Doug Kimball, English teacher, Redmond High School
“Teaching kids helps to keep me young and in step with what’s happening.”
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.
Kimball grew up in Bellevue, attending Stevenson and Ashwood Elementary Schools, Highland Junior High and Sammamish High School. After graduating from Sammamish, Kimball attended the University of Washington (UW), where he planned to major in Business. During his time at UW, he fell in love with English, and would have loved to change his major. However, the Vietnam War was underway, and the draft made that dream impossible – if you changed majors during college, you would get drafted. So, Kimball continued on and received his degree in Business. Following graduation from UW, Kimball was drafted into the army, where he served as a journalist. When his service was complete, Kimball returned to school to receive his teaching certificate. He student taught at Inglemoor High School before receiving the call from Dorothy with the offer to teach at Redmond High School.
While at RHS, Kimball has taught journalism (for 32 of his 34 years), yearbook (for 29 of his 34 years) and English. In the past, he has also taught business, accounting and typing courses at the school as well. In addition to these in-class teaching opportunities, Kimball also has served as a soccer coach for most of his years at RHS, starting the program for the school. Kimball is the first to admit that he didn’t know much about soccer when he started the program but he enjoyed learning more about the game along with the kids. He even had students serve as “assistant” coaches. Kimball coached the boys team for eight or nine years before moving to the girls’ side in 1981. Four or five years ago, he began helping Patrick Scheibe with the boy’s team again. Scheibe is also one of Kimball’s former students, who played soccer under Kimball on one of his early teams.
In his years at RHS, Kimball has earned a number of honors and awards, including Coach of the Year for girls soccer at least twice, a number of first place awards in yearbook contests, and much more. The honors that he is most proud of are student-nominated ones, including being selected by students to hand out diplomas at graduation, being selected to speak at graduation, and being invited to attend graduation activities at Stanford with a former student. In that case, the student was asked to select a person who had an impact on them to join the student for a luncheon at the school in Palo Alto, Calif. Stanford even paid Kimball’s way down to the event.
Kimball has witnessed many changes in his 34 years at RHS. The main thing that he has seen is the change in the Redmond community. He also thinks that the intensity of school has changed for students and teachers. Classes have become more rigorous: when Kimball started teaching at RHS there was one honors course offered at the school. Now, there are many honors and advanced placement (AP) classes offered. He also mentioned that he feels it is harder to be a teacher now than it was in the past; that there are more demands placed on teachers now than ever before. Technology has also changed – from the old mimeograph machines to make copies of materials to training for and using the ACTIVBoard.
When asked what Kimball will miss most about RHS when he retires, he said, “I certainly will miss RHS. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.” He will miss the kids the most, saying “I found what I was supposed to do in life: teaching kids is what keeps me young and in step with what’s happening.”
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.”
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.
Each year, as a new group of kindergarten students join their class, Austin matches up older students to serve as mentors for the kindergarteners. The mentor and mentee have time to meet and begin a connection before the start of the school year, which establishes friendships and makes it easier for the kindergarten students to learn the classroom rules and expectations before entering the classroom on the first day of school.
“My goal each year is to bring something new into the classroom, so that students are not just learning the same thing from year to year,” said Austin. Each year, the class is given a theme that all concepts will relate to throughout the year. This helps to bring concepts into focus for students. This year’s classroom theme has been “interdependence.” Students have gone on field trips and have had guest speakers to talk about the environment, weather, community, and other issues related to their theme. The last week of April, an oceanographer came to visit the class. Prior to that visit, Walter Kelley, a meteorologist with Q13 Fox came to visit the class. Austin’s class is also a King County Green Classroom. They have a worm bin that is kept outside of their classroom for composting. Her class is responsible for the upkeep of the worm bin.
Austin considers parents to be extremely valuable within the Continuous Learning Environment. “Within our class, we work collaboratively with parents and they are involved in so many amazing ways.” In Austin’s classroom, parents help to plan events, collect resources for students, create activities and are involved in understanding and discussing the educational process and what is best for students. Parent communication is on-going through newsletters, weekly updates, weekly knowledge of activities, e-mails and monthly parent meetings. Austin also keeps an up-to-date Web site. Parents have recognized Austin as well. In 2005, parents nominated her for a Teacher’s Insurance Teacher of the Year award. She won, receiving a plaque and a $1,000 gift certificate to be used in her classroom.
Austin attended Seattle University where she earned both her bachelor’s degree and Masters in Education. She has attended both Seattle Pacific University and University of Washington for extended education courses, as well as spent three summers at Columbia University Teacher College where she studied reading and writing practices. She has been with the Lake Washington School District since 1989 and has received her National Board Certification in Early Childhood / General Education. While with Lake Washington, she has taught at both Emily Dickinson Elementary and Mead. In 1997, Austin was a finalist for state teacher of the year.