School foundation honors three educators
March 19, 2008
By Laura Geggel
The Snoqualmie Valley School Foundation surprised three educators with balloons and flowers last week for the new Educator of the Year award.
“We are trying to let these people, who often go unrecognized, know that the community values their chosen profession,” said Carolyn Day, president of the foundation.
The foundation had been accepting applications since September, although entering was no easy feat. Nominations needed to include letters of recommendation from colleagues and students – one current and one former, so judges could see what sort of long-term impact the teacher had made on the child’s life. The Chamber of Commerce nominated judges from the local business community.
Of the couple dozen educators nominated, the winners included Dana Stairs, a fifth-grade teacher at Fall City Elementary School; Jerry Johnson, a Snoqualmie Valley school bus driver; and Joe Dockery, the Mount Si High School multimedia teacher.
“Many foundations administer a program similar to this,” said Roberta McFarland, chair of the foundation’s Educator of the Year committee. “We thought it would be a great way to inspire excellence among our teachers and reward those who are doing a good job.”
Each of the three were found to inspire students of all backgrounds, promote respect among students, parents and colleagues, play an active role in the community and demonstrate the importance of collaboration.
Stairs has been teaching fifth grade for five years and is following the family tradition of teaching in the valley. Her father, Jack Webber, has taught in the district for 35 years.
“On Fridays, he comes down to my classrooms to help out,” Stairs said.
“I love teaching. I love the people of Fall City. The community is really supportive.”
Johnson, who won the classified employee award, started driving buses for the district in 2001. Every day he wakes up at 4:30 a.m. so he can drive about 120 children to school.
“They treat me like I’m their grandpa,” Johnson said. “I get a good report with the kids because the parents have done a wonderful job. If there are any problems, I just call the parents and they’re behind me 100 percent.”
He credits his good managing skills to his 26-year history as a supervisor at Gais Northwest Bakery.
Johnson said the award “shocked him to death,” but he is pleased to be honored.
“I feel like I’m doing something right with the kids and hopefully it will lead them in the right direction,” he said. “My goal is to make a difference.”
Dockery has inspired and instructed many a student and colleague since he started teaching math and science at Chief Kanim Middle School in 1990. He enjoyed integrating technology into his classroom, and founded the video club in 1996, which filmed the daily television show, Hawk TV.
The school district received a technology levy the same year, and soon Dockery was instructing teachers all over the district how to use computers. He taught art during his tutoring days, and now incorporates art as well as math into his web design classes at Mount Si High School.
Dockery’s classes include video, animation, web design and computer graphics.
“We have two levels for each class, foundation and production,” Dockery said. Many of his advanced students teach the beginner students in the foundation classes.
“What I try to do is get the kids out into the community as much as possible,” Dockery said. “In my video program, we videotape a lot of special events for people. We just did a documentary on the North Bend Food Bank to help them raise money for their expansion project.”
The video showed between movies at the North Bend Theatre and was posted on the city’s Web site.
Surprisingly enough, Dockery’s daughter had Stairs for fifth grade a few years ago. With a young daughter, he hasn’t forgotten to include younger children in his technology classes.
“This fall, one of my animation classes worked with a fourth-grade class. (The fourth graders) taught them math concepts and my class had to make the concepts into integrated movies,” Dockery said.
The foundation plans to give the award to three educators annually. Each educator will receive a plaque and be invited to the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation Spring Breakfast and fundraiser March 28 at the Snoqualmie Ridge Golf Club.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.Comments
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