Paul Keeney ’00 shows off his school’s new 3D printers and some plastic structures created with them. Keeney earned a Distinguished Technology and Engineering Professional award from the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association. Photo courtesy of Anoka-Hennepin Schools.
Oak View Middle School technology education teacher Paul Keeney ’00 has been honored with a prize only a handful of teachers in Minnesota have ever been given: a Distinguished Technology and Engineering Professional (DTE) award from the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA).
The DTE designation is a mark of distinction in technology and engineering education, according to the ITEEA. The award recognizes teachers who have demonstrated a high level of competence and professional activity in the field of technology and engineering education.
Only eight teachers from around the world were given the award this year.
“It’s a huge deal,” said Alison Almos, technology and engineering education instructor and department leader at Anoka Middle School for the Arts. “Very few people get this award. Only a very small number of teachers in Minnesota have it.”
One of those past winners happens to be a former undergraduate instructor of Keeney’s, which makes the award even more of a thrill, Keeney said.
“I’m honored. It feels good inside to get that affirmation,” he said.
In his 16 years of teaching technology education, Keeney has been heavily involved in the profession, including as a past president and awards chair for the Minnesota Technology Education Association. He has coached more than 80 after-school robotics teams, has attended every state and international technology education conference for the past 17 years — and has presented at almost half of them — and is a certified trainer for Lego education.
“So I get to go around the country teaching other teachers how to do Lego robotics,” he said.
He has also written a substantial amount of curriculum for the Anoka-Hennepin School District.
Keeney said that professional drive was instilled in him by the leaders at St. Cloud University, where he got his teaching degree.
“It’s not just what you do within your classroom, but also, how can you learn from other teachers and how can you share what you’ve learned with other teachers to make the whole profession better?” he said. “I feel like I’ve been blessed with a lot of opportunities, and this is my way of giving back to the kids and other teachers.”
Keeney said his passion for technology education began as a student at Coon Rapids High School, where he took every hands-on class he could. “So it’s second nature to me to do things with my hands. And I had some good teachers that just made learning fun,” he said.
His appreciation only grew with the real–world experience he got before becoming a teacher. Originally planning to be an architect, Keeney instead became a cabinet designer, which is when he first realized that what you learn in math class actually can be applied in real life.
“All of a sudden I went, ‘Oh, now I totally understand the math thing, that if this wall is at this angle I can use math to do calculations.’ It was like, why didn’t I get that when I was in school?” he said. “It just all of a sudden made sense.”
Technology education aims to do exactly that: take what students are learning in math and science and show them the applications beyond the textbook, he said.
“Rather than the goal of getting kids ready to become an engineer, in technology education we’re trying to get them to be lifelong learners and understand how and why things work,” he said.
If they do end up going into an engineering field, that’s great, he said.
“But if they’re just learning enough that they can fix something in their own home someday, or double check a contractor’s measurements, that’s the kind of real-life skill that hopefully will get hidden in their brain cells somewhere and come out when it’s important,” he said.
Mark Vonder Haar ’92 ’08 earned a 2016 ITEEA Teacher Excellence Award.
