Year: 2016

Patti Truesdell – Hope School
2016 BP Teacher of Excellence
 

“This year’s nominees were again, an excellent representation of our staff as a whole,” said Sean Dusek, superintendent. “They are humble, hard-working and student-centered. I was particularly impressed with how all of the finalists have gone the extra mile for their students and make sure every student they work with know that they are loved.”

Patti, or “Mrs. T” as the kids call her, is a reading, language arts and history teacher for Kindergarten through 12^th grade at Hope School. She has been a teacher for 13 years, all in Alaska, after a 23-year career in healthcare.

“I believe I was inspired to teach by having had good teachers when I was in public school as a child,” said Patti Truesdell. “I was the kind of child that teachers liked. I was quiet and bookish. My parents divorced when I was in sixth grade, and that was the year we had Mr. Holte. He made sixth grade so much fun! The weird thing I remember is that he had these big, heavy braces on his legs, and he walked really stooped over. He wore those old man pants with the big creases in them. But we did not care about his braces or his pants or his limp. He made every day so much fun. That was the year we wrote plays, directed them, had a class newspaper and I was Dear Patty (that was before I changed the “y” to an “i” to get more personality like Teen Magazine suggested I do). I even remember wearing a potato costume sometime that year! Whatever we suggested, Mr. Holte would laugh and tell us, that was a great idea, let’s do it! He just made everything fun. We never thought of him as old, or crippled—he was our teacher and we loved him. That is the kind of teacher I always wanted to be. Years later, I feel the same way when I am in a classroom. My students do not see me as an old 64 year old teacher who has to take off her glasses to read. I don’t feel old when I am with them, I am just Ms. T. They trust me and know that I love them. School should be a safe place for students—it was for me when I was little and that is what I want for my students. School should be a safe place for students to learn and for teachers to teach. Everyone once in a while, I just marvel at how much fun I have each and every day in a classroom and I think, “Wow! … This teaching is so much fun!” I never saw Mr. Holte again after I left sixth grade, I hope he had a good life and knows what a great teacher I always thought he was.”

Patti is one of only two teachers at Hope School. That means she has to wear a lot of hats. Moment to moment, she has shift, going from how to count in kindergarten to “How to Kill a Mockingbird” in high school.
The community of Hope is fewer than 200 people. So teaching in such a small school brings with it an enormous advantage–Patti is able to devote lots of personal attention to students. And, then, because she is with them year after year for so long, she knows better than anyone what their trouble areas are and what their potential is. She states, “My teaching style is to work with students as individuals and get them actively involved in their own learning. If a student is having trouble in one area, we come up with a plan together to improve it. Then we get it done.”
Patti works to engage parents, and the parents have responded to her approach–which is evidenced by the school’s increase in census where it had been decreasing before she arrived. That’s part of the impact a teacher can have on a small community. And Patti loves teaching at Hope. Even though she lives in Soldotna, she commutes to school, renting a room in Hope during the week.
Here’s one example she gives of the difference between a large school and her beloved little school in Hope: “I have a little girl in sixth grade whom I’ve been teaching since kindergarten. She has always struggled in math and reading. But I’ve known her for a long time now and I knew she had strengths in certain areas. She was gifted in art and could do puzzles better than anyone else in class. We got her some special services help, and continued to work with her every day. When I got her winter benchmark test scores back this year, she was reading at her grade level for the first time. I pulled her outside the classroom and told her. She was so proud! We stepped back into the classroom and told the other students, and they gave her a standing ovation. That is what a small school is like. Everyone cheered for this young lady, and when we’re reading in class, when she has trouble, they help her.”
Under Patricia, students become family. A mother of four adult children and 12 grandchildren, Patricia finds time to take her kids to Anchorage and other communities for additional education experiences, conduct cooking class in the evening, tutor after school, and volunteer for American Lung Association and Tobacco Alliance. She even promotes recovery and prevention programs for addicts.
This is what a former student wrote about Patricia: “Every child who has contact with her comes away feeling loved and valued. She empowers and aides them in making their ideas become reality. Her mentoring and caring helped to change my life.”
Congratulations, Patricia Truesdell, BP Teacher of Excellence.

Links

• KPBSD BP Teachers of Excellence webpage
• http://www.bpteachers.com/