Judy Burnstin – Career & Technology Education Teacher (CTE)

Job Description: Judy teaches beginning and Advanced Video, Photoshop and Web/Multimedia at Mercer Island High School

Location: Room 301 at Mercer Island High School

Typical Day: Judy starts her day at 7:30 am and spends an hour or so in her office preparing for classes. On non-block days, she teaches all of her classes, beginning with Web Multimedia, Advanced Video and Photoshop before lunch, then 2 beginning video classes in the afternoon.

Best part of the job: “I love working with kids, and since my classes are electives, the students usually want to be here. I set the parameters for the assignments and leave the content up to the students. They are very creative and come up with new and different ideas all of the time. For example, one Photoshop assignment is to design a book cover and have a plot summary. Every single one is different! These are currently on display at the high school library.

Something people may not know: Joel McHale of “Almost Live” and “Community”, and Ethan Sandler, an actor in “Crossing Jordan” were students in Judy’s classes.

Years worked in the district: 21 years

Outside interests: Judy enjoys movies (one of her favorites is “The Sting” with Paul Newman and Robert Redford) and always goes to the Northwest Film Festival. She also enjoys travel and politics. Last summer she traveled with her family on a cruise through Alaska’s Inside Passage. Judy spends a lot time with her own continuing education to stay current in the rapidly changing field of digital media education. “We used to call CTE “Voc Tech”. It has changed a lot over the years. It is still ‘hands-on’, but is very focused on up-dating course content so that student skills match industry standards. In doing so, there is also a more concerted effort to emphasize and incorporate core areas such as writing, math and science into our curriculum.” Courses are career focused by including a lot of skills that can be used by all students.