POULSBO — Like most history teachers, Steven Paagard’s classroom is filled with posters of presidents and leaders, flags and maps of the world’s continents.

Paagard will also be the first to admit he is traditional in his approach to the history courses he teaches at North Kitsap High School.

But once the ground work — the facts and background for each history lesson — has been laid out for the students, the history becomes alive. And class is anything but ordinary.

“I’m a self-confessed old school fact teacher,” Paagard said. “But then it becomes history (for the students) and there’s always controversy.”

Paagard has recently been honored as one of two teachers in North Kitsap recognized as the Rangvald Kvelstad teachers of the year. His name will be placed permanently on a cup that will stay in the North Kitsap High School trophy case for half of a year — the other half the cup will spend at Gordon for the other award winner, Gordon third grade teacher, Patti Laschinski.

Paagard was chosen largely because of his ability to challenge his students to take history class beyond the textbook, said Melanie Mohler, who is on the four-person board that selects the winners.

“It is his total passion for his subject matter and how he relates it to the students,” Mohler said. “And how engaged they become as a result.”

As a teacher, Paagard said he believes his role as a history teacher is crucial to each student’s development as a citizen in society. Learning about the past is especially important as it is the basis for how we live today, he commented.

“Teachers in general are training the next generation but not just for the job market,” Paagard said. “We’re training them to be good citizens and thinking, analytical adults.”

As a teacher of U.S. History and an elective on the Nazi Dictatorship this year, Paagard has been able to engage his students in many controversial topics.

But he always attempts to do his best to keep personal bias out of the classroom even in the most difficult circumstances.

“I’m the most opinionated person I know,” Paagard commented. “But I try to disguise (my opinions). I try as hard as I can to be fair.”

His elective course on the Nazi Dictatorship has many modern day ties, he said.

“It’s an incredibly relevant topic because it caters around the issues of race and anti-semitism,” he commented.

Paagard also orchestrated visits to NKHS this year by Leon Bass and Robbie Waisman. Bass, an American soldier during World War II helped liberate Waisman, a Polish Jew who nearly died in a Nazi concentration camp.

Paagard graduated from Chula Vista High School in south San Diego County, Calif. in 1975. He received both his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in history from San Diego State University in 1979 for his B.A. and in 1984 for his M.A.

His background as a teacher is not limited within the borders of the U.S. In 1986, he took a teaching position in then-West Berlin for three years. In 1989, he went to Singapore American School to teach for two years and then journeyed to teach in Duesseldorf, Germany where he and his family stayed for six years.

Deciding to return to the states after 11 years abroad, Paagard received a job offer from then-NKHS principal Dave Anderson and came to Poulsbo in 1997. He said he fell in love with the Pacific Northwest, which reminded him of Duesseldorf. He’s taught at the high school since.

“I like the green here,” Paagard remarked. “And I don’t mind the rain. I actually wish our winters here were more wintery.”

Other teachers in North Kitsap who were nominated were KJH teacher John Goar, NKHS teachers Keith Johnson and Leo Gregory Schmidt, PJH teacher Heidi Sherman, Gordon Options Teacher Nat Smith, West Sound Academy teacher Gordon Stenerson and Christ the King Academy teacher Sandy Stockwell.

A trophy presentation will take place at the North Kitsap Board of Directors’ next meeting at 7 p.m. May 27 at the NKSD Administrative Offices.