Melanie Teemant, a seventh-grade reading teacher at Miller Middle School in Henderson, accepts the Nevada Teacher of the Year award Wednesday. Officials who presented her with the award noted her enthusiasm for teaching, innovative programs and participation in after-school activities. Photo by John Gurzinski.

About 300 of Melanie Teemant's seventh-grade students take center stage once a year and share some of what they learned in a reading class during a performance dubbed Dancing Through the Decades.

The event packs Miller Middle School's gym.

"We get more than 1,000 people. It's standing room only," Teemant said. "Even the principal performs. Last year, the administration dressed up as The Beatles."

She said the performance is part of an end-of-the-year project in which students of the Henderson school hone their research skills by learning the "who, what, when and where of the 20th century."

Teemant's unique program, along with her penchant for assisting with after-school clubs, contributed to her being named the 2007 Nevada Teacher of the Year.

The award was presented by the state Department of Education and is a part of a nationwide program from the Council of Chief State School Officers.

She was given the award during an assembly in her honor Wednesday.

Teemant, who began her teaching career in the district in 1997, accepted the recognition in front of hundreds of students, school staff and family who came from as far away as Alaska to see her.

"Never stop your dream," an emotional Teemant told students. "If someone says you can't, just go out and do it anyway."

Keith Rheault, Nevada superintendent of public instruction, said at the presentation that the annual award is a competition between about 20 of the state's top teachers who are nominated for the honor. A committee of six or seven people choose the recipient. The award has been given out in Nevada for four decades. A Green Valley High School teacher was the last person from Clark County to receive the award in 2005.

As part of the award, Teemant was given a key to the city of Henderson. She also will have the opportunity to meet President Bush in April during a trip to the nation's capital. In addition, she was awarded a trip this summer to a NASA space program in Huntsville, Ala.

She also will be entered in the nationwide competition for teacher of the year.

Teemant is active in such after-school activities as student council, guitar club and scrapbook club.

She also heads the school's teacher mentor program, in which she helps new teachers develop lesson plans, reviews classroom management skills and acquaints them with the school.

Seventh-grader Max Frank said he appreciates how Teemant works equally with all students.

"She doesn't really single anybody out or play favorites," Fink said. "She's helpful to everybody."

Teemant said she was honored to be part of the teaching profession.

"A lot of people do what I do every day," she said. "I just represent all of them."