Excellent Educator: Shane Uptagrafft

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x

Excellent Educator: Mr. Uptagrafft

The day's local, regional and national news, detailed events and late-breaking stories are presented by the ABC 6 News Team, along with the latest sports, weather updates including the extended forecast.

(ABC 6 News) — The first month of the year has come and gone, and now it is time to recognize one of the many teachers making a big impact on students.

While students at Lourdes High School may know Shane Uptagrafft as their history teacher, that originally wasn’t the case for him.

For Uptagrafft, his first love was math.

“Growing up, I always wanted to be a math teacher, but it was thanks to my 10th grade U.S. history teacher, actually. He was very helpful in realizing my love for history,” Uptagrafft said.

But it wasn’t just his love for history that drove him. He also enjoyed helping others. It’s something he brings to his classroom every day.

Whenever we go up to him in the hallways, he always says hi to us, and he’ll take his time to know each one of us individually, and he’ll know what we’ll need to pass his class,” said student Rute Birshole.

Uptagrafft credits his willingness to help others to the time he was a teacher’s assistant when he was in high school. Lourdes staff says he has been an excellent addition.

“He works a lot with the freshmen, and so they have a special kind of energy every day, and he does a great job working with them, keeping them engaged in their learning,” said Director of Counseling Sarah Groven.

His work doesn’t stop in the classroom, though. Uptagrafft makes an effort to support his students outside of school hours, and it doesn’t go unnoticed.

“He comes to almost every single hockey game, which, I play hockey as well, so it’s fun seeing him there at the games and even at the football games. He’s always there on the sidelines cheering us on,” said student Chay Cunningham.

For Uptagrafft, this is more than just a job. It’s about bringing people together so each student can have a great learning experience.

“I want to make this enjoyable for every student. I want to find a different way for every student to learn. Some days it might be different than others, but I want to make sure we are doing something that’s interactive at least once a week,” Uptagrafft said.