what people really focus on, and we sometimes forget that besides drama and the plays and such we also have people that write or are very good at math. It's neat to see them be centerstage at something as well,” Fobert said.
Fobert explained that CAVS Club stands for Culver Alliance for Voluntary Service. This groups helps out at a lot of different community events throughout the year. They help with the Lions Club, a Halloween party for the town, they help the Culver Parks Department and other things.
“I have a really good group of kids. I always have. It’s really neat to see them outside of school and take responsibility for something. They always do a really phenomenal job. It's neat to see,” Fobert said.
She has been involved in this since her first year at Culver. She explained that this was not something she planned to do. Culver’s former guidance counselor who was in charge of CAVS was stepping down from the position. Another teacher took it on and asked Fobert to help with it. It ended up becoming Fobert’s job over time.
Fobert also talked about the volunteer work that she does in Culver at Miller’s Merry Manor and the Culverunion Township Public Library.
“It's been really neat to build relationships with the residents at Miller’s. Obviously, some of them there don’t always have a lot of visitors and so at least I can make sure that on Mondays they have a visitor. If I was at Miller’s I would love to have a dog visit me, I try to look at it that way. It’s neat to see their faces light up when they get to pet him (Odin),” Fobert said.
Besides bringing Odin, Fobert also brings he son Lloyd to the nursing home. She thinks this is a good experience for him to interact with an older generation and to give back to the community.
As Fobert is involved in her classes, other parts of the school, the community and her son, she has a lot of things going on at once. She talked about how she is able to balance all of these.
“I owe a lot to the school. Teaching at Culver Community is teaching in a family environment. My son has built a lot of relationships with different teachers and even some of my students. He helps with my CAVS Club too. There’s always a lending hand here and there. I also like to keep busy. I’m not the type of person that likes to just sit at home. Lots of help from people but overall having a good schedule makes it pretty easy,” Fobert said.
As a finalist, Fobert received a $100 Amazon gift card to purchase school supplies as well as two tickets to the Colts home opener game and Colts swag.
Fobert said that the winner announcement day has not been shared yet. If she is selected as the winner of the Colts Classroom Quarterbacks competition, then she will also receive a $2,500 donation for Culver Community High School.
“It’s kind of a weird surreal thing. Again, a lot of teachers do a lot of things, so I don’t consider myself to be over the top in any way. It came as a surprise,” Fobert said.