A San Francisco teacher has been named teacher of the year, becoming the first teacher from the San Francisco School District to earn the award since it was started in 1972. Valerie Ziegler is one of five teachers to receive the state's top honor for educators, and the only one from Northern California. Ziegler teaches U.S. government, history, and economics at Lincoln High School. She's been teaching for only five years which made the award a bit of a surprise to her. "Shocked, humbled," said Ziegler, "it's been overwhelming. To have this honor this early in my career is really nice but I also think it speaks to the State of California the fact that they are recognizing teachers." State Superintendent Jack O'Connell paid a visit to Ziegler on Friday to honor her. Ziegler's students sang praises of her. "She's a good teach, like, we never do anything that's the same, like we just, we have a lot of fun things to do," said Lincoln High School junior Nigel Hall. "I think she deserves it," said Samantha Sherman," she's a really good teacher. She challenges us to do more things than we would usually do. She challenges us to look outside the box." Ziegler and the four other winners will honored at a banquet in January.