OKLAHOMA CITY— For the second time in four years, a Muskogee Public Schools educator has been selected Oklahoma Teacher of the Year: 7th and 8th Grade Center Spanish teacher Linda Hasler-Reid.

A 12-year veteran with Muskogee Schools, Hasler-Reid could barely hold her enthusiasm after Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sandy Garrett announced her name as 2007 Teacher of the Year on Tuesday at the Oklahoma State Fair. She immediately praised the 11 other finalists with whom she shared the stage.

“I love teaching and could not imagine being satisfied doing anything else,” she said after being showered with awards. “I think Oklahoma is blessed with the best teachers in the nation.”

She also thanked a teacher she called her mentor, Sadler Arts Academy fourth-grade teacher Cindy Ball, who was Oklahoma Teacher of the Year 2004.

Hasler-Reid said the honor was “very humbling.”

“I think of teachers across the state or even in my building who are as good or better than I am,” she said. “It’s humbling because teaching is such a passion for me.”

Dr. Pam Bradley, 7th and 8th Grade Center principal, said she wasn’t surprised by the honor.

“We told her this was going to happen,” Bradley said at Tuesday’s ceremony. “But now my son, Archie, is going to miss one of his favorite teachers.”

Hasler-Reid must spend a year going to speaking engagements and workshops across Oklahoma. She also will represent the state at the national Teacher of the Year competition.

“The hardest thing for her will be leaving her classroom for a year,” said Ball, who attended the ceremony with other past Teachers of the Year. “She’s going to miss her students.”

Seventh-grader Lucy Barnett said she was happy for her Spanish teacher’s honor.

But she grimaced when she heard that Hasler-Reid would be gone for most of the year. Lucy was one of Ball’s students when she was Teacher of the Year.

Both Hasler-Reid and Ball “are hands-on people,” Lucy said. “”They’re not just someone who points to something and says you have to find this out for yourself.”

Eighth-grader Emma Wilbourn said Hasler-Reid makes learning “super fun.”

“She makes it hilarious,” she said. “She’ll start doing songs and stuff. She lets people make fools of themselves.”