Valley’s Teachers of the Year keep things fun, relevant

BY CAROL LADWIGStaff Reporter

It never seems to stop. In the halls, in class, even during Chris Blake’s prep period, students have questions for him. “And it’s kind of important,” says one boy, apologetically interrupt-ing him.

The math and science teacher is busy, but asks, “OK, what is it?”

“West Virginia or Kentucky?”Blake can’t help himself. He tries

to smother a grin as he points to the door, and says “OK, not now. Go.” He pauses, then says “I’m going Kentucky on that one, though.”

“YES!” says the boy, and happily departs.

It is March Madness at Chief Kanim Middle School, and Blake, a teacher and coach of football and basketball, is at the center of a flurry of boys try-ing to fill out their team brackets and follow the NCAA men’s basketball championships. He uses the school’s tournament mania to make his favor-ite subject, math, both fun and rel-evant to his students.

Blake’s ability to make learning spill out of the classroom and into students’ lives is one reason he was named a Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation Teacher of the Year. It’s a quality he shares with fellow Teachers of the Year Sharon Piper at Opstad Elementary School and Kim Sales at Mount Si High School.

Another thing the three teachers share is their motivation.

“It’s the kids, “ said Blake, Chief Kanim’s sixth grade math and science teacher for all of his 15-year career.

“They’re all very sweet,” said Piper who’s been at Opstad for 10 years, and teaching third grade for 15. “Like I tell them, ‘I learn way more from you

guys than you do from me.’” “I get to have fun with 16- to 18

year-olds every single day, and my job is to make learning relevant, and as a result, fun for them,” said Kim Sales.

Kim SalesSales teaches law and business at

Mount Si, and oversees the opera-tion of a functioning credit union, the Wildcat Branch of Sno-Falls Credit Union, open in the school commons daily for all three lunch periods. Students at the branch are trained as tellers, and they use the skills to com-plete up to 10 transactions per lunch period, manage cash, and reconcile

VALLEY RECORDSNOQUALMIE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2011 DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM 75 CENTS

YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER, SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF SNOQUALMIE NORTH BEND FALL CITY PRESTON CARNATION

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

INDEXOPINION 4BUSINESS 6 SPORTS 10-11PUZZLES 12LEGAL NOTICES 12ON THE SCANNER 13CLASSIFIEDS 13-14

Kevin Hauglie Insurance AgencyKevin Hauglie - Agent | 425.222.5881 | www.farmers.com/khauglie

4547

46

Auto • Home • Life

Serving the Snoqualmie Valley since 1985 with locations in Snoqualmie • Fall City • Duvall

SCEN

E Lower Valley players offer up medical mayhem Page 8

SPOR

TS Mount Si girls golfers surprises in home jamboree Page 10

SCEN

E Lower Valley

City gives green light to free Entwistle signal

Carnation will soon see its first four-way stoplight on Tolt Avenue, a major milestone for the city, its drivers and pedestrians.

At its March 15 meeting, the Carnation City Council recommend-ed awarding a contract for the instal-lation of a traffic signal at the inter-section of Tolt Avenue and Entwistle Street, plus a marked crosswalk with a flashing yellow light at the inter-section of Tolt and West Morrison Street, to Totem Electric of Tacoma.

Local relief efforts for disaster-struck Japan are taking place on two levels, spiritual and physical.

Responding to the disaster, Pastor Lee Hartmann of Fall City United Methodist Church organized a World Prayers gathering Thursday, March 17, for people of all faiths.

For those who wanted to contrib-ute in a tangible way, she and Pastors Phil Harrington of the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church directed people to the United Methodist Committee on Relief ’s website, new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor.

Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

Photos of current and former students plaster the walls of Mount Si High School business teacher Kim Sales’ classroom, above. Below, Opstad Elementary’s Sharon Piper annually introduces third graders to the life cycle of fish. Both women are 2011 Valley Schools Foundation Teachers of the Year.

Heads of the class

Carnation to get first traffic light

Benefits, prayers

for Japan relief

SEE TEACHERS, 2 SEE JAPAN, 5

SEE LIGHT, 5

WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM2 • March 23, 2011 • Snoqualmie Valley Record

“The kids love it,” she says, “It’s a skill that they have now.”

Skills and schedules are at the heart of Sales’ teaching. Her classes are in the Career and Technical Education program, which used to be known as vocational classes. While others might have looked down on those classes, she never did.

“It’s not about college or not college, it’s about skills,” she said. “It’s about empowering and really impacting our stu-dents.”

To do that in her usually full classrooms, Sales focuses on organization.

“If you want to run an effec-tive classroom, where you are

affecting student learning 50 to 55 minutes out of 55 min-utes, you better—a teacher better have basically a minute-by-minute plan for each class that they’re doing.”

Chris BlakeBlake almost laughed when

he learned of the award.“I thought it was a joke!” he

said, but “when we had our ceremony, they read some of the (nomination) letters from students and parents... and I realized, I have a good gig here, I have a good relation-ship with the kids, and I’ve been very lucky. It made me feel very lucky, very blessed to be where I’m at.”

It was his own middle school experience in Chewelah, Wash., that made him start

thinking about teaching some day— but only as a backup plan. He already knew what he wanted to do. “In sixth grade? I was shortstop for the Yankees,” he said.

His sixth grade teacher was also his freshman base-ball coach, later an assistant principal at Chief Kanim, and ultimately one of Blake’s inspi-rations to teach.

