Grosse Pointe South Physics teacher Todd Hecker has been named South’s Grosse Pointe Education Association Teacher of the Year (ToY) for the 2024-25 school year. A ToY award is given to one teacher from every school in the district, with the recipients being nominated by their fellow teachers.

Hecker was equally as surprised as he was thankful to receive the award, appreciating any and all of the recognition he receives after 28 years of teaching.

“[Winning ToY] is great, you know,” Hecker said. “It’s nice that at least somebody recognized [me].”

Before working with GPPSS, Hecker began teaching in Farmington, where he worked for 19 years. Hecker was heavily influenced by his Rochester middle school math teacher, Mr. Behler, who showed him how fun school and teaching could be.

“He was so energetic and so fun,” Hecker said. “I was always so excited to go to his class. From that point forward, I knew I wanted to teach.”

Hecker credits much of his success to his passion for students and the connection they make with their teachers, which he discovered after deciding to switch out of an engineering pathway midway through college at the University of Michigan.

“Don’t just go into [teaching] because you love your subject matter,” Hecker said. “You have to go into teaching because you’re excited about teaching. Math and physics, to me, are interesting, but that’s not why I went into teaching. I went into teaching because I wanted to work with students.”

Hecker finds that his connection with students can be harnessed properly through utilizing the “flipped classroom” teaching method, in which students watch videos and learn the curriculum outside of class and do their work in class. This helps Hecker keep himself and his students calm, helping ease the stress that comes with going to high school in the 2020s.

“I try really hard to be relaxed,” Hecker said. “The stress [students] are under today is so different from what I was [under] when I was in school, so I try to give students a little bit of leeway if they need a little bit of extra time to get something done.”

Hecker is proud of winning this award, but has a passion for teaching that is constant, no matter the circumstances. Teacher of the Year or not, Hecker takes pride in his work every day, valuing his students over any award.

“So much of teaching is about making relationships so that the students know that you believe that they can do their best and want them to do their best,” Hecker said.