Thursday, March 26, 2020
VALLEY PROFILES
PAGE 5
LS-H teacher does it all, serving as a coach, mentor and leader to students By CARSON HUGHES chughes@lesueurcountynews.com Just 15 years ago, the Blackberry and the iPhone revolutionized the way we communicate. Ten years later, and we have apps for dating, shopping and ride-sharing, virtual assistants, drones, smart watches, virtual reality it’s a lot to keep up with, especially if you’re a business and computer science teacher — like Don Marcussen. The Le Sueur-Henderson educator strives to find new ways to teach and coach his students and athletes in a world where his curriculum and sports are always receiving a fresh update. It appears that Marcussen was destined to become a business educator. In the small town of Ada, Minnesota his father owned an accounting firm while is mother worked as an assistant at the practice and as a teacher at a private Catholic school. Marcussen was raised with eight siblings, including a brother, who would buy out the family business, and a sister, who teaches as a music instructor, and a brother and sister that work at school districts as a technology coordinator and speech pathologist respectively. Marcussen would get his own start in education after graduating high school in 1983 and receiving a degree in education from Minnesota State University Moorhead, then called Moorhead State, in 1988. He was still uncertain about his career path and returned to Moorhead to pursue an accounting degree after teaching in Indianapolis. However, teaching ended up suiting Marcussen and he went on to spend three years teaching in Timber Lake, South Dakota, a small town of around 700 people. He eventually returned to Minnesota to teach at the Montgomery-Lonsdale School District.
LS-H coach Don Marcussen, left, puts 2015-16 basketball players through their drills during a preseason practice. (County News File Photo) Today, Marcussen teaches business education and computer science at Le Sueur-Henderson High School. To Marcussen, it’s very important that students come to learn, because he teaches everyday life skills, like balancing personal finances, understanding how businesses are run and working with customers and co-workers. “What I want kids to understand, don’t approach my class like you would the study of Shakespeare, when who knows if you’ll ever quote Shakespeare in your life,” said Marcussen. “Don’t use it like an advanced math class, where you may never use any of the advanced formulas in your lifestyle … In my class, everything I show you and talk about and teach, you’re going to have to use. My goal for my students is to understand when you take my class, absorb everything you can.”
Keeping with the times
their attention span, what interests them, has changed. For me, a change could be over a 10-15 year span, but for them, there’s a major change every year. Technology, educationHowever, teaching today comes with wise, happens so much faster than a new set of challenges, Marcussen when I was in high school. If I’m not said. With new technology always on top of my game and picking up changing, the way students are on all the latest then I’m cheating learning is different and he has to them out on showing them and find ways to change with the times. sharing them information that they can be using.” “As a teacher, we can’t teach the same way we did 15-20 years ago,” said What’s current in 2015 can be Marcussen. “The way students learn,
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outdated in 2020, noted Marcussen. To equip his students with the information they need, he often spends much of his summers writing and updating his own curriculum, quizzes and assignments to ensure everything is up to date. “I have homework just like the kids do,” said Marcussen. “Some nights I’ll just grab my computer while I’m watching a TV program and surf business fields and maybe someone in the news. I like to bring that into
my conversations with students.” His approach has paid off for former students like Brady Rose, who got to know Marcussen in the classroom and on the basketball court. Today, Rose works as an accountant and said his decision to enter the field was impacted by the impression Marcussen had on him.
DOES IT ALL
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