Rapid City 2007 Teacher of the Year Tim McGowan is clearly not afraid to follow his calling, wherever it takes him.

McGowan was a counselor Dakota Middle School when he was named the 2007 Rapid City Teacher of the Year in February. He now works with many former middle school students as a counselor at Central High School.

The Rapid City Public School Foundation will honor McGowan along with Golden Apple teachers Michael Burke from Valley View Elementary School, Shari O'Keefe of South Middle School and Central High School's Mark Farrand and 16 Teachers of Distinction at a community reception at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11, at Wells Fargo Bank, 825 St. Joseph St. A short program is scheduled for 6 p.m.

The reception is sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank, Liberty Chrysler Jeep Volkswagen, Western Dakota Insurers, and Black Hills Gold Jewelry by Colman.

McGowan, who was also named the Region Seven Teacher of the Year, is competing with six other regional winners for 2007 South Dakota State Teacher of the Year award. The state Teacher of the Year will be announced Sunday, Sept. 16 at the Governor's Leadership Conference in Pierre.

This is the second consecutive year that a Rapid City Teacher of the Year was selected to represent Region Seven in the Teacher of the Year search, according to Sharon Lee, executive director of the Rapid City Public School Foundation. The foundation has coordinated the Teacher of the Year program for the past 12 years.

Each school in the Rapid City School District is invited to nominate a Teacher of Distinction. A panel of community members interviews each Teacher of Distinction to select the Teacher of the Year. Three additional teachers are recognized as Golden Apple honorees representing elementary, middle and high school teachers.

Counseling never entered McGowan's mind when he graduated from college in 1984 with a science degree. During his third year of teaching ninth-grade science in the Minneapolis area, McGowan was pulled out of his regular classes for one hour per day to work with high-risk students. Then, three years later while he was an earth science teacher and head basketball coach in Colorado, he was again asked to work with kids struggling with academic and behavioral issues. The next fall, McGowan headed to the University of Iowa, where he earned his master's degree in counseling and human development in 1992.

Despite the fact that counseling was not his original goal, McGowan took to it immediately. "I liked it right away, probably because I love being around people," he says.

He sees counseling as simply taking time for kids. "In today's world, everything is instantaneous. The only thing kids don't have is time from someone else."

As a counselor, McGowan believes his role is to teach students how to build relationships. He says that because of the technology of today - computers, blogging, text messaging - kids aren't learning to communicate the way they used to. "Kids need to learn how to dialogue; they are 'monologuers,'" he says.

McGowan's unique graduate school experience no doubt prepared him well for his future as a school counselor. He worked with dental students, basically teaching them "how to be nice to their patients." Although they had all the clinical skills to be successful, they did not know how to build a rapport with people. "Competence and compassion go hand in hand," he stated. "We can't be polarized. We have to teach kids those intangibles. It's not a skill everyone has."

Another experience that stands out for McGowan is the year he spent as education coordinator for the Black Hills Children's Home in Rockerville. During that year, McGowan found that he liked working with students more than doing paperwork. He also "learned the importance of educating the whole child. It takes the right heart, and the right head to do that."

In 1994, after a year in Hill City, McGowan moved to Dakota where he taught science until joining the counseling staff in 2001.

This past February, he was voted Teacher of Distinction by his peers at DMS. "Being recognized by my peers is the highest honor," says McGowan. "What I do is work as part of a team to meet the needs of kids."

Dakota Middle School principal Brad Tucker calls McGowan a "steady force that just gets the job done, day in and day out." With a counselor/student ratio of one counselor per 575 students, that is no easy task, but McGowan said he has approached it with "humor in every opportunity."

Despite being somewhat of an "elder statesman" at Dakota, McGown accepted a counseling position at Central High School, but leaving DMS was not an easy decision. "I flip-flopped every minute, but then I said to myself, why am I afraid to take one more challenge?"

One of the main reasons McGowan feels ready to move on to Central is that he will see a lot of familiar faces there.

"Half of Dakota Middle School is there, so I'm not losing my kids, my parents. It's the same population," he says.

McGowan is looking forward to counseling high school students. "I started my career at the high school level, and I'm happy to be back. There's an energy that comes with that level: Homecoming, plays, talking to kids about career goals."

Always one for self-evaluation, McGowan says of the coming year, "There will be a learning curve for me. I always want to be better than I was the year before."

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com