“My year in sixth grade was his first year in teaching, and he had the room like this...” he gestures around the class-room, papered with posters and signs, dotted with card-board cutouts, and a couch. “It was fun... he made learning fun for me.”

Blake takes that approach in teaching math and science to his sixth graders, too. “I’m

doing my best to get them excited about it, and at least bust their butts for their sixth grade career,” he said. “I try to have a lot of energy, I try to make it as fun as I can, we play math games to get motivated...” He demonstrates one of the tools he uses, an ActivExpressions device that transfers student answers to a television screen. “They think they’re playing a game, but they’re actually doing math,” he said.

He loves teaching sixth grade, which is such a for-mative year for students. He sees them go through a lot of changes, and he appreci-ates the opportunity he’s been given to shape their lives.

“Seeing them happy and enjoying school makes me feel like I’m doing something right.” he said. “If the Yankees call me, though...”

Sharon PiperPiper has a couple of confes-

sions to make. The first is “the only reason I got this (Teacher of the Year award) was because of Marianne Bradburn.... She should have gotten it with me!”

Bradburn, Piper said, has been “awesome” and invalu-able as a teaching and planning partner over the years.

“We decided it was hard to teach on the fly,” Piper explained, and so about four years ago, they started meet-ing on Fridays to plan the next week’s lessons. It took hours.

“We have it written down, we’re going to teach this page, and we really push each other to ask why we’re teaching it, what’s the point of teaching it, what do we want the kids to learn?” she said.

An important lesson that Piper wants all students to learn is about discrimination. It’s her favorite unit to teach but one of the most difficult.

“All the kids hear that,” she says, reading from a huge red sign on her desk, “What’s essen-tial is invisible to the eye.”

Learning that, though, means learning about all the ways people can discrimi-nate against each other. Piper spends two days each year on the famed Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment by Jane Elliott, in which a third grade class learns prejudice against their classmates based on eye color. Her experiment is much short-er and tamer, since brown-eyed students only ignored their blue-eyed classmates, and vice-versa, but just as hard on stu-dents and teacher.

Piper, Blake, and Sales were all nominated by colleagues, parents, and students for excel-lence in education and dedica-tion to students.

• The Valley Schools Foundation hosts a public lun-cheon recognizing Teachers of the Year 11:30 a.m. Thursday, March 24, at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge.

EVERY DAY.CONNECT ALL DAY,

With CenturyLink, you get high speeds for a low price.• Private, direct connection that’s 100% yours, 100% of the time• Consistently fast all day, every day• The price you sign up for is the price you pay

TRUE SPEED

*Offer ends 5/31/2011. Offer applies to new residential High-Speed Internet activations only. The listed High-Speed Internet monthly rate of $14.95 requires a 12-month term agreement (after which the rate reverts to the then-current standard rate) and subscription to CenturyLink™ Unlimited Calling plan. Listed rate applies to up to 768 Kbps High-Speed Internet service. An additional monthly fee (including professional installation, if applicable) and a shipping and handling fee will apply to customer’s modem or router. General – Services and offers not available everywhere. CenturyLink may change or cancel services, or substitute similar services, at its sole discretion without notice. Offer, plans, and stated rates are subject to change and may vary by service area. Requires credit approval and deposit may be required. Additional restrictions apply. Terms and Conditions – All products and services listed are governed by tariffs, terms of service, or terms and conditions posted at www.centurylink.com. Taxes, Fees, and Surcharges – Applicable taxes, fees, and surcharges include a Carrier Universal Service charge, National Access Fee surcharge, a one-time High-Speed Internet activation fee, state and local fees that vary by area and certain in-state surcharges. Cost recovery fees are not taxes or government-required charges for use. Taxes, fees, and surcharges apply based on standard monthly, not promotional, rates. Call for a listing of applicable taxes, fees, and surcharges. Monthly Rate – Monthly rate applies while customer subscribes to all qualifying services. If one (1) or more services are cancelled, the standard monthly fee will apply to each remaining service. High-Speed Internet (HSI) – As determined by service location, an early termination fee will apply as either a flat $99 fee or the applicable monthly recurring service fee multiplied by the number of months remaining in the minimum service period, up to $200. Professional installation of modem or router kits is available for an additional monthly fee. Performance will vary due to conditions outside of network control and no speed is guaranteed. Consistent speed claim as well as claim that customer’s connection to CenturyLink’s network is 100% theirs is based on CenturyLink providing HSI subscribers with a dedicated, virtual-circuit connection to the CenturyLink central office. Unlimited Calling – Applies to one (1) residential phone line with direct-dial local and nationwide voice calling, designated calling features, and unlimited nationwide long distance services; excludes commercial use, dial-up Internet connections, data service, facsimile, conference lines, directory and operator assistance, chat lines, pay-per-call, calling card use, or multi-housing units. International calling billed separately. ©2011 CenturyLink, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The name CenturyLink and the pathways logo are trademarks of CenturyLink, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.

CenturyLinkTM High-Speed Internet

$14.95a month when you bundle*

1 year. 1 price.

EVERY DAY.

Para oír ofertas en español marque al 855.438.8783.

Call 855.GET.TRUEcenturylink.com/save

CNTL11-06A_8.1666x9.indd 1 1/28/11 1:17 PM

TEACHERS FROM 1

Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

Surrounding himself with cardboard cut-outs, Chief Kanim Middle School’s Teacher of the Year Chris Blake shaped his room the way his original, inspiring sixth grade teacher and coach decorated his own.