SPARKS — Spanish Springs High School teacher Michelle Gach helps students learn what they’ll need for the real world in her family consumer science classes.

“I guess one of the things I’m passionate about is being able to help kids learn job skills,” Gach said. “They learn about being on time, being a team player, being professional.”

For her commitment to her profession, Gach was chosen as Nevada Teacher of the Year for the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS).

Michelle Rector, state president of the Nevada chapter of AAFCS, said Gach is deserving of the honor.

“She goes above and beyond her seven-hour workday with FCCLA activities as well as classroom preparation and professional development,” Rector said. “Not only do her students compete at the state level, but they excel.”

The AAFCS works to provide educational programs, shape public policy and enable students, families and communities.

Gach was honored for developing a program in which her teen students develop lesson plans for preschoolers while learning classroom management skills.

“I’m just honored to be nominated,” Gach said. “I love working with high school students.”

Family and consumer sciences covers a gamut of areas. Gach teaches human development classes at the beginning and advanced levels in which she equips teens with the skills to be sensible about long-term relationships, parenting and how to make decisions and set goals.

“They write lesson plans and teach the (preschool) children what they had planned,” Gach said. “So this Sunday is Mother’s Day and the groups are planning Mother’s Day lessons. Other weeks, they have units or lessons on the ocean, nutrition, animals, sports.”

The AAFCS, which began as the American Home Economics Association in 1974, partnered with Family Circle magazine to create the Home Economics Teacher of the Year program. Family Circle cosponsored the award that recognizes outstanding home economics education in elementary and secondary schools until 1980, according to the AAFCS website, www.aafcs.org.

Nominees for the award must have demonstrated excellence in career awareness/job skill training, consumer education/family finance, creative dimensions/alternative program designs, family life/personal and social development or nutrition education/diet and health.

Recipients of the state award are then encourage to enter a national competition, for which a peer-review process is used to choose three Teacher of the Year merit finalists and one national Teacher of the Year.

For Gach, who started teaching with the Washoe County School District in 1997 and was at Reed High School before Spanish Springs, her reward is what her students get out of her classes.

“I think the students and their different personalities (are what I like best),” she said. “There are so many different personalities and needs and a diverse population. I just like that. It’s a lot of work!”

Her recognition is also special to her because of the time she has invested into her students.

“People don’t realize, unless they’re married to a teacher or are a teacher, the amount of work teachers do,” she said. “We’re not only teaching in the classroom, but we need to communicate with the parents and other staff members. We’re accountable to administrators. It’s like a juggling act.”