Where I Come From

I've been fortunate to spend my entire teaching career working at the same small school I attended as a student, in the tiny town where I grew up in northwest Washington.  It's an eclectic place that no one had ever heard of until it was "discovered" in the mid 1980's and now it's a haven for tourists from all over the world who come to see tulips, antiques, and other treasures.  It used to have two grocery stores, three gas stations, and countless taverns.  Now it has one grocery, one gas station, and countless boutiques. 

It's a community of fisherman and of farmers, of artists and poets, of workers and retirees, of wealthy and of poor, bordering an Indian reservation and surrounded by forests, farms, mountains, and water.  It's beautiful and I wouldn't live anywhere else!

Where I Come From

With a total student population of about 650 in grades K-12, the school is small and all of the buildings are on one campus.  The middle school has about 150 students, and the high school numbers about 220.  When I graduated from high school, there were 28 people in my graduating class, and about 125 in the whole high school, so we've grown over the last 20+ years, but we're still small by most people's standards, and that's the way I like it!

Even though we are small, we are fairly diverse.  Across the channel from the town itself is an Indian reservation, so about 1/3 of our students are Native American.  About 10% of our student body is Hispanic, and the majority of the rest are white.  We have about 45% of our students on free or reduced lunches, and our high school graduation rate averages 76%.  A complex mix of students such as this presents some unique challenges for me as a teacher, but I feel very fortunate to teach at my alma mater and be a part of a proud tradition. 

I love living and teaching here.  It's not perfect, we have our problems just like any other school or town, but it's home.  

A small school in a small town--that's where I come from.