Tammy Russell: Focused Ray of Light and Energy

Middle School STEM Teacher, Walden School

Tammy Russell is exactly the teacher we all want for our children.  Walden School’s Grade 7-8 STEM Teacher, Tammy is one ball of energy; she focuses on nurturing adolescent development, understands what it takes for middle level students to learn, and loves what she is doing. She’s happiest when she, her students, and her colleagues are outdoors, engaging in real world activities and challenges, integrating curriculum, and learning through a project focus – all of which she manages to do much of the time. She’s in her element and she’s not leaving her post any time soon.

In a society where we see many educators fleeing their profession, we are compelled to explore what keeps our Vermont teachers going. The consequences of not doing so are dire.

Why prompted Tammy to become a teacher?

Becoming a teacher wasn’t always Tammy’s destiny. In fact, she always wanted to be a scientist, and majored in the sciences at the University of Vermont. At first, her summer work was active – collecting water samples around the state and delivering them to their destination for research. But when she realized that her real work such as conducting that research, was to be sedentary, sitting at a desk, doing paperwork, the dream lost its appeal.

What keeps Tammy in rural Vermont, in the profession, and in the classroom?

I’m proud to be a native Vermonter! 

Tammy grew up in the nearby town of Marshfield, Vermont, and attended a K-12 school. Now in her 20th year of teaching, all at the same K-8 Walden School, she seems to wonder why anyone would even question her commitment to stay, or what might be next. She’s passed up opportunities to move to a larger Vermont School, and appreciates that Walden may be something of a little bubble. Her heart is here in this intimate rural school, in spite of the shorter commute and larger income that were offered to her at a larger more urban school.

I drive 18 miles, which takes 30 minutes. It’s a meditative drive, a beautiful drive through Cabot… and I drive a hybrid!

As a proud native Vermonter, with extended family nearby, Tammy sees no reason to change her address. She loves living and working in rural settings which offer greater peace, safely, and sense of community than might exist in more populated areas – and most of all, it lends itself to the outdoor activity, clearly a priority in her life.

Our principal schedules skiing trips to Burke Mountain for skiing, I learned [to ski] in 7th grade at my school. To be able to bring that full circle is exciting. My team mate recently learned how, and now his whole family skis. …I try to connect math and science, try to bring the outdoors into the classroom, hands on, bring it alive, relevant, engaging.

Connections with rural students and their families is satisfying. Tammy tells of one marker of veteran teaching; recently she taught a son of a former student. It was cool, but scary! The respect she felt from her former student – that he still had the confidence in her to work with his son – was both heartwarming and reassuring.

She experiences a clear sense of academic freedom, in that there are standards and a curriculum, but how she weaves the content into pedagogy is very much up to her and her team mates.

Developmental Designs is a key foundation of Tammy’s teaching. The middle level curriculum partner to elementary level’s Responsive Classroom provides a key framework for students to create an environment of community, respect, responsibility, and choice. They begin each day with a daily message, a greeting, and some activity to promote a positive and productive learning environment.

Now we have electives: French cooking, tree identification, a basketball unit, all grounded in some combination of what students want to learn and what I want to teach.

Before our conversation, she and her team were building dams down in the outside classroom. Students had to get through a maze, and in doing so, they built a dam, found fish, and explored other treasures. They work in this outdoor classroom, built with a very much appreciated VREC grant. The VREC grant funded the building of an outdoor bread oven where they bake, (eat!), engage in units of learning, and share family events. Teaching in rural Vermont involves the entire community.

What are the most challenging components of her position now? Limited planning time is one, having limited time to set up labs, little wiggle room around time working directly with students, which is perhaps the flipside of teaching in a small rural school without multiple staff or additional supports. With the aid of a federal grant, her school created a student lounge, a pretty sophisticated, relaxed campus-like break setting for the kids in the foyer of the school, which does allow both teachers and students some time to relax and restore.

Tammy seems to have little interest moving into the administrative realm (remember that scientist sitting at a desk doing paperwork?) She is intrigued by greater opportunities for teacher leadership, teaching courses, developing curriculum, additional mentoring. But she needs to be active, working with kids, and preferably working outdoors… She also loves her summers off! She still works during that break, but with greater flexibility.

For now, Tammy Russell is in her element as a rural Vermont middle level STEM teacher, and we are grateful for that.