Ebonisha Washington
After working in the Seattle School District as a primary school teacher for 15 years, Assistant Principal Ebonisha Washington (she/her) decided she needed a new challenge: working with high school students. After earning her Certification in Administration at the University of Washington in 2020, she became Inglemoor’s new assistant principal.
“I’ve always been really intimidated by high school kids, and so I figured now was the best time in my career to challenge myself and actually work with older students,” Washington said.
When she’s at work, Washington enjoys watching Netflix, sleeping in and reading historical fiction books.
“ I really enjoy my sleep because I feel like I’m always running during the week,” Washington said.
Her first impressions of Inglemoor have been positive, especially the warm welcome she received from the staff. This year she is looking forward to getting to know her colleagues and students, especially their names.
“I see people every morning and then I’ll be like, ‘Oh, what was your name again?’ but it’s only been two weeks. Really, it is just getting to know people’s names and building relationships with people,” Washington said.
Washington’s favorite moments are when she helps students achieve their goals. Such as, when she helps students raise their GPA. Washington said she finds students’ excitement contagious.
“I think that [when] kids come in here in ninth grade, they’re trying to find out who they are, and somewhere between 10th and 11th grade, they act like little bananas. Then they get it together in 12th grade. That’s amazing!”
Rj Harris
A Dawg through and through, American Sign Language teacher RJ Harris (he/him) received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Washington. Now working on his doctorate in Language Education and Multilingualism at UW, Harris switched from Issaquah High School to Inglemoor. Since he grew up here and his family still lives in the area, he wanted to work closer to home.
Harris’ favorite thing about being a teacher is having long summer breaks where he can let his inner outdoorsman side shine.
“I go camping, hiking and fishing. It’s nice to have no work during the summer,” Harris said.
Outside of work, Harris likes to cook, go to restaurants, listen to music and play video games.
“Right now I’m playing three games called Call Of Duty, Tears of the Kingdom and The Last of Us Part II,” Harris said.
Harris said he became a teacher because he gets bored easily and he thinks teaching is interesting. He likes when students test his knowledge of similar signs in American Sign Language.
“One time someone asked me, ‘Mr. Harris, what’s the difference between ‘apple’ and ‘candy’? But you signed the difference. You understand the difference. Language is subconscious,”he said.
Kelly Gregory
History lover Kelly Gregory (she/her) is starting her second year at Inglemoor as an ASB, Leadership and Social Studies teacher. Before teaching at Inglemoor, Gregory earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and a minor in art from Whitworth University in Spokane. She then taught history at Skyline High School for 12 years. She said Inglemoor is unique among other schools because of its size of 1,479 students.
“Inglemoor is a smaller school than I’m used to, which is great,” Gregory said. “I recognize more students around campus, which I think builds for a great community. When you have a little bit smaller school and people know each other, it’s easier to build those strong relationships and a strong community.”
Gregory said her favorite part of teaching is when students have a lightbulb moment and make connections between what they’re learning. She also loves to see curiosity in students during class discussions.
“I love it when students ask questions without prompting. They really bring a good new depth of conversation to the classroom,” Gregory said.
When she is not teaching, Gregory’s pastimes include baking and going for walks.
“I’m really excited for colder weather so I can start baking,” Gregory said. “I love baking bread, and I love being outside and going for a walk every morning.”
This academic year, Gregory looks forward to getting to know her students and wants them to know they can come to her for help.
“I think what I want them to know the most is that they can talk to me about anything, I am a person just like you and if something’s going on, let me know. We will make it work.”
Annemarie McGoorty
Coming from the Issaquah School District, English teacher Annemarie McGoorty (she/her) said she’s excited for her first year at Inglemoor. Before coming to Inglemoor, McGoorty graduated from Western Washington University in 2014 and taught at Skyline High School for nine years. McGoorty said she came to Inglemoor to be closer to home.
McGoorty said the atmosphere here seems friendly and lively. She said that Inglemoor has a lot of spirit and excitement.
Growing up in a family of teachers, McGoorty initially wanted to teach elementary school.
“In college, I took one class with elementary education, and I decided that I didn’t want to teach kids to sit down, stand in line, raise their hand and all of those things,” McGoorty said.
Instead, McGoorty specialized in English because she enjoys reading and discussing books. Her favorite part about teaching is watching students learn and grow. She also loves seeing students having an ‘aha!’ moment when they learn something.
“That makes me excited,” McGoorty said. “Especially looking at how students are at the beginning of the year, where they’re at, and then looking at their progress by the end of the year.”
Outside of the classroom, McGoorty cooks, gardens, reads and takes care of her four pets. She said she really likes young adult and classical literature and looks for books that are interesting and enjoyable.
In the upcoming year, McGoorty is excited to teach and learn new things. She’s very excited to have a baby, which she said is due in early October!
