Wasilla teacher learned value

of work, fun, on Palmer farm

By AMY MENEREY-Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA -- A hard work ethic, compassion and a knack for science are all qualities that keep Wasilla Middle School physical education teacher Ann Marie Svedin at the top of her game.

The tall brunette who talks with enthusiasm about her students, about life and about goals, was recently chosen by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, referred to as AAHPERD, as Alaska's Outstanding Middle School Physical Education Teacher of the Year.

The award was both a surprise and an honor for the woman who grew up milking cows as one of Rose Marie "Tiny" and Ray Depriest's 11 children. She was nominated for the award by former WMS principal and colleague Bob Thompson, she said, whose professionalism and standards she admired.

After nomination, she was required to submit approximately 20 pages of references, essay questions and background information about herself to AAHPERD. The process was an eye-opener for the already perceptive teacher.

"It was quite the self-reflection," Svedin said. "It was great to do, because it really makes you assess what you're doing and why."

Svedin is already very in tune with her beliefs and goals, though. Growing up on a farm taught her about hard work and provided valuable life lessons.

"We learned immediate and reasonable consequences for our mistakes, as well as our accomplishments," Svedin said, "If we didn't get the cows milked, we couldn't go play."

Early on, she said, she and her siblings learned that if there was going to be work to be done, they might as well make it fun. She owes much of her optimism to her parents, she said, who did a tremendous job raising them.

Svedin now passes that positive outlook on to her middle school students at every opportunity, she said, especially since kids of that age require so much attention and direction.

"I'm in hog heaven working with middle school students," she said. "When I was that age, I had a couple key teachers that were inspirational and life-saving for me -- it's a tough phase."

Svedin will be the first to say that being a physical education teacher is not "gym," nor is it simply about teaching kids to play games. She incorporates her love of science, of human physiology, goal-setting and positive thinking into all of her work. A "gym" she says, is a room with four walls.

In her early years in college, Svedin discovered an interest in special education and working with at-risk children. She minored in adaptive aquatics -- special education through the use of water activities -- but after traveling outside Alaska and deciding to return home to the place she grew up and loved, she found her niche working with middle-schoolers.

Middle-school students, Svedin said, are incredible, neat young people.

"They're trying on different hats, starting to push away from authority and find their space, but at the same time, they want us to hold them accountable," she said.

But that doesn't mean they are all causing trouble, she said. On the contrary, for every negative thing people hear about these youngsters, there are a hundred positive things the kids are doing, she said.

"Why aren't you teaching science?" some of her students ask Svedin. Much of her focus in the classroom is based on research, how the brain reacts to physical activity. It's about being a "whole" person, Svedin says, about integrating the right and left hemispheres of the brain -- it's about living at full capacity.

"'We're a machine,' I tell the kids, 'and these machines were made to move!' If you don't move you're just asking for depression," Svedin said. She can quote numerous studies about endorphins, exercise and mental health, but much of her philosophy dates back to her childhood.

"A lot of it is common sense," Svedin said. "Stand up, be straight -- your body is a part of who you are," she said, quoting her grandmother Alys Vicaryous.

"Physical education is not about developing athletes," Svedin said. "I want them to be able to enjoy it and have fun."

Growing up with eight brothers, and with five teen-agers at home, Svedin says she has plenty of personal experience with kids.

"They're at a stage in their life where they are asserting themselves," she said, but she doesn't feel intimidated or distract by anything her students may say or do. Instead, she said, she recognizes the need for kids at this age to experience self-worth, and to feel safe. But most of all, she says, she recognizes the common thread we all share, regardless of our age.

"I think the bottom line is every human being wants and needs to be needed," she said.