Soo Line: Helping Students Believe in Themselves for 34 Years

 by Soo Greiman  

The end of the 2025-26 school year last week signaled the retirement of three longtime Hudson  teachers: Robert Driscoll, Laura Angove and Chris Dvorak. Together, the trio has devoted an amazing  105 years to the profession, a testament to their dedication. This feature spotlights the reflections of Mrs.  Dvorak.  

After a 34-year career helping students understand subjects such as English and literature, Chris  Dvorak is preparing for a new chapter — one centered on family, travel, learning piano, card-making and  biking. Having concluded her longtime career at Hudson Community School District days ago as a  middle school/junior high English teacher, Chris admits, “The realization of retirement hasn’t hit me yet.  Honestly, I don’t think it will hit me until August, when normally I would be setting up my classroom and  preparing materials for the upcoming year.”  

The story of her career choice can be traced directly through her family tree.  

“Both my maternal grandparents were educators who graduated from Iowa State Teachers  College (now UNI) in 1927 and ’28. They inspired me,” she points out, adding she also admired many  wonderful teachers while in school.  

Growing up in Cresco, Iowa, Chris graduated from Crestwood High School before attending  Simpson College in Indianola.  

“When I got to college my plan was to become a high school business teacher although during  my first year, realized I enjoyed English so much more than business.”  

Happy with that change, she never looked back.  

Dvorak launched her career first as a high school English teacher at East Union Community  School District, where she also coached JV girls basketball and served as the assistant drama director in  Afton, Iowa. The following four years she spent at Union Community School District working at the  middle school, teaching sixth-grade language arts in Dysart.  

With five years of teaching under her belt, Chris accepted an offer to teach at Hudson  Community School District, where she has remained for the past 29 years. 

During that time she taught a varied selection of classes, including seventh- and eighth-grade  language arts, eighth-grade literature, eighth-grade exploratory classes (poetry, careers and technology),  seventh- and eighth-grade reading exploratory for struggling readers, English 10, English 11, high school  classic literature, high school contemporary literature and high school independent literature, besides  serving as a study hall supervisor and in various seminar roles.  

A valuable lesson this teacher has learned from years of experience is that teaching is more  demanding now than ever before. Chris highlights the fact that there is much more to today’s education  than simply grading papers, imparting knowledge and managing the classroom.  

“Today’s students face many challenges, especially due to social media. These challenges were  non-existent when I was a student and even during my first few years as a teacher. The incorporation of  technology has altered how one teaches now.”  

Another layer of education today, she said, is that teachers must be data-driven, know how to  navigate in this digital age and be aware of and able to help students’ mental health when needed.  “Just look how technology has affected today’s students. Texting, autocorrect, social media, AI  and the instant-gratification culture all work to influence today’s learners and how they approach their  own education.”  

Chris’ husband, Barry Dvorak, recently retired as the UNI Panther Marching Band percussion  instructor and still teaches private percussion lessons. The family resides in Cedar Falls. Both daughters,  Anna and Abby, graduated from Cedar Falls High School. Anna is now a Coe College alumna who works  there as the associate director of admission and aviation programs. Abby will be a junior at Coe College,  where she is majoring in pre-pharmacy while minoring in chemistry, Spanish and music.  

“And I can’t forget Kalypso who rounds out our family,” the teacher laughs. “She is our 7-year old boxer.”  

Contemplating what’s next on her bucket list, Dvorak says she and Barry are both excited about  having newly liberated work schedules. Since neither of them has to prepare for school in August, they  will attend the Iowa State Fair. Beyond that, she reports they are planning a European trip in the next few  years.  

Thinking about a segment of her teaching career she enjoyed immensely, Dvorak said it was  facilitating many service projects at both the junior high and senior high levels.  

Included among those projects were “Read to Feed,” Holiday Letters to the Lower Elementary  Students, Veterans Day cards, valentines for residents at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown and  “Crafters-On a Mission,” where during Pirate Term students created care packages of handmade  greeting cards for Iowa’s deployed military members to send home to loved ones.  

“I’m happy to report over the years my students have crafted nearly 14,000 cards!”  Giggling, she recalled a memorable event that was the culmination of their “Read to Feed”  service project. 

“It happened as I was teaching high school English; the students voted our then-superintendent,  Dave Pappone, as the lucky one to kiss a llama on the auditorium stage. It was priceless!”  With the longtime goal of inspiring and guiding students to think beyond themselves and be  service-oriented, Chris offered a few special memories from a Pirate Term Showcase.  She was surprised with the presentation of an American flag that had flown over Bagram Airfield  Ammunition Supply Point in Afghanistan. Also recognized was the fact her middle school students had  personally handmade a huge number of greeting cards.  

“I was shocked to receive the State of Iowa’s Chaplaincy coin for our effort. It was truly a  heartfelt moment.”  

“When students remember me as their teacher, I hope they know I held them to high standards  and pushed them to work hard, so they could believe in themselves and achieve great things.”