Fifth Grade (5B): Ms. Susan Armbruster

Hi, I’m Ms. Armbruster, fifth grade teacher at All Saints School.

I grew up in Bellingham, Washington, moved to Seattle at age 21, and attended and graduated from South Seattle Community College. I moved to Tacoma, got my BA in K-8 Education from Pacific Lutheran University, earned a teaching major in grades 4-12 Earth science, and a grade K-12 minor in English as a Second Language. Since graduating from PLU I have taken an additional 90 credits of science and technology classes at the graduate level from various universities. I was chosen for the Teacher Leadership Program (Bill Gates Teacher Technology Grant) and received computer training as well as software during the summer and school year in 2003. In 2006 I was GLOBE certified in Atmospheric Science.

After getting my teaching degree, I went to work for Franklin Pierce School District. I worked for Franklin Pierce as an 8th grade science/pre-algebra teacher and then as a 5th grade classroom teacher. I moved to All Saints in the fall of 2002 and have taught 5th grade since then.

My passion in life is science. You will see me many nights after school working on grant proposals for neat new things for All Saints (I just received a seismograph for our school and have been awarded GPS’ and ArcView software for our school as well. One of my classroom parents built our school a weather station using diagrams, a rain gauge, and soil and air temperature gauges that I received at a workshop I attended in Alaska). I have involved other teachers in additional science education through the American Meteorological Society (two online classes on weather that four teachers were involved with) and received funding through the Land Surveyors of Washington for six of our teachers to attend an all expenses paid trip to Auburn, New York for GIS and GPS training. I love learning new things, and sharing that knowledge and experience with others.

I teach science to both fifth grade classes and the past few years I have taught a science club after school. I love to travel and have been chosen to attend many science workshops throughout the country that have been sponsored by National Science Foundation, NASA, NOAA, Lunar and Planetary Institute, and others. I am always excited for the school year to start so I can share my newfound wealth of information from these workshops with my students. My students go on many fieldtrips per year. We visit Mt St Helens, Museum of Flight, Tacoma News Tribune, Tacoma Symphony, and we go caving at Ape Cave in the spring. I love teaching at All Saints and really enjoy the great staff, teachers, (too bad Mrs. Drake retired) and principal that we have here.

On a personal note I enjoy family (I have a daughter who’s 19), travel, camping, geology, hiking, and a good challenge. My goals are to write some $100,000.00 grants, study volcanoes in Hawaii, and visit Stonehenge (oh, being rich wouldn’t be bad either). I’ve been very blessed to be a part of this community – and I hope to be here for many years to come.