Education

At Code Ninjas in Edina/Richfield, kids learn to code through a game-based and robotics curriculum that weaves in teamwork, logic, math and problem solving.

Mary Stanton, a grantee, alumni and board member of the Fulbright Association, was there as the organization's highest honor was awarded outside of the U.S. for the first time ever.

Ride the wave of braids.

The Edina Education Fund provides up to $700,000 in grants each year throughout the district.

On a summer morning in Edina, a group of girls stood next to a checkerboard-patterned carpet. It’s only 10 feet from one side to the other, but they could only use a few squares on the board to get across—and if they stepped on a forbidden square, the carpet emits a loud beeping sound.

One by one, the girls began to cross the carpet, only to step on a wrong square, hear the beep and head back, dejected, to the beginning. They slowed as they reached the end of the known path, aware that they were likely to step errantly—until their teacher, Patty Carney-Bradley, intervened.

It’s just two shelves of books set up outside the office at a local apartment complex, but Edina’s littlest library is making a big difference in the lives of the families who use it.

There are picture books and folktales and easy-readers in a number of languages—stories that kids and grownups who are learning English can read out loud. There are pockets inside the book jackets, check-out slips and even a de facto librarian: Brittney Martinez, who is the property manager at the apartment complex, Edina Park.

Edina’s Highlands Elementary School said farewell to three influential educators who retired this spring. Judy Scanlon, Katie Oberle and Michael Seaman have shared their passions in the classroom, ranging from helping reduce world hunger to creativity and design to work-flow efficiency.

Seaman, who was Highlands’ Continuous Progress Program educator for 23 years, is an Edina Chamber of Commerce teacher of the year, and for good reason.

This spring, a new class of college graduates will enter the professional world. Edina residents Sandra Davis, founder of MDA Leadership Consulting, and Fritz Corrigan, former CEO and president of Mosaic Company, have committed to help these graduates become leaders. Each member of the class of 2014 at Dartmouth, Corrigan’s alma mater, will receive Pearls of Leadership Wisdom: Lessons for Everyday Leaders, by Davis, which outlines 30 “pearls” of advice about becoming a knowledgeable and high-impact leader.

Anthony Harmon has become a local fixture on the corner of Valley View and Antrim Roads in Edina. There, he faithfully mans his post, directing traffic and guiding Valley View Middle School and Edina High School students safely across the street during the busiest times of the day.

“I enjoy doing my job. I give 110 percent to what I do,” says Harmon, a former bodyguard and father of three. “I try to help out as much as I can.”