PALMER — It’s 3:35 in the afternoon and the last of Jackie Johnson’s fifth-grade class has barged and bustled out the door.

With 34 students in Johnson’s charge this year at Pioneer Peak Elementary School, the exodus from another day of learning resembled a small cattle call. And that’s just fine with Johnson, who put her zoology degree to work before finding her calling in the classroom.

“It can get a little hectic,” she said, adding her students never fail to surprise her.

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But Johnson was stunned when she learned she was named the Mat-Su Borough School District’s 2010 Teacher of the Year.

“That was a big surprise,” she said. “I found out my principal had nominated me, and to be singled out was quite an honor. I’m very appreciative. All of us (teachers) do a lot of work. Anyone who thinks all we do is show up here then go home when school is out (is mistaken). ... So, when your boss recognizes you do extra stuff, it’s good.”

What may seem like “extra stuff” to Johnson is actually a rare gift for a teacher, Pioneer Peak Principal Don Molina said in his nomination.

“Mrs. Johnson is a master teacher, an enthusiastic educator and tireless worker,” he said. “Her sphere of positive influence goes well beyond the walls of her classroom.”

In a district where students are expected to gain 7.5 point on a standardized test over the course of the school year, Johnson’s class averaged 17.5 points, Johnson said.

“And one kid gained 50 points,” Johnson said. “I’m very lucky to teach at Pioneer Peak in that we have a lot of parent support. That’s so important. We like to think there’s an education triangle — the kids have responsibilities, the teachers have responsibilities and the parents have responsibilities.”

In her six years at Pioneer Peak — and 13 in education — Johnson has also accepted challenges outside the classroom. She’s on the district’s math and technology curriculum writing teams, does training for other teachers and organizes an annual Renaissance festival.

But she was introduced to education while working at a large Busch Gardens zoo in Florida, where she began teaching small children about animals. She was also introduced to her husband, who is a gifted animal trainer (and no, his techniques do not work on children, Johnson said).

More so than when she began teaching elementary school, technology is playing a large role in education today, Johnson said.

“Technology is becoming a bigger part of everything we do, and that’s OK. That’s how it should be,” she said. “These kids are tech kids. They have it coming at them all the time.”

There is also more accountability for teachers than in the past.

“The movement nationwide has been more to a standards-based curriculum,” she said. “You have the objectives that must be met by every child, and these are a definite, absolute must. More accountability is the thing, and I think it’s great, because we have to keep kids moving forward.”

That drive is reinforced when Johnson recalls a particularly memorable student.

“There was a child whose handwriting was just abysmal,” she said. “You couldn’t read it at all. Within the first couple weeks of school I asked him to come tell me what he wrote. He had a lot of amazing ideas, but just couldn’t get them out on paper. He had some motor skills issues and had a very difficult time writing.”

Johnson went to his previous teacher to gain insight into the student.

“I went to his fourth-grade teacher and she said — and this really made me mad — ‘Oh, I just kind-of left him alone. He didn’t bother me and I didn’t bother him.’ She basically just let him go and didn’t require much of him al all.”

Johnson went back and worked out a system with the student where he would type his assignments while working on his handwriting.

“From the beginning of the year to the end, he went from being a C student to an absolute A student,” said Johnson while choking back tears. “He needed something to make him realize he could do it, and he went on to become the valedictorian of his class.”

Making a lasting difference for her students is satisfying, but it’s their 10-year-old humor and perspective that make teaching fun, Johnson said. Like the student who chose sleeping as his subject for an assignment titled “I am the World’s Best.”

“I’ll tell you a funny one that came up this week,” she said. “Oh, this makes me laugh. I try to use a lot of words kids may not be exposed to. We work on increasing vocabulary naturally in any way we can. This time we used the word ‘abysmal,’ and someone said, ‘Well, what is that?’

“So, we were talking about it and using it in sentences. Then that same little person responded with, ‘Oh, I get it now. It’s like Pept-abysmal.’”

Being named Teacher of the Year is the first teaching accolade Johnson has received, she said, and will join the state’s other district honorees to be considered for the Alaska Teacher of the Year award.

There is not secret to being a successful teacher, Johnson said. It’s having a passion for education.

If a teacher loses that passion, “please don’t do it, because it’s not fair to the kids.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.