Tammie Schrader talks about the biggest challenge she faces as a teacher.

Bio/Overview: Schrader teaches math and science to middle school students in Cheney, Washington, as well as science methods classes at Eastern Washington University and Gonzaga University. She serves on the Science Assessment Leadership Team for the State and is a Regional Leader with NOAA working on Climate Change among other activities. Schrader also works with the Department of Energy during the summer, where she is learning about how education and real life science work together and the discrepancies. Schrader grew up as the youngest daughter of 12 children. Her dream in life was to become a scientist and when she was out of high school she went to work for a NASA contractor that built Space Shuttles. Schrader worked her way up in the company and after eight years she and her husband decided to start a family. After their two daughters were born, they chose to leave California and move back to Washington State. Schrader went back to school to pursue a degree in Biology. While there she started tutoring high schoolers and fell in love with teaching. Schrader finished her Biology degree and obtained on in Education as well.

Achievements: Schrader is Nationally Board Certified and is a Pacific Northwest Earth Science Teacher of the Year.

Leadership Experience: Schrader serves on her state science committee in order to look at the state assessment and how it aligns with the state and national standards. She works on the committee to look at curriculum and was honored to be able to work on the revision of state standards. She has also worked on designing a class based on STEM in order to feed into the high school program. Schrader has also been asked to sit on an educational panel for integrating technology in the classroom.

Affiliations: National Science Teachers Association; NASA, NBPTS,

Education: After teaching for a year, Schrader enrolled in a PhD program in Leadership and Education, which she is due to finish in 2013. During this time, Schrader endeavored to obtain her national boards in science and did so. She is currently enrolled at Gonzaga University and working on her doctorate in Leadership and Education.

Areas of Interest/Expertise:

• STEM
• Curriculum development
• Federal/state standard alignment

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