{"id":278,"date":"2021-09-23T11:24:38","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T18:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/?p=278"},"modified":"2021-09-24T08:35:16","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T15:35:16","slug":"please-welcome-our-secondary-tosa-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/2021\/09\/23\/please-welcome-our-secondary-tosa-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Please Join us in Welcoming the Secondary TOSA Team for the 2021-2022 School Year!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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LANGUAGE ARTS: Leah Boon<\/strong> graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with an emphasis in International Education. She was always (and always will be!) interested in language, learning, and traveling. Shortly after an inspiring undergraduate experience in Eugene and Spain, she moved to Bend and started her MAT program at OSU Cascades. Leah has been teaching at Cascade Middle School for the past 10 years. Having taught 7th grade TAG Humanities, 6th grade Humanities, Yearbook, Journalism, and developed the Broadcasting elective, she’s finally settled into 8th grade Language Arts and Social Studies for the past four years. While her Spanish has been dwindling over the years, Leah has been passionate about the direction the MS ELA department is headed and the work being done district-wide to better support all <\/em>students. Leah was lucky enough to work this past year on the Middle School Diversity Project and is excited about where this work will lead. What is a goal you have for yourself?<\/strong> I have a mix of some weird traits — I’m competitive, stubborn, super curious, and obsessed with reading & research, which I think makes for a great teacher who consistently wants to do better for my students. This year I really want to work on effective feedback (and TIMELY feedback, which can be so hard) so my goal is to try a lot of different combinations of quick, formative, and specific feedback for students. Process-over-Product is my goal this year. How will you celebrate it when you accomplish it?<\/strong> Well, it’s going to be an ongoing goal to work on this year. I think I’ll know when I see students making strong gains as a result. I just know I’m my best self when I consistently prioritize self-care like reading, Barre3 & running, coffee, a few reality TV shows, and time outdoors with my family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LANGUAGE ARTS: Michele Clements<\/strong> started teaching for Bend-La Pine Schools in 1998, as a student teacher for Helen Webre at Mountain View.  Over the next twenty years, she earned two Master’s Degrees and taught all high school grades and levels, as well as serving in a variety of committee and leadership roles.  Added to the mix, Michele coached competitive speech and debate for fifteen years, and had a part-part-part-time job as a wedding coordinator for five years – both of which came with surprisingly useful skill sets to acquire.  After several years leading the Diversity Project, CDA development, and a regional PLC made up of high school English teachers and college writing instructors, she transitioned out of the classroom and into a Language Arts coordinator role.  Her husband still teaches Language Arts for Mountain View and their two children LOVE to read!  At the dinner table, they practice writing literary essays for fun.  (Not really.) (Or do they…?) QUESTION:  What is a goal you have for yourself? <\/strong> One of my goals is to offer useful, meaningful, hopefully high-quality professional development experiences to our district on a regular and ongoing basis.  This will happen in a variety of ways, from trainings, to book chapters, to resource lists, to blog posts. QUESTION:  How will you celebrate yourself when you accomplish it?<\/strong> There are so many opportunities here, and many of them cover large spans of time, so I don’t think there will be a big “I did it!” celebration.  However, I am assure you:  the two days after the Mary Ehrenworth trainings, I took off, off, off!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MATH: Linda Adams<\/strong> found her calling in teaching while living abroad. Her first teaching position was middle school girls\u2019 PE in Seoul, Korea. After 3 years of wonderful experiences, she repatriated back to Oregon to complete her Masters in Education at Eastern Oregon University. Linda did her student teaching at Lapine Middle School then continued to teach in the Bend LaPine SD (3Rivers, Skyview, Cascade) for 10 years. In the last 8 years she taught in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 3, coordinated the Math-in-Real-Life Project for HDESD for 3 and finally spent the last 2 years as the Secondary Math Coach for Jefferson County SD. Linda has two adult children who grew up and thrived in our wonderful Bend schools, both going on to study engineering at OSU. QUESTION: What is a goal you have for yourself<\/strong>? One of my professional goals is to grow into being a better agent of change. I will do this by becoming a stellar listener, by using coaching strategies that help others realize their own professional goals, and by adding value to a vision of possibilities that allows our students to thrive in education. QUESTION: How will you celebrate yourself when you accomplish your goal?<\/strong> While I am always about celebrating milestones (think dancing and travel), I believe this is an ongoing goal that gives my life meaning and I will always be refining it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SCIENCE: Colleen Behrens <\/strong>Teaching science and being a leader in the science community has been Colleen\u2019s passion since she started teaching.\u00a0 She began her teaching career in Bend, Oregon at St. Francis School (now McMinemins) as a middle school science teacher.\u00a0 When St. Francis moved East, she moved West to Corvallis to earn her MS degree in Science Education. Colleen returned to Bend to teach science at Pilot Butte Middle School.\u00a0 Since joining BLPS, Colleen has participated in committees focused on district and school improvement, science literacy, curriculum and standards adoption, and equity.\u00a0 She has been an ICCL leader for 15 years, a PLC leader for PBMS transition to an International Baccalaureate and has an ESOL endorsement.\u00a0 Colleen loves birding, hiking, camping and exploring Eastern Oregon with her husband and chocolate lab, Chet.\u00a0QUESTION:\u00a0 What is a goal you have for yourself?\u00a0<\/strong>My goal is to create a collaborative culture where teachers feel excited about becoming their best selves in the classroom.\u00a0 When our collaboration is done, I want teachers to feel valued as professionals and empowered to make positive changes in their teaching.\u00a0\u00a0QUESTION:\u00a0 How will you celebrate yourself when you accomplish it?<\/strong> Professional and personal growth is continuous and energizing.\u00a0 I think celebrating the small steps in the journey is as important as celebrating the arrival at the destination.\u00a0 Sometimes the celebration is more quiet and reflective, other times it\u2019s high fives and dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WORLD LANGUAGES: Julie Montoya<\/strong> started teaching in Bend-LaPine Schools 21 years ago and is currently in her 20th<\/sup>\u00a0year of teaching languages at Summit High School.\u00a0\u00a0Her 30-year high-school-level career has involved an equal blend of teaching English Learners from all over the globe to Spanish at all levels including AP Spanish Language and Culture.\u00a0\u00a0Julie has been involved in district trainings, including S.I.O.P for district teachers and SPARKS presentations for new teachers.\u00a0\u00a0Additionally, she achieved National Board Teaching Certification in 2017 and enjoys helping other teachers along their National Board progress as a reflective peer reader.\u00a0\u00a0As a member of her schools\u2019 Equity committees and advisor of the student Equity and Inclusion Club, Julie also loves working with students, staff and community partners to empower all students to have the best experience possible in our schools. \u00a0Question: What is a goal you have for yourself?<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0One of my goals is to help our district World Language teachers collaborate around a common vision and curriculum for our students.\u00a0\u00a0We have an incredible staff who are passionate about promoting bilingualism and cultural competence.\u00a0\u00a0Our mission now is to articulate our programs clearly so that students will have smooth and successful transitions on their way through language acquisition.\u00a0Question: What\u2019s a sign that you\u2019ve had a true impact on your students?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>My heart is full when I receive an e-mail or surprise visit from a previous student who has continued their language learning beyond high school and has realized that their language abilities opened doors to job opportunities, new friendships in far-off places and deeper appreciation for the diversity of Spanish-speaking communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANGUAGE ARTS: Leah Boon graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with an emphasis in International Education. She was always (and always will be!) interested in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":638,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/638"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}