Tamara Steen
Washington Teacher of the Year
Mabton Junior/Senior High School, Mabton, WA
Grades 9 through 12, English and Art

My teaching philosophy
As I have said many times, teaching for me is an avocation, not a vocation; a passion and not a job. I love the art and craft of teaching, I love teaching literature specifically, and I love teaching teenagers. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was about nine, and I dread the day I have to retire. As a teacher, I make the world a better place with every life I inspire to reach for the stars.

My philosophy in action
My job is to teach my students the reading comprehension and writing skills they will need to be successful academically.Therefore, it is my responsibility to seek out the best instructional strategies to break through whatever barricades block learning. I am, therefore, the lead learner in my classroom, always trying something new and carefully crafting my lessons to reach a specific objective. I challenge my students to think for themselves by dissecting great literature. I know what I teach is not easy for the majority of my students to grasp--I tend to favor classics such as Oedipus Rex and Hamlet--but I tutor after school as often and as long as necessary for a student to comprehend. I figure if a student has the guts to take one of my classes, which are among the toughest in the district, then I have the guts to teach him/her, regardless of the individual's reading and writing levels. No essay is ever over until the end of the quarter; students rewrite and receive feedback until I can give them an honest C. I am enthusiastic because I love what I do; my classes tend to be high energy because I get my students actively engaged in their own learning. I love my students--every one is a unique individual--and our relationship is based on mutual respect and appreciation. For that reason, many of my students become part of my extended family.

My greatest teaching accomplishment
My greatest teaching accomplishment is the impact I have in the lives of my children each and every day.

The most critical issues facing educators today
I work in a tiny rural school where approximately 90% are Latinos and roughly 90% are on free/reduced lunches. We face all the challenges connected to serving minority children living in poverty, yet we are seeing increasing numbers head off to college and graduate–and increasing numbers earn Master's degrees. I am but one member of a great staff of dedicated teachers working as a team to ready our students for life beyond our small town, so I am in no way singly responsible for the fact that 96% of the Class of 2004 went off to college this past fall. However, I am the person who established the Advanced Placement program in my district to build a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum, and one of two teachers who pushed through a language arts block program to better individualize instruction for struggling learners. Without the right skills, my students will not succeed in college, and I am pushing everybody, including myself, to make sure they are proficient when they graduate. Each college graduation announcement mailed to me by a former student is my greatest teaching accomplishment.

Ways to resolve this issue
This country was forged by the hands of immigrants with different languages, different customs, and different beliefs. In the past, newcomers were expected to adapt themselves to the dominant group's way of doing things–this group for many years being English-speaking descendents of non-Hispanic Europeans. This is slowly changing. Within the next fifty years, Latinos are expected to be the largest single group in the United States. Many parts of this country are already bilingual, even multi-lingual. Today educators are expected to educate all children to the same high academic standards, regardless of primary language or family economics. This means we face challenges the teachers in the schoolrooms of yesterday did not have. It is no longer acceptable–and really, never should have been–to let minority children be the recipients of less than a quality education. However, poverty and language barriers require new teaching strategies in order to bring students up to proficiency. It is a challenge we should willingly embrace because it is the right thing to do; these young people are our future. Issue Resolutions: As educators we can no longer afford to operate in isolation from one another, from our administrators, from the parents in the communities we serve–nor even from business, both at the local and statewide level. Although there is much that the individual teacher can do to inspire students, by ourselves we cannot effectively eliminate the impact of many of the problems that plague our society–problems such as poverty, child abuse and drugs. However, when we work as a team, there are more eyes to see what is happening, more minds to think up solutions, and more hands to do the work. Our chances are greater of making a positive difference in the lives of more of our young people.

One thought to inspire teachers to succeed
Every day we go to work, we have the chance to make a significant difference in some young person's life. Students need healthy connections with adults who care about them personally--we have the awesome opportunity of inspiring them with a vision of success and then giving them the skills they need to achieve that vision. We can literally change the direction of a child's life. As I have said many times, to every student whose lives we touch and change, none of us is the teacher of the year; to each of these students we are the teacher of a lifetime. There is no better job than teaching.

One lesson every student should learn
Humans are essentially herd creatures; we need to feel connected to others in order to feel good about ourselves.The trick is to find the right people who will inspire us to find the gifts within us and then push us to stretch to reach our potential. We each must avoid those whose companionship will drag us into the dirt.

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