Although quiet, Leslie Foster’s voice at Woodside Elementary has been mighty.
“She’s a very quiet leader, but she’s led us to a great place,” said Judy Blum-Anderson, Woodside principal.
Foster is retiring from education this month after a career as a teacher and reading specialist who has worked at Woodside for five years.
She and two paraeducators work with small groups of students in improving their reading skills. Some of these students work with Foster for one year, others may take longer, depending on their progress, but Foster enjoys her time spent with each one.
The students she works with may struggle with reading or may just be learning English, and it takes patience and specific techniques to help both sets of students improve.
The rewards can be both great and small.
Sometimes, a student struggles to understand the peculiarities of English, and it can be challenging to work through those problems, but seeing a child break through those difficulties is wonderful, she said.
Before Foster arrived at Woodside, the reading specialist position wasn’t as developed as it has become under Foster’s tenure, Blum-Anderson said.
“Coming to Woodside, she was given the task of taking on our reading program,” Blum-Anderson said. “And she did it.”
On the Washington Assessment of Student Learning taken by fourth-grade students during the 1997-98 school year, 40.3 percent met or exceeded standards on the reading exam. That figure contrasts with the 80.6 percent that met or exceeded standards on the 2003-04 reading exam.
“I attribute it all to her,” Blum-Anderson said.
Although she enjoyed working with students on all subjects as a teacher, Foster said “the big mystery is how can you help a child with their reading.”
Through this interest and passion, Foster decided to become a reading specialist.
She has implemented some successful strategies school-wide while at Woodside, Blum-Anderson said. Each student now has a “book box”, which is a periodical box containing an array of books suitable for that child’s reading level, she said, and students and teachers have responded well to the boxes.
Although she has taught in a number of schools, including public and private, Foster said her time in the Everett School District has been wonderful.
“I’m really impressed with the Everett district,” she said.
Foster said she doesn’t have big plans for her retirement, although she looks forward to having more time on her hands.
She plans on reading a lot, which is no surprise to people who know this life-long learner.
Although she’s spent her career educating others, “there’s things I want to learn,” Foster said.
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