As you walk into her classroom overlooking the library, located just off of the upper rotunda, it almost feels as if you’re entering a new world. The twinkle lights and the vines along the walls take you to a more peaceful place, seemingly far away from the hustle and bustle of Tigard High’s Main Street. Though this is her first year at Tigard, those who attended Twality Middle School may remember teacher Carrie Stock as their seventh grade language arts teacher. Now teaching ninth and eleventh grade English, this is only a chapter of Stock’s teaching experience. Stock started her teaching career in the city of Denver, Colorado many years ago. 

     Even from the beginning, Stock recognized what was important to her. She explains, “My student teaching experience was in a huge middle school, 1,700 kids middle school, and it was a pretty traditional middle school where you have the team teachers with the four different core subjects. I loved it, but the thing that I didn’t love about it was that it was very homogeneous, it was in a super affluent area in Denver. There was not much in the way of diversity and certainly not much in the way of socioeconomic diversity. I was offered a job there, but I turned it down because I wanted to be in a more diverse place.”

     Eventually, this search would lead her to Twality Middle School. Prior to making the move from Colorado to Oregon, her friends in Oregon recommended Tigard-Tualatin School District (TTSD) as her new teaching home. Stock says she loved Twality and was very lucky to have a job there, but always knew she wanted to move to high school. During her years at Twality, she realized Tigard High was where she eventually wanted to be. 

     When asked how her year has gone, Stock said, “I love it! I’ve had a great year. […] My favorite part about being a teacher is obviously the students. When it comes to teaching English I like advanced literature, connecting things to social issues, talking about social justice topics, and tying everything to real life. I love that students every single year are able to think of something I’ve never thought of, and then we’re down that path of talking about something completely different. I find that really exciting. Students in general are just super funny and bring a lot of life every day; they re-energize me.”