Tracy Bumgarner -- Advisor; Child Development; Family and Consumer Sciences

Phone: 425-828-3289 extension 579

Tracy's Courses:  [click course numbers to view learning contracts]

 

Life Skills/Transition Course Code OCC010
Independent Living Course Code HEC106
Health Course Code HEA105
Foods Course Code HOM197
Core Course Code COR100

 

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last, wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the STERN Fact, the Sad Self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

For you cannot live in someone else. You cannot find yourself in someone else. You cannot be given a life by someone else. Of all the people you will know in a lifetime, you are the only one you will never leave or lose. - Jo Coudert

I have had the pleasure of working at BEST High School for over six years.  I teach health, child development, independent living, food service and my core class. There is no place I would rather be.  The students are creative and smart and have incredible strength and goodness inside.

Once I was doing an information meeting for prospective students,  a parent asked me what the typical BEST student was like.  One of my current students was sitting in the audience and answered that everyone at BEST is different and everyone each person came here for their own reasons and that is why she loves it here. Everyone is different and those differences are what makes the school amazing.  I immediately got a tear in my eye (I'm not joking). There is no better news than hearing that kids love their school.   I am in awe every time I hear the joys and hardships that have brought students to BEST and I feel fortunate everyday to have these students touch my life in amazing ways. There are so many ways that teachers influence students and I hope that I can be a source of hope and inspiration for kids.

A little about me. Check out the links below;  in a nutshell I am a cougar and have recently graduated of Seattle University with my master's degree.  I love college and I hope I can afford to take classes for the rest of my life.  I have 2 golden retrievers,  two cats and one sister, Brett.  We all live in a little house in Everett with a big yard and a white picket fence.  When I am not in school, I love to travel.  I have been to a lot of places in the US, many European countries and a small portion of Africa.  My favorite place to visit is Ireland; Brett and I feel at home there.  My next trip will hopefully be back to Ireland and then to Thailand.  After that, I would like to get to Israel and Iceland.  I hope to spend the rest of my life experiencing the world and making the world a better place.  I am a hospice volunteer and hope to be remembered for the lives I have touched.

 


My Cabin

My son Fenn

"Nakedness is not only for a piece of clothing; nakedness is lack of human dignity, and also that beautiful virtue of purity, and lack of that respect for each other. "- Mother Teresa

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin." 
... Mother Teresa

To learn more, check out these sites:

http://www.ecoafrika.com/krugerparksafari/feedback.htm

http://keirsey.com/personality/sjif.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/200106170003.html

http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html

http://www.ireland.ie/

 Me

I have sat with friends in Germany talking as though we were sisters even though we spend most of our time continents apart.

I have met Antoinette Sithole in Sueto, the sister of Hector Peterson who lay lifeless after he stood up against apartheid. 

I have been among Orcas and have seen the gentleness of creature on the brink of extinction. 

I have met a Zulu chief who welcomed us to his village and served us homemade beer. 

I swam  in the water beneath a waterfall in the Norwegian Fjords. 

I have traveled by boat to Skelig Rock where monks went to spend their lives worshiping. 

I have spread my mom's ashes at the river and watched her physical being leave while her memories are carved in my heart forever. 

I have experienced the joy of sitting among lion cubs and listening to the healing power of their purrs. 

I have sat with dying patients and listened to stories of their lives and have seen their courage despite physical pain. 

I have met a man in Ireland who taught me about kindness and trust. 

I have sat in the Louvre, thankful my mom taught me to love the arts and travel. 

I have wept at the failures of students as if they were my own and have celebrated their joys as if I have a small part in their success. 

I have loved and lost and found the strength to get up and try again.

I have Raced For the Cure even though the cure will come too late for many of our mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers and friends.

I have experienced the love between friends that can never be broken by miles, continents or time.

I have traveled the world and have learned to appreciate the freedoms I have been blessed with. 

I have read and collected books that have changed my life and fear I will not have enough time on earth to enjoy and savor their every verse again. 

I have been told I am loved by children who do not realize the beauty of their words. 

I have laughed and enjoyed everything with my sister- the strongest most caring person I will ever love.

I have attended students' weddings, baby showers and sadly enough, even funerals. 

And I hope to one day write something as poetic, beautiful and memorable as Jonathan Swift or Edward Abbey or as powerful as The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.

And I hope one day I will have the courage of Captain Paul Watson, to follow my convictions no matter the cost and  I hope I have lived a life worth reading about.

Tracy Bumgarner
   

Education

To think about:

During my second year of nursing school our professor gave us a quiz.  I breezed through the questions until I read the last one:  "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"  Surely this was a joke.  I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name?  I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.  Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our grade.  "Absolutely," the professor said.  "In your careers, you will meet many people.  All are significant.  They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello."  I've never forgotten that lesson.  I also learned her name was Dorothy.  ~Joann C. Jones

In closing,

May we all grow in our capacities as “leaders for a just and humane world.”

-Stephen V. Sundborg, SJ  and President, Seattle University

We have a photo page made up from our "Itty Bitty Day Care".

 

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