Former construction worker builds student minds in new career

In Keith Olson's first career, he built complex structures.

In his second career, he builds complex minds.

The catchphrase on Olson's resume plays out daily during the school year as he teaches fifth-graders at McCarty Elementary in Indian Prairie Unit District 204.

A former construction worker in the home building industry, Olson, 42, recently completed his third year as a teacher.

The recession pushed the North Aurora father from one job he enjoyed - building "pretty much anything you can put a nail in" - to another profession he finds just as challenging and rewarding, but for different reasons.

"I knew I had to do something to make it on my own," he said. "And I've always been good with kids."

Olson's knack with his 10- and 11-year-old students shows in their attentiveness to his teaching.

On one spring day when Olson is teaching students how to recognize internal or external conflict in literature, only one student out of 28 or so fidgets, playing with a plastic bag full of an orange substance that looks like Play-Doh. The rest sit in groups and write eagerly on their personal white boards as Olson reads passages and then quizzes them to define the conflict. They know their teacher expects their full participation.

"He can be strict," student Ayan Sadiq says, "but if you follow directions, he can be nice."

Olson's room has a digital board at the front of the class on which he displays a computerized timer to count down the seconds he gives the group to decide: Did the character in the excerpt face an internal or an external problem?

Fancy as that countdown timer is, Olson's space isn't all tech. The second-story room, with a sloped ceiling along its north-facing wall, also has an old-fashioned, wall-mounted pencil sharpener, and kids use it.

Pencils are still a necessary instrument because Olson lets his students use laptops or tablets only once in a while, when he wheels in the devices on a cart or when the class he calls "5-O" visits the library.

"The technology is too much for them to be able to be responsible with," Olson says.

So back on that spring day, when the humidity rises and the sounds of kids playing during recess slip through the open windows and the moments tick down before lunch, Olson still keeps the kids engaged in the literature exercise.

He reads a story about a boy who always has breakfast with his grandpa on Saturdays, but this weekend, he really wants to play video games. There's a conflict, his students know, but is it internal or external?

Walking around the banks of desks arranged in groups of eight, Olson sees one student erase the answer on her white board, doing a classic politician's flip-flop.

"So I see that you changed your answer, and that's OK," he tells the student's group. "But why are you changing your answer?" he asks, encouraging his students to keep thinking.

The class then discusses the excerpt and decides the student's second answer was right - the boy torn between video games and his grandpa faced an internal conflict, caused by himself alone.

The exercise helps students come to consensus while also standing up for their own thoughts and justifying their answers.

"When we read, it won't always be plain and simple," Olson says.

The line is an example of Olson slipping a life lesson into a school one, something parent Kimberly Stotlar recognized when she nominated him for an A+ Award from the Indian Prairie Educational Foundation. The honor is given monthly to a teacher across the district of 28,500 students from parts of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield who is making a difference. Olson received the award in March.

"He reminds students how the habits and life skills they learn and practice in school will shape the kind of people they will be as adults," Stotlar said. "His insights into the individual strengths and needs of his students are spot-on."

Olson says his previous career helps him infuse more than just academic advice into his teaching.

"Coming from where I come from, I talk a lot about the real world," Olson says. "Even though we're in fifth grade, we still need to think about what it takes to make it in the real world."

As a builder, Olson enjoyed working with his hands and even running his own business for a few years while he got his teaching degree. The field had its challenges, but Olson still wants to encourage students to consider careers in the skilled building industries. Someday, maybe he'll become an industrial technology teacher at the high school level.

"As I left the trades, so did a whole lot of other people," Olson says.

He wonders where the field will get its next crop of leaders if students aren't invited to learn how to saw and weld and hammer.

"You can make a good living with your hands," he says.

Olson's real-world and engaging style helps his students prepare for life beyond fifth grade, parents say.

"I see my son growing in confidence and thinking about the world and things he's going to be doing in the future," Stotlar said. "It's not just academic growth - it's social and emotional, and I couldn't ask for a better teacher to teach him those things."

Olson's recent A+ Award recognition came for another reason, too - his encouragement of giving back.

Olson's student Aliani Banuelos has bone cancer, so Olson encouraged his class to raise money for the St. Baldrick's Foundation, which supports childhood cancer research.

Olson wanted his students to take ownership of the event, so he sent them around to make presentations to other classes and make posters promoting the fundraiser. Together, they set a goal of $5,000, and together, they blew it out of the water. The Feb. 3 event, during which 46 people got their heads shaved at the Aurora school, raised $18,000 in community contributions.

"He showed the students that they could set a goal and, with organization, teamwork, persistence and determination, they could achieve their dream," Stotlar said. "Teaching my child that anything is possible is a lesson that, to me, is more important than anything else he could learn in fifth grade."

All about Olson

Keith Olson

Age: 42

Residence: North Aurora

Family: Married with 15-year-old daughter, 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter

Education: Bachelor's degree in elementary education with a minor in special education from Aurora University in December 2013

Teaching experience: McCarty Elementary in Indian Prairie Unit District 204, 2014 to present; Prairie Point Elementary in Oswego, student teaching August to December 2013

Award: Indian Prairie Educational Foundation A+ Award for Making a Difference

Previous career: Construction foreman and remodeling company owner