Do you want to go the bathroom? Put two fingers in the air. Do you agree with a classmate’s idea? Knock on your desk two times. Do you want to go out for recess? Raise your hand to quiet down the class. These are one of the many ways that Mr. Seim was able to control the chaos in the seventh grade classroom at St. Paul’s Lake Mills.

It was his first teaching job coming out of Martin Luther College in Minnesota and the moms and students were obsessed with him. His well groomed beard with his jet black slicked back hair. He was fit and always dressed to impress. He was welcoming and easy to approach.

As young, immature students, we thought we were going to be able to sneak by him with our childish ways because he was so young and fresh out of college, lesson learned, he was a lot smarter than we thought. Mr. Seim was very collected but made jokes with us and laughed with us which only strengthened the bond with the students. With his well understanding of our age and how we process information, he was able to teach us at a proper pace for each student.

He was also my basketball coach. I looked forward to the hour and a half after school of fun drills and mild intensity he was able to maintain throughout our practices. I can recall the game days when he ran around trying to organize all the teams and make sure the concession stand was set up and signs for the bathroom were visible, he was swift with his tasks and did the ones that no one else wanted to do. He went out of his way for all this students and staff to create a better environment for learning and growing.

Even though he was much older than us pre-teens he was able to laugh and joke with us. One day at lunch, I only had a sandwich and it was not enough to fill me up. So I was, got up for a main dish from the hot lunch line. At the lunch table, I was sitting next to Mr. Seim and he was judging me for eating so much, but how could I blame him? While I was stuffing my face, he used his index finger to push up the tip of his nose, creating an image of a pig nose. I saw him do this out of the corner of my eye, and I went into this whole tangent of how I am Filipino and that a wide nose runs in my family...clearly missing the point of his joke. My whole lunch table laughed at me and Mr. Seim just shook his head and smiled, he understood that I am slower with jokes and that I am too innocent for insulting humor.

Two years after graduating from grade school, I saw him in the hallways of St. Paul’s. He asked me about school and how volleyball was going. He took time out of his busy schedule of juggling his athletic director activities, grading tests, and coaching athletes to ask me about my high school experience so far. He kept up with all his students, present and past, and made the personal relations with each one of them.
I have not had a teacher since him or even before him that I can say with full confidence that he was the most caring, ruling, and respectable educator that I have met. His creativity and organization to make learning fun for me and easy to understand are the same tools I use today and will use in the future.