Edelen, Grider win teaching awards

Springfield natives Cathy Edelen and Inez Grider were recently awarded the Catholic Education Foundation’s Ulmer Excellence in Education award. They were inadvertently left out of a story about Mollie Bystrek winning the award in last week’s edition.

They were two of 38 teachers to receive the honor from the Archdiocese of Louisville this year.
Both were surprised to receive the award.
“I was pleasantly surprised by this honor,” Edelen said.
She’s in her 38th year with the Archdiocese. She’s spent 34 years in the classroom and four in administration.
Edelen has served as the principal at St. Dominic and taught at St. Joseph in Bardstown. She’s in her 18th year as a teacher at St. Gregory School in Samuels.
“I was very surprised since most of the awards go to teachers who have been in the profession longer than I,” Grider said.
Grider is in her eighth year of teaching. She taught second grade her first year at Cox’s Creek in Nelson County and taught the last seven years at St. Dominic.
She teaches math, pre-algebra and algebra.
Edelen said her motivation comes from the students.
“My students motivate me to do my best in the classroom everyday because they know that’s what I expect from them,” she said.
Grider said she tries to think about what a child needs to know in order to get into and be successful in college and in life.
“I want them to see that all knowledge is a wonderful adventure and you can always learn something,” she said. “I try to get students not to be afraid of asking questions and that to learn and move forward, we first must understand why it didn’t work in the first place.”
She added that she strives to get the students to have ownership in their behavior.
“That as young people it is important to look at how others perceive them and that their behavior and conduct is aligned with the moral values that they are taught daily,” she said.
Edelen noted that Mollie Bystrek, Grider and herself were all St. Dominic alumni.
Edelen and Grider, along with the other winners, were announced at a special mass at St. Margaret Mary Church in Louisville on Aug. 10.