Heidi Hohman said she has been a teacher ever since she could first hold a stick of chalk.

As a child, she would stand at her small blackboard, "teaching class" to her younger sisters, Julie and Jodie.

"I taught my sisters their multiplication tables long before they ever should have learned them," she recounted. "I'm surprised they can multiply at all today."

On Monday, the Ohio County Board of Education named Hohman the county's 2009-10 "teacher of the year." Today she is a science teacher at Triadelphia Middle School.

Prior to joining Ohio County Schools, Hohman taught at St. Mary Central in Martins Ferry.

One of her students there was Zachary Shutler, now the assistant principal she works with at Triadelphia.

He was among those present Monday to honor Hohman, and he commented that he was "a product of Miss Hohman's teaching."

Hohman noted the most important thing a teacher can do is get to personally to know each student.

"Once they know you care about them as individuals, they trust you to teach them," she said.

And Hohman only looked a few feet from her at the school board meeting to point out one of her own former teachers, who she felt exemplified her statement - current school board member Sam Andy.

"Sam knows the importance of getting to know your students," Hohman said.

Hohman received her bachelor's degree in elementary and general science education from then-West Liberty State College. But despite being a science teacher, she also holds a master's degree in reading from West Virginia University.

"As a teacher, I believe you teach everything," she said.

Hohman said she was greatly influenced by her grandmother, Kathryn Oliver, who taught for 25 years at St. Michael Parish School. It was Oliver who provided her young granddaughters with three real school desks for their make-believe school at home.

"I feel very blessed to be able to teach," Hohman said. "People ask me, 'How do you do that?' But it's so much fun. The enthusiasm of sixth-graders is contagious."