‘Special and moving’
The Warden School District's administrative office last May. Jessica Galster, an Ephrata native who teaches first grade in Warden, said she loves her job so much that "it still feels surreal" she gets to go to work as a teacher.
Charles H. Featherstone
WARDEN — Jessica Galster still can’t believe she’s a teacher sometimes. Even though she’s been teaching first grade at Warden Elementary School for five years.
“It is truly the most fulfilling job in the world. I drive to and from school every day thinking, ‘this is my job? Really? I get to do this with the coolest kids ever?” Galster said. “It still feels surreal.”
A Central Washington University graduate who grew up in Ephrata, Galster — like a lot of teachers — describes teaching first grade as the best job in the world, one she feels called to because she was influenced by teachers when she was in school.
“I wanted to become a teacher to help teach and advocate for students,” she said. “I want them to leave my room remembering how amazing and special they all are. … I am here to give the Warden students exactly the same — an advocate who will believe in them, love them and root for them for the rest of their lives.”
“Also, hearing them sing the songs that I teach them is the cutest thing ever,” Galster added.
One of the greatest gifts Galster said she receives as a first-grade teacher is the opportunity to watch her students grow and change, noting that she’s been teaching at Warden Elementary School for long enough now that her first group of first graders are now in fifth grade.
“It is fun to see them come by and say hello,” she said.
Galster said she came to Warden because she wanted to stay in the Columbia Basin, but once she interviewed with the Warden School District, she found herself hooked by the town’s charm.
“I love Central Washington,” she said. “I went to this district for a teaching job and have gotten so much more than that. I have found a second family.”
In fact, Galster said, that second family proved itself by the way people in Warden looked after and took care of each other during the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns.
“This little community’s capacity to love and care for each other is nothing short of a miracle. Everyone here is quick to help and spread love and hope in the darkest of times. I know it is the human thing to do, but the amount of love and hope given here is something special and moving,” she said.