“‘Who’s excited to learn something new?’” says math teacher Jason Koehrer before every lesson.

Senior Samantha Su says this is what she loves most about him.

“He engages his students and he does his best to know that you individually understand the lesson,” said Su.

Koehrer was nominated this year by other teachers to be Parkway South’s Teacher of the Year.

“I was surprised and honored because I was voted on by my colleagues and I really have respect for the people I work with,” said Koehrer. “I didn’t find out until Dr. Aitch made the announcement to the school.”

Many think Koehrer received this award because has a special way of teaching.

“He takes personal interest for doing what’s best for each and every student,” said Koehrer’s fellow math teacher of 14 years, Staci Noyes.

His AP Statistics student, junior Austin Beinder says that he has really come to love Koehrer because of his unique sense of humor that makes an otherwise dull class, really interesting.

“Mr Koehrer has a thing for goats so it’s an ongoing joke. Anytime he has to explain something, he explains it with goats,” said Beinder. “Also anytime we had to make a graph it was always donuts eaten vs. elephants killed, not that they had any correlation.”

Koehrer, in a comedic tone, says that people always misspell his name.

“As a percentage, 100 percent of the time but as number 1,468,972 and one fourth times that it has been wrong,” said Koehrer.

Before Koehrer was ever a teacher, he went to college and got a degree in chemical engineering. He had worked as an engineer in a chocolate factory but he had always loved the idea of tutoring in college. His wife finally told him to go for it and become a teacher.

“What makes teaching so fun is when you see the lightbulbs go off and they learn something new,” said Koehrer.

He makes sure the point of the lesson gets across to every student.

“The lessons that he teaches, he adds stories to them that make it exciting,” said Su.

So many students are excited to go to his class.

“You can definitely tell he has experience and he knows what he is talking about. His goat-filled humor makes you want to come to his class,” said Beinder.

Besides his stand-up comedy routine during class, Koehrer has lots of hobbies to keep him busy after class. He loves to golf, run, lift weights and read in his free time. As well as being a hard-working teacher, he says one of his biggest hobbies right now is his kids.

“They were excited for me. My wife and daughter were really excited and so was my son, as much he could be, being five and not really knowing what was going on,” said Koehrer. “Both of my parents were happy for me because they were both teachers and so they know what an honor it is to be nominated.”