Ed Coleman and Greg Lineweaver teach high school English. They started out in other jobs and switched to teaching, they are about the same age, and they have moved around the country to follow their wives’ careers.

Both teach using the Socratic method, a technique designed to guide students to answers through questioning and dialogue rather than lecturing.

And on Monday, each was surprised to learn in a school assembly that he was one of two Indiana teachers selected for Milken Family Foundation National Educator Awards.

Each award comes with a $25,000 prize, a trip to Los Angeles and membership in a network of top teachers who share ideas.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett and Milken officials gave the awards in surprise assemblies at North Central High School, where Coleman heads the English department, and Herron High School, where Lineweaver is a teacher and an administrator.

Students described each teacher as someone who makes learning interesting and connects well with students.

“It’s very rare there’s a teacher that makes you want to learn,” said Ivy Campbell, one of Lineweaver’s students at Herron. “He does.”

Herron Principal Janet McNeal recalls popping into Lineweaver’s class once and accidentally staying the entire period because she became caught up in the lesson.

Coleman’s students at North Central tell similar stories.

“You can tell he really cares about his job,” said senior Rachel Geiger. “It’s really an interactive class. He’s not just talking at you.”

Geiger and other students say Coleman lets students guide the discussion, including forming hypotheses and working through them only to figure out in the end that they’re wrong.

“My teaching style is Socratic, a lot of inquiry,” Coleman said. “I walk into the room with a rough plan of what I want to accomplish, but how we get there, I leave up to the students.”

Although Lineweaver’s class may be a bit more structured, he uses the same basic approach.

He and his students say he’ll toss out a big idea — beauty or religion, say — and the class will dig in deep. Teaching students to think is the goal, he said.

Lecturing just doesn’t do that, he said.

“I could tell funny stories all day to them, but that’s not what I think is relevant,” he said. “My responsibility as a teacher is to ask the question and get out of the way.”