Opening world of possibilities

If you ask Julie Seipp about her long teaching career, she’d rather tell you about her students.

“The story is never about the teacher,” she said.

Seipp is retiring from East Valley High School after 24 years at that school and 27 years of teaching in Washington state.

She teaches English and the Advanced Placement combined class of humanities and European history. That class of sophomores meets for two hours every day during the school year, and they start out by completing summer work after their freshman year. If they complete that, they can attend the class.

The class is one of the reasons Seipp loves teaching in East Valley. She said the administration has been open to new ideas and this class allowed her to teach in a different way.

The students study French history at the beginning of the school year, writing papers about the French Revolution, the two World Wars, fashion, the ballet, the French opera, Napoleon, the Industrial Revolution in Paris and more.

“It’s a class that doesn’t match anybody,” Seipp said.

When visitors come to the classroom, Seipp is obviously excited about the students’ work. The students work in groups and she asks each group to talk about their projects.

Later on in the year, the students write short stories about people their own age in France. Once the stories have been completed, they are combined into a book. It is sent to a bookbinder sold at Auntie’s Bookstore for $9. The school year wraps up the following November, when the class travels to Paris and presents the book to the Cluny Museum.

This November will be Seipp’s 15th trip with a class. She said the members of the class save their own money throughout the school year in order to go. They also hold a garage sale to help with the trip.

Seipp said the technology that has evolved over the years of her career has been an asset to teaching and learning. She imagines a day when there are computers installed in every desk.

She said the students have changed – she has noticed over the last few years that more of her students plan to get married and start families of their own, and they want to stay married. They have more self-worth than ever and are willing to try new things.

Seipp said she decided to become a teacher since most of her family became teachers.

“My aunts, uncles, parents – my grandparents came to this country and produced teachers who have run amok,” she said.

Her mother taught in a one-room schoolhouse, something that baffles Seipp to this day.

“How do you do that?” she asked. She learned that the older children helped with the younger children and some children were at recess while the others were learning.

“It’s a great profession,” she said.

Now that Seipp is retiring, she’s planning a busy schedule for herself. She would like to volunteer with the Lands Council and work with Alzheimer’s patients.

She is planning a trip to France with her husband before she takes her last class there this fall. She is looking forward to a relaxed pace, getting up late, visiting the cafes and seeing the sights she wants to. When she takes the students, she will be herding the them to this place and that, keeping up with a schedule so they can fit everything in to one trip.

On her last day at East Valley, Seipp plans to drive her 1979 MG to the school and park it in the lot. It is a symbol for her of coming full-circle in her career.

She bought the car brand new and remembers driving it to the school on her first day at East Valley.

“(I’m) bookending beautifully,” she said.