December 2024

Each month this year, we will feature a staff member who embodies our 2024-25 district theme, Joy of Learning! Megan Nilsson-Doster is a Multilingual Learner Teacher at Lydia Hawk Elementary School. She brings joy to her classroom through engaging, meaningful, and relevant instruction. Students are always eager to attend her class, because she creates an exciting and interactive learning environment through hands-on activities, storytelling, and visual aids. Learn more about Megan!  

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

My partner teacher, Sally Brownfield, and I serve students in small groups and in their classrooms. We focus on the four domains of learning language: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing, using the WIDA standards. [WIDA standards support multilingual learners]. It is my 20th year of teaching, and my sixth year of teaching at Lydia Hawk. 

What do you like best about your job?

There are three aspects of teaching that I enjoy most. First, I enjoy teaching writing at all grades from kindergarten to 5th grade. Writing and sharing your thinking through this permanent act of getting one’s ideas down on paper is truly magical. Next, I enjoy learning about the students that I serve, and valuing their amazing cultures, stories, and strengths that they each bring. Finally, Lydia Hawk is a very special place to work because the teachers and staff at this school are so skilled, talented, and caring; the “heart” that this school brings is unmatched. The staff at Lydia Hawk embody the motto, “Learning For All, Whatever It Takes.” Plus, studies show that employee happiness is based on enjoying the people that you work with, and Lydia Hawk’s staff are unlike any others.  I wake up each day happy, and go to sleep grateful every night, that I get to work with some of the most brilliant and dedicated people in the world. 

What does the Joy of Learning mean to you?

To me, the Joy of Learning means creating learning experiences that support students to achieve a high level of rigor by getting excited and discovering alongside the students, both the content of what they are learning (Did you know that an apple blossom becomes part of the bottom of an apple and that it is called the Callax?), and the learning process itself. 

I especially see the joy in learning when students co-create and make meaning with each other.  There is so much joy in the writing process, whether it be informational, opinion, procedural, or narrative. Hearing our students’ voices shine through in their writing (which encompasses their culture, strengths, values, knowledge, and interests) is so fun; what could be more joyful?

Recently named University of Washington Head Baseball Coach, Eddie Smith, is no stranger to wearing purple. Smith graduated from North Thurston High School, where his senior year, he and his teammates brought home the state championship trophy after an undefeated 2002 baseball season. Now, Smith’s coaching career has brought him back home to the Pacific Northwest, where his journey began.

“My experience in North Thurston Public Schools was everything,” said Smith. “I spent 13 years in North Thurston Public Schools, both of my parents worked in the school system, and in fact, my freshman year, both of my parents were teaching at North Thurston High School.”

Smith’s love for athletics began early in his life. As an elementary student, Smith’s father coached basketball and was the athletic director at NTHS.

“On days where there would be four high school basketball games, I would take a different bus and have it drop me off at the high school,” Smith recalled. “I would get there as soon as I could to watch all of those games. For a while there, I didn’t really know the difference between the North Thurston Rams and the Chicago Bulls.”

As a North Thurston Ram, Smith played football, basketball, golf, and of course, baseball. He attributes much of who he is today to his experience in athletics programs at North Thurston. “It created memories, it created friendship, it created teamwork, it created accountability,” said Smith. “I think there’s no better place to start understanding what it means to be counted on and have others depending on you than high school sports.”

After sweeping the state baseball championship and walking across the stage at North Thurston High School, Smith initially went on to play baseball at Centralia College, where he is now a member of the school’s athletic hall of fame. After two years, he transferred to the University of Notre Dame, where he continued to play baseball, and graduated with a 3.8 GPA.

And while Smith really liked playing baseball, he quickly learned that he loved coaching baseball.

“My first time getting to coach, I was 20 years old after my sophomore year of college, and I got to coach the North Thurston Summer League Baseball team,” Smith said. “That summer really made clear to me that I loved it, and I had so much fun with those guys.”

On high school sports in general, “I think that you get out of it what you put into it, and if you put in hard work and togetherness and some resiliency, you’re going to get a great experience out of it,” Smith said. “From my perspective, [high school sports] are the pinnacle of an athletic experience for so many people because of the lessons that you learn along the way. I think that’s an important perspective to keep.”

Read more about Coach Eddie Smith at the University of Washington website.

Read the Thurston Talk article featuring Eddie Smith.