A 'union within a union'Stories
and photos by EDDIE WESTERMAN
Eighth-grader Will O'Hearn returns to his alma mater Armin Jahr Elementary School every Wednesday afternoon to grade third-grade papers. He has been at it for years and he does it for free. "Mr. and Mrs. Wisenburg gave me good years so I felt like I should give back," O'Hearn says. O’Hearn is talking about Suzanne and Scott Wisenburg -- a married couple who are in their sixth year of team teaching. O'Hearn was in their Bremerton class when they looped, so he had the benefit of being their student for two years. His dedication to the two is genuine and he still aims to meet their academic bar as they remind him they’ll take him to lunch if his next report card is full of A's and B's. Team teaching is not unusual, but these two peas in a pod take teaming to a different dimension. They share their lives; their 46 students; their building representative position; and their Washington Education Association Political Action Committee board position. "They are like a union within a union," says Simone Boe, WEA's coordinator of political organizing. "They are united in their goal to be fantastic teachers for their kids, and united in their goal to improve members’ connections with their Association and council." How did their paths merge? Neither actually planned on teaching. Both wanted to be counselors. Scott was pursuing that idea by studying for his education degree. He quit student teaching in Bellingham and returned to Western Washington University to study psychology. Suzanne was working toward her outdoor recreation degree. She worked with at-risk youth and the two met in a psychology seminar on perception. "When we discovered we were born on the same day in the same year just 12 hours apart, I had this feeling we'd be together forever," Scott Wisenburg says. The two are planning their 40th birthday party next month. While biking through Europe on $30 a day between the two of them, they were debating whether or not to spring for tickets to visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. They decided to stay within their budget and went to a free tour of a diamond factory instead. "We ended up buying a diamond and getting engaged," Scott says. "It might have been less expensive to pay for the museum admission." A friend told them about how much he loved teaching in Japan. They applied and both got jobs teaching English. During their three-year stint there, they found a country school in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four islands. "We wound up teaching together in a two-room school house that needed two teachers," Scott says. "That's where I figured out I really liked teaching younger kids." They found they worked really well as a team, but they didn't imagine they might pull it off here. When they returned, they biked across the United States then promised each other they would settle somewhere -- at least for a while. Scott went to school to get his master's in teaching while Suzanne supported them as a juvenile rehabilitation counselor at Maple Lane in Centralia. But the travel itch bit again. They headed for the Big Island of Hawaii where Scott taught special education students and Suzanne taught English as a Second Language students.
"Suzanne didn't have a classroom so we shared," Scott says. "We loved it, but the special education paperwork was too much." They returned to Washington again, consciously making a decision to try to settle. One priority was to try to teach in a diverse community. Scott was hired in Bremerton. Suzanne got emergency substitute certification while she attended City University to pursue her own master's degree in teaching. Suzanne eventually was hired to teach in the gifted program in Bremerton which was housed in a school across the street from Armin Jahr. When a third-grade position opened the following year, Suzanne applied and the couple saw the opportunity to team teach again. At first, district administrators were hesitant to have a husband and wife team teach. Many schools in the state have couples who are both staff members, but there was some concern about how it might impact the rest of the third-grade team. The Wisenburgs say their Bremerton Education Association assisted in smoothing things over with the district and their dream became reality. After six years of teaming together the Wisenburgs have maintained open communication and a professional relationship with their colleagues. "Our strength as a team is that Scott is the creative one," Suzanne says. "He always has new ideas and I'm more sequential and concrete so I'll hear about them then organize them. We can disagree, but we very rarely argue." "So far we have never shown up to work with one of us in the back seat," Scott says. "People think that couples can't spend 24 hours a day together, but when you think about family-run businesses, people do it all the time." The students sometimes try to play one Wisenburg off the other.
"If one of us says no, the student might try again with the other," Scott says. "But it doesn't work," Suzanne says. The two are seamless in their teaching. One explains while the other illustrates the explanation on the whiteboard. They check in with one another both out loud and privately. "I'm in Mr. Wisenburg's class, but it's like one big class," student Valentine Reynolds says. "I never had two teachers before. I think it's like high school and I love it," classmate Alexia Snarr says. "I like having a girl teacher and having a boy teacher." "Really, they are both fun," adds Jordan Harris, another student. They cover for one another when the chips are down. Suzanne was just recovering from a nasty cold and Scott did a lot of the talking while she nursed a cup of tea and spoke more quietly while doing a monthly yoga session with the students. What happens when they both have a bad day? "We close the doors between our rooms," Suzanne says. "Seriously, one of the joys of team teaching is that at the end of the day, we both know what kind of day it was. Teaching takes such energy and sometimes it's hard for a spouse who isn't in this setting to be empathetic, but it's great to go home and have someone who understands what kind of day you had, every day." Share
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Reach WEA Editor Linda Woo at lwoo@WashingtonEA.org, via postal mail at WEA, PO Box 9100, Federal Way, WA 98063-9100; phone 253-765-7027 (or toll-free outside Seattle-Tacoma: 800-622-3393 ext. 7027); or fax 253-946-7612. We welcome story ideas, letters to the editor and suggestions for improving WE-Washington Education, or WEA Online.
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