Tahoma: 10 Years

Today, I received my 10 year service award from the Tahoma School District, an embroidered fleece blanket. While the service award itself is a nice token of recognition, the more important aspect is my reflection on my 10 years of teaching, learning and leading as a career and the path that led me here.

First off I come from a family of educators and as I look back on my family tree I have over 30 family members that have been or are currently in the teaching profession and so it has been part of our family blood from the get go. Second, my life long passion prior to college was to be a high school choir teacher (like my father) and that path was paved in that direction the first three years of college. But that all changed when one professor made one comment that summed it up, "you are not feeling the music as a conductor". He was right and in less than 24 hours I switched from choral education to elementary education (which my mother taught) and that change has made all the difference in my life.

As a teacher, I have loved teaching students and it is the most rewarding job that anyone could ever have. The opportunity to shape kids for the future and teach them skills that they will use the rest of their lives is something that I do not take lightly. I love having a career that I wake up each day and look forward going to. The kids are great and even when the one kid is messing around and being funny, I cannot help think about the fact I was that kid and every one them has potential to be something great. So I do my best to make every mistake a moment that I can teach to. It does not always happen that way, but I try. When I see the kids I have taught grow up, graduate, and start making life choices on their own, I have a smile on my face thinking to myself that I had a part in that. I love this job.

As a leader, I have seen many aspects of the teaching profession. I have served on summits, committees, and building teams that have giving me many perspectives on our school community. In addition to serving in these various roles, I have had the privilege of serving the teachers of the Tahoma Education Association as a building rep, vice president, and president. 9 of my 10 years have included being a leader in our teachers union, not something I was ever passionate about prior to starting teaching. I got started in TEA when a fellow teacher, Lila, asked me to be a building rep. Then it all went from there. I have had the opportunity to work with the best teachers in the business, collaborate with a wonderful school board, and in my discussions with other leaders across our state, we are fortunate to work in Tahoma with some of the greatest district leaders; Mr. Maryanski, Mr. Zahradnik, and Mrs. Skerritt. Many of our teachers have not had opportunities to work one on one with these individuals and while I do not always see eye to eye with them, they all care deeply about our Tahoma community from top to bottom. Each time I think of TEA, I think of the 400+ members I represent and what each of them brings to the work we do as teachers.

The bottom line is that if it had not been for my mother in law saying "why not sub in Tahoma" I would not have ended up in the greatest school district in the state. Thank you to all of colleagues for making Tahoma what it is.