Eden Prairie educator Linda Wallenberg is 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year
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DOUG DOOHER
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CHRIS WILLIAMS
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ST. PAUL, Minnesota., May 4, 2025 – Linda Wallenberg, an English teacher at Eden Prairie High School, is the 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year.
Wallenberg – known affectionately as “Wally” by generations of students – is now in her 49th year of teaching. She is the 61st recipient of the prestigious award and the first from the Eden Prairie district to be named Minnesota Teacher of the Year. An independent selection committee representing Minnesota leaders in education, business and government chooses the Teacher of the Year from individuals who are nominated and who then choose to become a candidate.
“Teaching is about the journey – the opportunity every fall and every single day to begin anew, to guide students along their own journeys, to build people, not just scholars,” Wallenberg said. “I believe teaching is a calling of love, an awakening of sorts – creating a sacred space where students can feel seen, believe in themselves, and trust their own authentic voices to take them out to the world.”
“Before meeting ‘Wally,’ I did not understand what true, unbridled devotion looked like,” said Sophia Yoerks, an Eden Prairie High School 2024 graduate, in a recommendation letter for Wallenberg. “Not only does she teach impactful and informative material, but she also finds countless ways to connect both herself and her students with it. Even though I have known her for almost five years, she still continues to amaze me.”
Wallenberg began teaching after graduating from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1975, which followed her studies at Uppsala University in Sweden. She earned a degree in English and Scandinavian studies, becoming the first certified Swedish teacher in Minnesota. She taught 8th-grade English at Faribault Junior High for a year and a half before coming to Eden Prairie High School in 1977 as an English and Swedish teacher and head gymnastics coach.
Wallenberg has a master’s degree in English education from the University of Minnesota and has additionally taught in Canterbury, England, and for the past 42 summers has been both the director and a Swedish teacher at Concordia College’s Swedish Language Village.
She has been named Eden Prairie Teacher of the Year three times, a finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year in 2005 and 2025, named National Gymnastics Coach of the Year twice and awarded the Royal Order of the Polar Star from His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden. She has authored two gymnastics books: Fundamental Gymnastics and Play-By-Play Gymnastics.
Many of “Wally’s” students have gone on to be professional poets, professional hockey players and Olympic medalists. However, she says her proudest achievement is to have inspired countless students to become teachers – including at least three Minnesota Teacher of the Year finalists in the past five years.
Education Minnesota, the 84,000-member statewide educators union, organizes and underwrites the Teacher of the Year program. Candidates include pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers, ECFE and ABE teachers from public or private schools. The Minnesota Teacher of the Year Program also receives support from the following organizations: Aviben, Education Minnesota ESI, Educators Lifetime Solutions, EFS Advisors, Harvard Club of Minnesota Foundation, Tradition Mortgage and Expedition Credit Union.
