{"id":949,"date":"2019-11-19T22:04:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T22:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/?p=949"},"modified":"2025-03-26T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T16:00:15","slug":"finding-strength-through-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/finding-strength-through-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding strength through teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tara<\/a>Pauci-immune necrotizing glomerulonephritis<\/a>: 15 syllables that changed Tara Fox\u2019s, \u201918, life when she was diagnosed with the kidney disease as a sophomore in high school.<\/p>\n

The chronic disease means she\u2019ll need an organ donor eventually, and bi-annual chemotherapy treatments to keep it at bay in the meantime. She said her kidneys have been functioning at about 25% since 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d look at me and never know I was sick,\u201d said Fox, now a teacher in Athena.<\/p>\n

Fox said she struggled with her health through high school, then the disease went into remission. She enrolled at Blue Mountain Community College<\/a> in 2011, determined to earn her associate degree and transfer to EOU\u2019s education program. But Fox\u2019s health took a turn in winter 2013, so she went in for testing and doctors realized her kidneys were failing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kidney disease is a big part of my life,\u201d she said. \u201cI could have easily given up a long time ago, but teaching is something I\u2019ve always wanted to do. In our second grade time capsule, I wrote that I wanted to be a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

So she took a year off from her education in 2013-14 to undergo treatments, and worked in the same elementary school classrooms she\u2019d grown up in since kindergarten.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of my co-workers were past teachers, and they understood my disease,\u201d she said. \u201cBut being an [instructional assistant] isn\u2019t teaching, I didn\u2019t have my own classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2016, she enrolled at EOU as an onsite student at the regional center in Pendleton<\/a>. Fox received three scholarships from the P.E.O. chapter in Milton-Freewater<\/a>, one of which was the largest amount the group had ever awarded.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom went back to college when I was in high school, and she got a scholarship from them, too,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n

She attended some classes online, steadily making progress toward her degree while living at home in Athena and working at the elementary school there.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy disease has made me stronger,\u201d Fox said. \u201cIt\u2019s taught me a lot about life. I deal with it every day, but doesn\u2019t hinder me from doing what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox\u2019s commitment to her goal was tested when it looked like the onsite program in Pendleton might no longer be available, but two EOU instructors from the main campus travelled to the regional center to provide onsite classes for the remainder of the academic year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons I chose EOU was for the onsite program,\u201d Fox said. \u201cIt couldn\u2019t have been more perfect for my needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI could have easily given up a long time ago, but teaching is something I\u2019ve always wanted to do. In our second grade time capsule, I wrote that I wanted to be a teacher.\u201d<\/div>\n

As Fox entered her senior year, two new instructors signed on to teach classes in Pendleton for the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey drove over from La Grande twice a week so we could finish the degree there in Pendleton,\u201d Fox said. \u201cThe two instructors couldn\u2019t have been more amazing. They shared life experience and taught us what we needed to know to do the day-to-day work of being teachers. Their sacrifice and EOU\u2019s commitment to us was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

From starting at Athena as a temporary substitute, Fox recently joined the staff as a full-time teacher. Now, she\u2019s enrolled in EOU\u2019s master\u2019s degree program<\/a> to earn an endorsement for special education. She said her time in a life skills classroom as an instructional assistant got her interested in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most rewarding jobs, and also one of the most difficult,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s so much to celebrate in special education classrooms \u2014 you celebrate every little everyday achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox\u2019s own persistence is on display as she proves herself in everyday tasks against her disease. She said the primary symptoms are exhaustion and fatigue, which she combats with coffee and daily naps. Fox also has to be careful about eating too much salt or protein, and regular medications and doctor appointments keep her kidneys in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still travel, work out, live my life,\u201d Fox said. \u201cEven though it took me twice as long as the average student, I just didn\u2019t quit and kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the lessons she teaches in special education, elementary and high school classes communicate values about the adult world, Fox said. She especially encourages her students to be kind to others and give everyone a chance regardless of their backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s world, the playing field is not always equal,\u201d she said. \u201cI teach in my classroom that we don\u2019t say negative things about anyone else. I really emphasize for my kids to do their best, even if it\u2019s different from the best that the kid next to them could do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skills like making eye contact and saying, \u201cHello,\u201d are a big part of her approach. She urges students to reach out to a classmate they know is lonely or struggling. Her students learn to hold the door for others, and to say, \u201cthank you,\u201d when someone holds it for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to show the kids that what they\u2019re learning in the classroom we\u2019re still struggling with as adults,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pauci-immune necrotizing glomerulonephritis: 15 syllables that changed Tara Fox\u2019s, \u201918, life when she was diagnosed with the kidney disease as a sophomore in high school. The chronic disease means she\u2019ll need an organ donor eventually, and bi-annual chemotherapy treatments to keep it at bay in the meantime. She said her kidneys have been functioning at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":380,"featured_media":950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,46],"tags":[23,41,42,30],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-fall-2019","tag-alumni","tag-education","tag-online","tag-transfer"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2618,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/2618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}