Triton Teacher of the Year is ‘an ironman,’ colleague says

Triton’s Teacher of the Year teaches America’s most failed class, and does it well.

“He has got a very, very, very difficult task,” said Kevin Krenz, assistant principal at Triton Middle School, of middle school teacher Patrick Floryance. “He does it and does it well.”

“Flo,” as he’s known by students and staff, teaches Algebra 1, the most failed class in America, according to Krenz, as well as other math and finance classes at the middle school.

“On top of teaching six of eight classes every single day, not only does he do that and do that well, but his ability to help us out in terms of tech support, whether that be for students or staff, is fantastic,” Krenz said. “We are lucky to have him as an educator and as a coworker. If I’m having an issue with my projector or TV, Flo will drop everything and be there, boom!”

Floryance learned on Nov. 7 that his fellow teachers had nominated him as Teacher of the Year through the Triton Education Association, otherwise known as the teacher’s union.

He teaches roughly 100 kids at Triton Middle School, and said he loves his work.

“I was surprised and shocked” about the award, he said, “because I know there’s a lot of other really good teachers who were also nominated and they have been teaching longer than me. I was surprised it was me selected, out of a really good pool of candidates.”

Outside of teaching, Floryance is a go-to guy in the school as Krenz described. He helps out with random technology issues faced by students and staff, and helps manage and facilitate repairs to student Chrome books. He also helped the library develop their own check-out and check-in system after it was decided going through SELCO had become too expensive.

“I did the best I could with what I had available to me,” he said. “I saw it as an issue and I worked with our middle school librarian to put together a system. I helped them build an efficient system for digitally checking materials in and out.”

The joy of teaching is getting to know the students, Floryance said. “Every year you get a different set of kids, and you try to figure out who they are as people and help them grow as much as you can,” he said. “And when you get 6th graders and then they’re back as 8th graders, and you get to see them grow and change, that’s really fun.”

The biggest hardship is that his work is never done. “One of the toughest things I have is that no matter how much we do for students, there’s always something more we could’ve done,” he said. “There’s always another thing. We could’ve taught something more. There’s always something we can be improving on, and that can be challenging. But it’s good because it’s what can we do, how can we improve? It’s a challenge but a good challenge.”

Floryance is in his tenth-year teaching at Triton Middle School, and it was his first teaching job after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 2012. He completed his master’s in 2018.

He lives in Rochester.

“He’s such a great guy,” Krenz said. “Flo is the consummate professional. He comes in every single day and he’s ready to go for his students. He’s ready to go for his colleagues. He’s as well prepared as any teacher I’ve come across. I’ve always appreciated that.”

“He’s here,” he went on. “He rarely misses a day. He’s an ironman.”

As part of the nomination process for Teacher of the Year, colleagues write a brief explanation of who they are nominating. His colleagues wrote: Patrick Floryance is a consummate professional as a colleague and a fantastic educator for our Middle School students. Not only does he do great work as a member of the math department, but his support in the tech department is also critical for the middle school. Furthermore, his work with the Technovation team is sometimes overlooked, and he does great things with those female students interested in technology. Put simply, he is a complete educator and someone his colleagues look up to. Patrick is always there to help with tech needs, big or small. He’s also there to help students who are struggling with math. He teaches in a way that students “get it.” He’s also patient with those who struggle and good at finding another way to get the concept across. He juggles several hats, and he does it well, showing leadership to both students and fellow teachers in the building.

In addition to being Triton Teacher of the Year, Patrick will become a candidate for Minnesota Teacher of the Year. The Minnesota Teacher of the Year program has recognized excellence in teaching in Minnesota for 59 years. The program selects one teacher to represent the state’s thousands of excellent educators.

Photo:  Patrick Floryance