Warden teacher receives regional award
North Central Educational Service District Regional Teacher of the Year award winner Ruth Lucero sits atop her stool at the front of her Warden High School classroom after school on Sept. 11. Photo by Matthew Weaver/Columbia Basin Herald.
Lucero always looking to improve work
WARDEN - Ruth Lucero has been teaching ever since she was a little kid.
"I would teach children in my neighborhood, went through high school teaching kids' clubs and classes in church, ladies' classes, but when my son was in private Christian school, they needed a Spanish teacher and they asked me to run their video program," she recalled.
So Lucero took over the video program, but realized it was "very, very boring" to learn Spanish from a TV screen. So she watched the videos at home and went back to school to teach the class.
"When I had done that for a while, I realized I just really, really loved high school kids," she said. "I love the relationships you can build, I love the strength of the communication with kids, the influence, the reciprocal - they teach me a lot even as I attempt to teach them. They're just very inspiring."
She had always envisioned herself as an elementary school teacher, but she loved teaching high school so much, she went to college, taking her first two years at Big Bend Community College and then carpooling every day to Central Washington University for two years, then going on to get her master's degree and she is now working to obtain her national board certification.
"I had never been to college, I didn't start school at college until my youngest child was in first grade," she said.
Lucero is in her 15th year of teaching at Warden High School, where she teaches English as a Second Language and Spanish.
A Moses Lake resident, she commutes via Grant Transit Authority bus. It's a lot cheaper, she says, and teachers tend to sometimes work too long without ever finishing anything.
"The consistency, 'The bus comes, it's time to get on,' is helpful," she said.
Lucero moved to the Columbia Basin 22 years ago when she and husband John moved into the area for John's job with Sears. He now works as a loan officer for a Moses Lake bank.
Lucero received the Regional Teacher of the Year award for 2008 from the North Central Educational Service District.
Nine educational service districts participate in the state Teacher of the Year program by selecting one winner from the school district nominees in their area to serve as regional teacher of the year.
Each regional winner completes the state application and then competes with eight other winners for State Teacher of the Year, who then goes on to represent Washington in the National Teacher of the Year program.
The announcement for State Teacher of the Year is made Oct. 19 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Lucero said.
Lucero said she was surprised and excited to receive the award.
"There's lots of really neat people here in Warden, and it's just kind of incomprehensible they would honor me with the request to go through with this application," she said.
But the award forces Lucero to analyze her work each day to see if she is teaching to the level of the title, she said, or if she should be doing better than she is.
"When you're given a title you're kind of surprised at receiving, then you walk into the classroom every day and wonder, 'Am I worthy of the title and am I working toward a worthy goal of making that title worth its significance?'" she said. "It's definitely never a completed progress. It's always a process that goes on forever."
Lucero's goal is never to repeat the previous year or be satisfied with what she has done, but instead achieve a higher level, reaching her students in a more effective way next year.
"I think that will go on for the rest of my teaching career; when it doesn't I need to quit," she said. "When I don't reanalyze and look for a way to do something better than I did the previous time I need to go find something else to do, because I think we can all improve, always."
Lucero stresses that teaching is a community job, and the teachers in Warden work together to benefit their students. Even though she received the award, she says, it is certainly a joint effort.
"In truth, Warden has the wonderful blessing of being a small community, a small school where teachers just work together to help each other out," she said. "I think that's one of the greatest privileges of being here. I also think the students here in Warden are a great joy to teach. I can't imagine doing anything else but teaching. I love walking the halls, greeting the kids and I love watching their faces while they're learning. I love spurring them on to higher goals and encouraging them and hearing stories of their life."
Praise from people who know
In its announcement, the North Central Education Service District shared words of praise for Ruth Lucero.
A student: "I consider Mrs. Lucero to be more than just the person who helped me learn to roll my 'R's and taught me two books worth of Spanish vocabulary and grammar. Somewhere in the past two years she has become my mentor, role model and I would even go as far as to say a kind of friend. She holds the teaching of the importance of things like punctuality, responsibility and respect at a higher priority than simply teaching of the Spanish language. Don't misunderstand me, we've learned a whole lot of Spanish and personally I've learned more than I ever thought I would want to learn. But it has always been more than just Spanish. My teacher, Mrs. Lucero, cares about each student she comes across, and you come out of her class learning new things about life and about yourself along with the Spanish. Her door is always open to any who seek help, advice or even just someone to talk to."
Warden High School Principal Leonard Lusk: "Mrs. Lucero has had 100 percent attendance in her parent/teacher conferences for the last three years. She has earned the trust of the Hispanic/Latino community as an advisor and translator when decisions need to be made in the community and school and she is a teacher of teachers on English as a Second Language issues and strategies. Mrs. Lucero has also provided cultural experiences and chaperoned students on trips to Spain. She writes most of her own curricula for her bilingual classes."
A colleague: "Ruth exudes excellence. She is never less than her very best - and it is all for the goal of helping students. Anything that Ruth can do to help students, she does. She is available to tutor early mornings, is aware of their individual circumstances and endeavors to be a part of their lives - not just their teacher. Ruth cares about each and every person she comes in contact with in her classroom, school and community. It is evident in her attentiveness and ability to learn carefully and offer gentle advice or a stern lecture when needed."
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