If she hadn’t lived in Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall, Shari Conditt probably would’ve been a doctor instead of a teacher.
Instead, watching history unfold inspired the future Woodland High School history and government teacher, who is now a finalist for Washington’s Teacher of the Year Award. Conditt, a 36-year-old mother of two who lives in Battle Ground, is one of nine finalists from around Washington eagerly waiting for state education officials to announce the winner Monday afternoon in Seattle.
Conditt has spent the last 14 years of her career in Woodland, where she’s become a favorite among students and staff at the high school. In seven of the past eight years, graduating seniors have selected her to give the keynote speech at their commencement ceremony.
Growing up with two parents in the Army, Conditt frequently moved around the U.S. and spent many of her formative years in Germany going to what she describes as traditional, textbook-based classes. With her high performance in the classroom, Conditt often found school counselors urging her to pursue a career in law, medicine or engineering, but that began to change when she watched her father leave home to patrol the border between East and West Berlin as the wall came crumbling down in 1989.
“I was really lucky to live in Germany during the tail end of the Cold War, which had a huge impact on who I am and what I do in my own classroom,” she said. “The middle school years are a pretty formidable time in a person’s life, and to be able to have that experience there was amazing.”
For Conditt, the experience not only inspired a passion for history. It informed the teaching style she’s developed over the years, moving her students away from textbooks and closer to primary source material, embracing new technology in the classroom and leading activities that put them in the mindset of the figures they study.
“It really puts the kids in the position of decision makers, and it allows them to understand history better when they’re playing the same role as people who experienced it,” she said. “Anytime we can make history come alive for kids, they’re going to engage on a way different level.”
Conditt turns many of her lessons into competitions, some of which are modeled after popular games, like Settlers of Catan. Each March, she teaches a unit on monumental Supreme Court cases where students form teams and face off in a March Madness-style tournament of debates about the importance of cases.
“You just have to come up with strategies and figure out, ‘OK, if the goal is to engage and to understand this concept, how do we get to that and still make it fun?’ ” Conditt said.
Woodland High School Principal John Shoup nominated Conditt for the award. In his 17 years at the school, Shoup has nominated many teachers, but Conditt is the first to be selected a finalist.
Shoup says he’s been blessed with a strong teaching staff this year, but Conditt was a natural choice for his recommendation. He hired Conditt 14 years ago, and ever since, he’s watched Conditt refine her energetic teaching style.
“When I go out and visit, I find myself getting drawn into the class so quickly, into the way that she delivers the curriculum,” Shoup said. “So, kids gravitate to her class, as do I.”
When Conditt’s former student Kyla Keefer heard she was going to be nominated for the award, Keefer decided she had to write a letter to the state’s selection committee supporting her old teacher.
“She’s just so passionate about it (history) that it’s hard not to get excited with her,” Keefer said. “It’s really contagious.”
So contagious, Keefer said, that taking Conditt’s class inspired her to change her major from pre-med to teaching in her first college semester.
“I had actually never had a history teacher as exciting as Shari before,” Keefer said. “As a junior, I was dead set on becoming a pediatrician coming out of high school, and when I started to take her class, I just fell in love with history.”
Now, Keefer is proud to call Conditt her colleague.
This summer, Shoup hired Keefer to teach history, government and English at Woodland High School, where she continues to learn from Conditt’s example.
