001My name is Cara Cleveland and I teach at Barker Great Community School. I went to Esquire Hills and then I went to Fairview and Olympic High School, graduated and went back to Olympic High School to teach. Ended up at the alt schools and now I'm here at Barker Creek. My kids are fourth generation CK school district grads. So my grandpa also graduated from CK. My parents and their siblings graduated from CK. So, we are proud CK alum and um I'm excited that my kids get to do the same thing and continue the legacy of CK. So, I have all these cousins that live in the county. Um and I always was playing school with them. So, we would sit up at my grandma's house and I would like make math tests and sit the kids
002in rows and do like here's your timed two-minute math test. And I think it just always has been within me to want to teach. Teaching was just something that's that I was born with. I think I graduated from Olympic High School and went to Olympic College and knew I wanted to be a teacher. Um I played softball at OC and then transferred to Central. Got a teaching degree and knew that I just wanted to be back in CK district cuz I still had some of those cousins were still at Olympic High School which was really fun. And they actually got to be my TAs and they were in my class. It was just super fun. So, uh, it was always the goal to be back in the community with my family and it's where everybody
003is. I like to tell people that teenagers are my life's work. You can be sassy and sarcastic, but you also can make just like these huge changes in their life. You can see, especially teenagers at Barker Creek, come in and have no direction and not really know who they want to be or what they want to do someday and then like get it. You spend enough time saying, "What's next? What's next?" and all of a sudden it's like clicking and they're like, "Aha." It's so fun to watch teenagers do that Barker Creek. Um because we work so closely with all of our kids, you get to see that transformation a lot more. I think every year graduation is my favorite time. I just love to stand on the stage and see the kids be so
004excited to get their diploma and see their families so proud of them. It's always the best.