Bruce Harrington – Sixth Grade Language Arts/Social Studies Teacher

Location: Islander Middle School

How he sees his job: Before becoming a teacher in 2002, Bruce fulfilled a ten-year calling as a pastor. Teaching, he says, is a similar calling. “Teaching has a different book, a different bell, and a different building, but it’s the same job. It’s helping people discover themselves.” He encourages his sixth-graders to “do things in life you’ve never done before. Find your passion. Read a book from a different genre, take a class in something you’ve always wanted to learn – a musical instrument, a language, try skydiving. Challenge yourself! You have a whole life ahead of you — don’t put yourself in a box.” He offers himself as an example. “I NEVER would have predicted I’d end up teaching sixth grade! I wanted to be Indiana Jones! My hardest years in school were during junior high. But those experiences help me relate to my students and the issues they struggle with.”

Typical day: Bruce arises at 5:00 a.m. and walks his dog Jezebel, a ‘pound puppy’ of unknown lineage, for 45 minutes. He arrives at IMS at 7:00 a.m., allowing over an hour to finish planning the day ahead, snag a place at the copier before a line forms, and check in with his sixth grade teaching team. At 8:20 a.m. the bell rings and his classroom floods with energetic sixth-graders, bearing news items gleaned from CNN and the like. “I want my kids to be aware of social studies in the news,” Bruce explains. “They are constantly rushing up to me with articles about such topics as Stonehenge or some newly discovered Egyptian mummies.” Bruce teaches two LA/SS block periods. His final period of the day is a prep-period, when he confers again with his sixth grade teaching team, discussing things like student issues, curriculum, and field trips.

Best part of the job: “Seeing students’ pride after they’ve done something they didn’t think they could do,” says Bruce. For example, his sixth-grade language arts culminating project is a 16 page story which students write and illustrate and bind into an actual ‘book.’ The content may be any genre they choose – fiction, non-fiction, or fantasy. “In the beginning of the year,” says Bruce, “getting a sixth-grader to write a full paragraph is like pulling teeth. By June, they will have illustrated and ‘authored’ their own book, something of which they are extremely proud.”

Something people may not know: Bruce grew up in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. As a young boy during the 1976 Bicentennial, he participated in many state celebrations. “My dad was a reenactor. He played an American Revolutionary Minuteman, adopting the persona of an ancestor who actually fought in the Revolutionary war. I was a flag bearer in the parades.” Bruce was a member of the color guard that greeted Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Boston. Bruce graduated from Andover Newton Theological School in Massachusetts, and received his grad degree in education from Worcester State (College) University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Years in district: Bruce is in his seventh year with MISD.

Outside interests: Bruce lives in Seattle near Garfield High School. He plays the piano and enjoys gardening. “People think I’m crazy, but I LOVE yard work! I could mow the lawn seven days a week.” Bruce also has an interest in genealogy and is researching a complete family history for the benefit of his niece and nephew, tracing his family lines from the present all the way to the court of Queen Elizabeth I.