At 20, Age Is No Barrier for Chehalis Middle School Teacher

Posted

The hardest thing about Josie Peterson’s first year as a teacher isn’t managing 120 students, finding a way around Common Core math or even helping students through the host of issues that accompany the middle school years.

It’s learning to call her co-workers by their first names.

 “It still doesn’t sound right coming out of my mouth,” she said with a laugh. “At first it felt really disrespectful, but I’m getting used to it.”

That’s because Peterson, 20, who started her career as a math teacher at Chehalis Middle School in September, was a student at that same school just six short years ago. Though it is unclear if this makes Peterson the youngest teacher in Chehalis schools, she is certainly among the youngest of the district’s hires. By Washington administrative code, 18 is the youngest age at which someone can become certified to teach in both public and private schools in the state.

“Sometimes it feels weird because I was just learning in these classrooms a few years ago,” Peterson said of teaching at her former middle school. “But overall it’s very cool because I hope I can inspire some of my students.”

For her junior and senior years of high school, Peterson attended the Running Start program at Centralia College full time, taking no classes on the W.F. West High School campus. The plan allowed Peterson to graduate in 2015 with both her high school diploma and an associate’s degree from Centralia College. Peterson said she still attended special activities and sporting events to stay connected with her high school friends, but she really enjoyed the freedom starting college early afforded her.

“I really liked the feel of Centralia College,” Peterson said. “There wasn’t any girl drama and it felt more like I had a voice there.”

Running Start is a federal program that states can opt into that allows qualifying 11th and 12th grade students to attend college level courses while still earning credits toward their high school diploma. Centralia College is one of 34 campuses in the state that offers this program. According to Elizabeth Grant, director of counseling, advising and disability services at Centralia College, there are about 400 students from high schools throughout Lewis County and surrounding areas taking part in Running Start this year. Of those, an estimated 30 percent will graduate with both their associate’s degree and high school diploma and another 80 percent will use their earned credits to transfer into college life, either at Centralia College or elsewhere.

“It gives them a lot of confidence to go into their junior and senior years in college because they already have a couple years of college under their belt,” Grant said.

Peterson said she decided at the age of 18, during her time at Centralia College, that she wanted to become a teacher. 



“I was thinking ‘I love school and I don’t want to stop going to school,’” Peterson said. “So, I thought if I became a teacher I could keep going to school for the rest of my life.”

Choosing math as her specialty was also an easy choice for Peterson since it has been her passion since the third grade. Her mother, Jill Peterson, began working in the Chehalis School District the year Josie started kindergarten, assisting visually impaired students with their school work. Josie Peterson recalled many early mornings coming to W.F. West High School with her mother and visiting with other teachers who would be in the building, some of whom would give her math problems to work on for fun.

“And whenever my mom, my grandma and I would travel, I’d ask my grandma to give me math problems to work on in the car,” Josie Peterson recalled.

After graduation from W.F. West and Centralia College in 2015, Peterson transferred to Washington State University, Vancouver, to complete her bachelor’s degree. She student taught at Kalama Elementary in a third-grade classroom, which she said was enjoyable but enforced for her that she wanted to work with older students. After graduation, Peterson said she thought she might like to apply for jobs in the Vancouver area but ultimately decided to apply in Chehalis because she felt like as a new teacher, she could use the support of friends and family in her hometown

“And it’s been great. Really, beyond my expectations,” she said.

Peterson teaches a total of 120 students in sixth through eighth grades at the Chehalis School District. She said she enjoys having so many students because she feels she gets to have a wider impact on young learners, although some of her more enjoyable classes are the smaller groups of students because she gets to give them more one on one attention. She said her favorite class is her sixth grade math strategies class, which is for those few students who struggle to keep up with grade level math. She said this is her favorite class because she loves helping students develop new ways of working with math problems than can help them succeed.

“I think the kids really bond with a younger teacher because they feel like I understand them,” she said. “I think they really like that I have some updated strategies for dealing with math problems because I just graduated.”

One of the biggest challenges for many teachers and parents has been the recent switch to teaching Common Core math. Peterson said Common Core was not yet in use when she was in public school but that she feels she has adjusted to it well because she has never had to teach math any other way. She said she sees why it has been difficult for some, she sees the value the system brings.

“Our goal is to get the students more engaged and excited about math and learning about math in a new way that will stick with them for the rest of their lives,” she said.