A Spirit Lake high school teacher was awarded Idaho’s 2013 Milken Educator Award in a surprise assembly Friday morning. Katie Graupman, an English teacher at Timberlake High School, went to the gym with her students to participate in a schoolwide assembly to celebrate her school’s excellent academic track record. Or so she thought … During the assembly, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna and Jane Foley of the Milken Family Foundation unexpectedly announced that Graupman had been named Idaho’s Milken educator, which comes with a $25,000 award. Lowell Milken conceived the Milken Educator Award to attract, retain and motivate outstanding talent to the teaching profession/Jennifer Swindell, IdahoED News. More here.

• Also: Cool video of Katie finding out about the award here.

Question: Did you have a high school instructor worthy of a major award? Who? Why?