Middle School Technology Teacher and Makerspace Manager
A little history, or my journey to EPS
Growing up, I never wanted to be a teacher. My mom and my older sister were both teachers and I really wanted to strike my own path, as well as earn a doctorate in whichever field I chose for my career. I had been interested in science and human health for as long as I could remember, so when I began college classes through the Running Start program in my junior year of high school, I decided I would focus on pre-med. I had plans to be either a pediatrician or an obstetrician/gynecologist since I also really liked working with kids and LOVED babies.
As part of my AA program work in this concentration, I took Anatomy and Physiology. I really enjoyed learning about muscles and bones and the content came easily to me. However, it did not come as easily to several of my classmates. These classmates begged me to start a tutoring group for the class, to which I agreed. It ended up being a huge success. I was able to break the topics down and explain them in a way my classmates were able to understand and they found success in the class after attending my tutoring sessions. While it initially annoyed me that I seemed to be skilled in the area of teaching as I was determined to go a different route in my career, this experience did get me thinking about my plan and what I could find the most success in. Around this time, my baby cousin, Sadie, also passed away from SIDS when she was only a few weeks old, which was so challenging for me to cope with that I wondered how I would cope when one of my patients experienced a similar loss. After some reflecting on these situations, I changed my major to science education, and transferred to Northwest University to continue my studies in education. In 2007 I graduated from NU with my Bachelor’s in Secondary Education with an endorsement in Biology and a minor in Environmental Science.
I loved learning and teaching about complex concepts in science, so I placed my focus on teaching high school. After teaching at Lake Washington High School for a year, I really struggled to both connect with the students and earn the respect of my colleagues. I believe this had a lot to do with the fact that I was so young, only a couple years older than my students, as I had graduated high school with my AA due to Running Start. My advisor reminded me that with my degree I could teach students as young as 5th grade and she encouraged me to try teaching middle school. While I was hesitant because I enjoyed the more advanced curriculum of high school, I found I was able to connect with the students so much easier and fell in love with teaching pre-teens. A friend of my sister was the principal at Evergreen Academy in Bothell and she had an opening for a 5th grade teacher. I was offered the job and decided to take it and taught 4th-7th grade for 5 years before I decided to explore what else was out there.
A former student, Lauren Pichard, had come to EPS after leaving Evergreen, and her mom, Linda, heard I was looking for another opportunity. Linda reached out to me when Lauren’s science teacher, Katie Dodd, was needing maternity leave coverage. I applied and was hired for the long term sub job, then was offered a second one in learning support a month later. I spent the summer applying for jobs at other independent schools. I had accepted a position at the Little School when I suddenly received a call from Terry Macaluso offering me a permanent position at EPS. I immediately said yes and worked that school year as the inaugural on-call sub and after school study hall teacher.
I am writing this 12 years later, after having held multiple different positions at EPS, and I will be forever grateful for my Anatomy and Physiology classmates who pushed me to explore a career in education. I truly believe this is what I was meant to do, and that I am damn good at it! My experiences teaching at EPS have solidified these feelings and taught me more about myself and how to be an effective educator than I ever learned in my college programs. This Professional Development Project was daunting in the amount of work I knew I would have to do, but has been an enjoyable reflection of my 17 years of teaching, what I’ve learned, and how I’ve grown and changed.
My Teaching Philosophy
I believe that as an educator, my primary function is to support students in and facilitate their learning. Teachers are no longer the sole source of information for students, as technology has advanced to the point they have far more information available to them about any topic they could imagine than I ever did as a student. As such, I believe my role as an educator is to teach them how to access the best information, how to look at information critically, and how to apply that information to their content learning. A big part of that role is also teaching students to be master problem-solvers and develop the perseverance to never stop learning and trying.
I believe the best way to deliver instruction and facilitate student learning is by posing problems to students and building hands-on lessons that allow the time and space to experiment with different ways to solve that problem, and support students as they communicate their problem and the methods they used to solve it to others.
I believe learning and the classroom are for everyone. All students have a right to learn in a safe and supportive environment. I do this by aiming to truly know each student as an individual, learning how I can best support them in their education journey, and ensuring they know that I am committed to their success in my classes and beyond. All students can learn and I aim every day to create a positive and inclusive learning environment.
Lastly, I believe teaching and learning are FUN! My job is never the same from one day to the next, which keeps my brain engaged and allows me the ability to give myself and my students permission to find the fun in every day. Play is our brain’s favorite way to learn, and, as Mr. Rogers said, “Play is really the work of childhood.”
The next 10 years, or where I hope to go from here…
Since reaching my 10-year milestone at EPS in 2023, I’ve been reflecting on what I want the next chapter of my professional journey to look like. A few things have become clear:
- I’m drawn to leadership opportunities, but not in the traditional administrative sense. I’m interested in exploring programs like the NWAIS Emerging Leaders cohort as a way to clarify and shape what leadership might look like for me in an independent school setting.
- I want to continue deepening my skills in programming and other areas of the tech industry—both to enhance my teaching practice and to narrow the programming knowledge gap between myself and others on the tech team. I’m also curious about eventually teaching an Upper School course or two.
- Without a doubt, the heart of my work lies in the Makerspace—supporting student and faculty projects, integrating across disciplines, and nurturing hands-on creativity. After attending the Makerspace training with Lindsey Own at the BIG Lab and seeing what it looks like when that work is someone’s primary role, I’ve started to imagine how something similar could evolve here at EPS. Could this lead to a new role—Director of Integration, perhaps? It has a nice ring to it!
The Professional Development Plan process has helped surface these truths more clearly, and I’m excited to keep exploring them in conversation with Sarah Peeden, Sam, and others in our community.
