Eden Prairie educator named finalist for 2026 National Teacher of the Year award

A Twin Cities high school English teacher is one of five finalists for the 2026 National Teacher of the Year award.

Linda Wallenberg teaches ninth through twelfth grade at Eden Prairie High School and is in her 50th year of teaching.

Wallenberg, known as "Wally" by her students, is the 61st Minnesota Teacher of the Year and is the first educator from the Eden Prairie School District to receive the state honor, according to Education Minnesota.

"As educators, we know what magic in a classroom looks like. Students come alive, ideas flow and the energy is palpable," Jaysen Anderson, principal at Eden Prairie High School, said. "That happens in 'Wally's' class every day. After half a century of teaching, she continuously shows up with the same enthusiasm and excitement as year one. There's a reason her students remember her for a lifetime."

Wallenberg became Minnesota's first certified Swedish teacher, serving for more than four decades as a director and teacher at Concordia College Swedish Language Village in Bemidji. She has also been awarded the Royal Order of the Polar Star by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

This isn't the first time Wallenberg has been nationally recognized; she has been named National Gymnastics Coach of the Year twice.

The other finalists for Teacher of the Year are from Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. The winner will be announced in the spring.

Minnesota has produced four Teachers of the Year and is tied third nationally for the number of National Teachers of the Year recipients.