Peter Conrick, Jasmine Brazil, and Mark Egger, teachers, Kamiakin Junior High
October 2009 - Peter Conrick, Jasmine Brazil and Mark Egger are the ninth grade Quest Language Arts, Social Studies and Biology teachers at Kamiakin Junior High. These three individuals challenge their talented students by requiring critical thinking, creativity and self direction to go beyond the standard answer in the book. More...

Barbara Roy, teacher, Sandburg Elementary School
September 2009 - A consistent challenge faced by schools in Lake Washington School District is to find a way to bring parents who work full-time into the classroom to help them understand the curriculum. Research supports the idea that students with parents who are actively involved and engaged in their child’s education tend to do better in school. More...

Pierina Austin, teacher, Margaret Mead Elementary School
“Students and parents have an active role in helping to build the foundation of our students for their future.”
July 2008 - Taking the learning that typically is reserved for a classroom space and extending it beyond those four walls is something that Pierina Austin prides herself on. As a teacher of a “Continuous Learning Environment,” or “CLE,” at Margaret Mead Elementary , Austin teaches students in three grade levels: kindergarten, first grade and second grade. The CLE allows Austin to focus not on the age of the kids that she teaches, but upon the learning process that takes place from day to day. Teaching in a CLE means that she has the same students in her class for three years, allowing her to get to know each of them personally and focus on their unique needs. Similar programs (sometimes referred to as multi-age classrooms) exist in other schools around the district but this is the only program offered at Mead. “By calling it a ‘Continuous Learning Environment,’ the focus stays on the learning that is taking place, not on the age of the kids,” said Austin. More...

Doug Kimball, English teacher, Redmond High School
“Teaching kids helps to keep me young and in step with what’s happening.”
June 2008 - On August 23, 1973, Doug Kimball received a call from Ed Dorothy, the principal at Redmond High School (RHS). Dorothy was calling because he needed a teacher who could do three things: advise the high school newspaper, teach accounting, and teach English. As you can probably imagine, such a teacher was hard to find but Kimball had all of the credentials necessary to fill this position. Doug Kimball, an English teacher at RHS is retiring after 34 years of teaching in Lake Washington School District – all of which were spent at Redmond High School. More…