After the frightening thought of starting the 2014 school year without history teacher Mike Kaul, he is expected to make a full recovery after the long year of treatment that is ahead of him.

 Last May, Kaul suffered from a hemorrhaged vocal cord. After not improving as expected, he was seen by doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and was told he had scar tissue on his vocal cords. He was motivated to return to teaching this fall, although another option would have been to take time off.

 While Kaul was in Ontario, Canada last spring training a group of about 80 Anishinaabe Native American spiritual leaders about suicide prevention, he came down with a cold and a persistent sore throat.

 “I was coughing a lot and clearing my throat a lot, right at the end of the school year in June, I was coughing and I hemorrhaged a vocal cord,” said Kaul, “and I also did some nerve damage.”

 He was unaware of the extent of the injury until he ended up in the emergency room because he could not swallow. When he did not improve as his doctors had assumed he would, he visited the Mayo Clinic this summer. He was told he had to stop straining his voice the way he had been due to the scar tissue located on his vocal cords.

Kaul described what the Mayo Clinic surgeon said to him, “‘You don’t need surgery, but you will need to have voice restrictions and do voice exercises and wear that ‘stupid’ microphone, you need to realize your limitations,’ something I’ve never been good at,” he added.

 Kaul has always been admired by past students, and they are hoping this illness doesn’t change the class for present students. The majority of his teaching occurs through lectures, and this could potentially change his teaching style and classroom dynamics greatly.

Past student, senior Olivia Braun explained, “His classroom dynamics would change to less lectures and more student lead projects; I can only hope that the students who have him this year will be able to experience having him as a teacher like I did.”

 Senior Sam Mitchell gave another view of the class, “I would always laugh during his lectures because he would make some sort of comment I would never expect a teacher to make, he was always so sarcastic, I always enjoyed his class because I was always thinking, ‘What is he going to say now?’ ”

 The Friday before the start of the school year, Kaul found out he would be able to continue teaching this year with a few restraints. He said he really fought hard to be here this school year due to an email he received from a former student.

 “A week before school started a young woman, she always had a massive smile and seemed upbeat, sent me a lengthy email, basically saying her smile was a total fake and that all the pestering questions I asked her and all our interactions really helped her,” Kaul said.

 This email gave him new motivation to continue teaching through this difficult time. He said this told him that he was “still relevant and needed to continue doing this.”