Making the connections

A Jolly Roger pirate flag flies in her classroom window. Sometimes the CD player fills the room with music. Every day it’s a given that someone’s going to laugh in Ellen Gillespie’s English class at Rogers High School.

Even during a Shakespeare section, or a lesson in poetry, there’ll be some sort of surprise from one of the school’s newest teachers.

One day she’ll read aloud and slip into a British accent. On another day, she let students ask her questions like they are interviewing her.

“They don’t know what to expect from day to day,” Gillespie said.

Gillespie has emerged as a model teacher, due in part to her notable achievement of becoming a National Board Certified Teacher last week, which means she’s obtained the highest standards possible. About 1 percent of all state teachers have completed the intensive self-study and evaluation that diagnoses a teacher’s strengths and weaknesses.

Candidates are examined on 16 criteria, in a process that some compare to the state bar exam for attorneys. It took two years for Gillespie to work through the process.

In Spokane Public Schools, 11 teachers received that designation this fall. Also landing the honor were two teachers from Cheney School District, seven from Mead School District, and two from Nine Mile Falls.

The certification further convinced Gillespie that she’s on to something with her teaching style.

Gillespie taught for 12 years at Garry Middle School. Last year, she wanted a new challenge and asked about a job at Rogers. Now she teaches freshman and sophomore English.

On one of her first weeks at Rogers, Gillespie received what she calls “tree mail” from Karen MacDonald, the science teacher a floor above. As school Principal Wallace Williams was observing her class, a basket swinging from a rope appeared at the window. Without missing a beat, Gillespie opened the window, removed the prize apple and tugged on the rope to send it back up. Then she took a bite of the apple.

It took just a moment. The students chuckled and went back to their writing lesson.

“I think it’s important a teacher brings a part of their personality into the classroom,” Williams said. “I think kids want to see us as being real people.”

MacDonald said she had heard about Gillespie for some time.

Each year, MacDonald gives her ninth-grade students a survey that asks them who were their favorite teachers in middle school and why.

“She came up a lot as their numero-uno teacher,” MacDonald said. “The kids are real honest of who’s the best.”

The teens know Gillespie cares, MacDonald says.

“Part of being at Rogers is you’re also a social worker,” MacDonald said. “She’s not just into academics. She’s into life. She looks at how she can better these kids’ lives.”

Williams said the connection Gillespie makes with students is obvious just by observing her classroom before and after school. Her room’s rarely empty.

“Kids are excited to be around her and want to learn from her and want to talk to her,” Williams said.

So much of an educator’s work is about forming those connections, he said. That bond helps make the learning come alive. Her personal interests also help her read her students.

Gillespie is such a fan of Star Wars, that her dogs are named Anakin and Amidala, and she knows where to find the new movie trailer on the Internet. Her cat is named Frodo after the Lord of the Rings character.

“She’s told stories about her dogs and used the characteristics of her dogs as writing assignments,” Williams said.

Gillespie grew up in the Chattaroy area and attended Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. While touring Europe on a student exchange program after high school she realized that she wanted to be a teacher.

After graduating from EWU, she landed a job at Garry Middle School.

“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” she said.