Allows college courses to be taught in high school by high school instructors who have a Masters in a particular content area, or a Master's in Education with 18 credits in the content area. All interested high school faculty have been vetted by SMU and once approved, are considered adjunct faculty with SMU.
SMU's professors and the Lourdes principal work closely with approved high school faculty to ensure that the courses are being taught with the same rigor and expectation as they would at SMU.
Mrs. O’Hara received her B.A. in Environmental Biology from St. Mary’s University and her M.S. in Biology from the University of Northern Iowa where she was a teaching assistant for introductory Biology courses. She began her professional teaching career at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa where she was a Biology Lab instructor and non-major Biology course instructor. After moving to Minnesota, she taught online for Capella University. In 2016, she began teaching Junior High Life and Earth Science at St. Francis of Assisi. She is excited to join the LHS teaching community where she will teach 9th grade Biology and
AP Biology/Biology 150. She is passionate about ensuring that all students become scientifically literate. Mrs. O’Hara hopes to inspire many of those students to become the next generation of biologists. Personal interests include ecology, conservation biology and ornithology. In her free time, Mrs. O’Hara loves reading fiction, bird-watching, and hiking.
Mr. Gardner has been teaching in Religion and Philosophy, Music, and Theatre since 1983. Upon completion of his M.A. in Religion, Philosophy and Literature (Indiana University ‘83), Mr. Gardner joined the faculty of Fergus Falls Community College for two years. During 1986 he returned to his native East Coast to study and work as a musician, where he also began teaching in Religion for Catholic High School programs. Since 1991 Mr. Gardner has been on the faculty of Lourdes High School, where he served for a decade as Department Chair in Religion. In 2004 Mr. Gardner completed the Creative Pulse program at University of Montana (M.A. Fine Arts Education) and began serving as Fine Arts Chair at LHS where he continues to teach in Religion as well as teaching, directing, and producing projects in Theatre and Music, while continuing to explore the intersection of Arts and Theology. Mr. Gardner will be teaching Thinking Theologically as well as Christian Life and Relationship and Church History.
Mr. Blattner completed his Bachelor of Arts at Luther College, majoring in English and Philosophy. He earned his Master of Arts in Teaching from Saint Mary’s University. While at Saint Mary’s, Mr. Blattner focused his master’s thesis on teaching writing instruction, highlighting innovative and best-practice methods to implement in the classroom. He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in English from Saint Thomas University. His current research continues to examine new approaches to writing development and ways of providing writer feedback. Mr. Blattner enjoys working with students individually to develop their own voice and style, and ultimately to learn how to think with clarity and precision. In addition to writing, Mr. Blattner loves navigating through classic works of literature, finding connections on how these works influence our modern world. He desires that each student will discover his/her potential through written and spoken word. Mr. Blattner will be teaching AP Language/College Writing, AP Literature/Advanced Literature and Freshman English.
