Celebrating Sharon Duvall's 18 year Anniversary at Yellow Wood Academy
This week marks Sharon Duvall’s 18th anniversary at Yellow Wood Academy. Sharon is a passionate and dedicated teacher who was instrumental in creating our EF Curriculum. In honor of this anniversary we are featuring Sharon on the blog this week. Learn a little about Sharon Duvall below.
How did you arrive at teaching? What path brought you here?
I always wanted to be a teacher. My Business partner had a daughter being tutored at ETC (the prior name for YWA) and thought I would enjoy working with ADD students.
What subjects do you teach? What is your specialty?
Executive Function and Mathematics (K-PreCalculus)
Where have you worked in the past?
The Boeing Company, Omaha Public Power District, Seattle First National Bank (Mastercard), Seattle Public Schools (substitute teacher)
What are you passionate about personally? What do you really enjoy?
Spending time with my family.
How long have you been teaching? How long at YWA?
I have been teaching since I graduated in 1973. I have been a teacher at YWA since October of 2003.
Where did you grow up and why aren’t you there now?
West Seattle (birth - 1st grade), Bellevue (2nd - college) and Seattle (1973-1980). I got married (husband in USAF) and moved to Bellevue, NE then Spokane, WA (husband retired), moved to Bothell, WA (1984 - present) .
Any volunteer activities you’re crazy about?
Peace Corps 1975-1977 Philippines
Any awards or medals, or special recognitions?
I received lots of awards and recognitions at Boeing (employee of the month, etc.).
What would you want a parent to know about you?
I am passionate about providing a safe and judgement free environment for their children to thrive.
"Sharon, you were instrumental in writing our EF curriculum. How did that come about?
Susan (Small) and I were discussing how I was using my ADD coaching strategies with my children. Chris (Lindblad) happened by and we started to discuss how study skills were a big concern. Susan had been reading about Executive Function, so we began investigating. The three of us went to a conference sponsoring Peg Dawson (leader in the field). From that, we started to develop the course. I would develop material and Susan and Chris would edit it and add to it. We discovered that we needed more teachers to have this knowledge and be able to teach the course, so we developed a training program. After we got up and running, Tim helped us develop a summer class that was general (not specific to a student). I am constantly updating the material with current videos, updated facts, adding strategies and activities, deleting obsolete material, and rearranging sequencing of content. I keep in contact with Susan and Chris.