Auburn School District No. 408
915 4th Street Northeast, Auburn, WA  98002

5/23/06

NEWS RELEASE
Auburn School District's Board of Directors
Honors Staff Member Michelle Hupperten

On Monday, May 22, the Auburn School District Board of Directors recognized Michelle Hupperten, TOSA Instructor at Pioneer Elementary School, for her outstanding service to the Auburn School District.

One of Michelle’s favorite pastimes, especially on a summer afternoon, is to lounge in her backyard and read voraciously. Her choice of literature may be a New York Times best seller or perhaps a research book discussing metacognitive strategies. Whatever the topic, Michelle loves to read. Her love of reading reaches beyond the warm days of summer, spilling over into the lives of students at Pioneer Elementary School.

Nine years ago, Michelle was hired as a first grade teacher at Pioneer and then decided to pursue second grade for a few years. In 2002, Pioneer had an opening for a Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) instructor. Essentially, the position would reduce class sizes throughout the building during small-group reading blocks. Michelle considered the opportunity and decided to go for it, as she felt ready for a change. The chance to teach reading to students at all grade levels and to connect to the reading groups despite not being the students’ classroom teacher sounded both different and challenging. “I am very flexible and you have to be in order to do the job I do,” remarks Michelle. “Our school benefits and I benefit because I am flexible to change, and I like variety. My job is constantly morphing.” For instance, Michelle most recently transitioned from teaching reading to grades one through five to only fourth grade. Fourth grade classrooms were overloaded, and Michelle stepped in to alleviate some of the pressure.

Recently Michelle’s fourth graders tackled the WASL. “The students were actually excited to take the WASL. The fear factor wasn’t there this year,” states Michelle. She was a major factor in helping to reduce stress among the students, primarily because of her experience one year scoring the WASL reading test as part of a teacher opportunity created by OSPI. She used her experience and new knowledge to guide her students’ preparation for the reading test. The opportunity provided her information to share with the students about how to specifically understand the questions being asked, techniques on how to answer correctly, and how judges, like herself, score answers. She also used practice tests and provided her students opportunities to practice their test-taking strategies until they became comfortable with the format.

Michelle also commits herself to advancing the reading comprehension of students district-wide. Monthly she presents the latest “best practices” on reading strategies to Pioneer staff. She has also presented to staff at Hazelwood Elementary and Terminal Park Elementary. While Michelle never dreamed of presenting her teaching strategies to others, she has grown to enjoy the collaboration with her colleagues. “Presenting successful strategies to other teachers for their classroom use is one of my proudest professional development accomplishments by far,” states Michelle.

Another proud role Michelle plays is as a member of Pioneer’s Bully Prevention Committee. The committee educates students, staff and parents on what bullying is and how to handle it. The committee performs skits to model problem-solving techniques to students who may experience bullying. Skits are performed at school-wide assemblies, parents’ open house and during teacher meetings. Michelle knows firsthand that students are receiving and processing these messages. One student approached Michelle about two of his friends who were bullying him into deciding which of the two he wanted to be friends with more. Michelle was able to guide the student to a safe solution by helping him problem solve.

And there’s more. Michelle participates in Pioneer’s SIP Committee and in the District’s In-service Advisory Committee and Reading Adoption Committee.

At the end of the day, Michelle truly believes that school needs to be a safe place, a refuge if you will, for children. “My reading groups are a good place because students receive more individualized attention. They experience positive adult interaction at school, which helps build their confidence levels dramatically,” says Michelle. “My students deserve the same level of respect and support I receive from my peers.”

And so while you may have heard the saying, Don’t judge a book by its cover, in Michelle’s case it’s the converse. With Michelle what you see is what you get: relational, knowledgeable, passionate, flexible…and the list runs on.

For more information, contact Superintendent Linda Cowan,  at (253) 931-4914.