Kendra Richards is one of the new English teachers this school year at Central Kitsap High School. However, she didn’t always want to go into the teaching field, instead wanting to pursue a career within psychology.

“I was really interested in child psychology, abnormal child psychology specifically,” Richards said.

Richards earned her undergraduate degree in psychology at a community college in Utah, where much of her family lives, and ended up attending the University of Utah, where she completed her master’s online.

“[I needed to] get some hands-on experience of being in a field,” Richards said. 

Before Richards became an English teacher, she began teaching as a paraeducator in the special education department at CKHS in 2021 and carried on that passion for serving students with exceptional needs. 

“Before I entertained the idea of a master’s or a doctorate — I just started looking, just kind of wanted to get my toes wet — and they had a paraeducator opening over in our district,” Richards said.

Through her experiences as a paraeducator, Richards believes that it gave her greater understanding and appreciation of the work that her colleagues performed on a daily basis.

“I fell in love with education, and at that point, it just felt like, probably the first thing I’d ever done that I was good at,” Richards said. 

After her time working with kids in the special education classrooms, Richards felt that she wanted a classroom of her own. 

“I want to be in a classroom,” Richards said. “So, I looked at what I wanted to do within the world of education. Teaching just kind of felt like the natural next step.”

Today, Richards is now working with some of the same teachers she knew when she was a student at Central Kitsap High School.

“I actually graduated from CK High School — it’s kind of trippy to be back working with some of the teachers that taught here when I went here — I was born in Utah, but I only lived there a year or two,” Richards said. “So, I grew up here in Kitsap County, which is kind of fun to be back, like, paying back into the same community that kind of shaped me.”

Richards’ experience in high school helped shape her perspective of reading and books in general, which further inspires her style of educating. 

“AP Literature is actually probably the first time that I really connected with books beyond just, like, reading — like deeper meaning, kind of that analytical piece,” Richards said. “I remember reading Wuthering Heights for the first time and thinking it was really dumb. Then I got into class, and we started to kind of pull it apart, and we had discussions about it, and it really changed it for me, and I loved it — but I think the experience that I had, being able to analyze it and discuss it, just changed it for me.”

Richards aims to be the teacher that she had for someone else, hoping to open her student’s eyes to the world of reading. 

“It’s awesome working with her,” paraeducator Sara Smith said. “She’s very inviting in her classroom. She includes me in everything that she does. She’s really sweet, and it’s just easy to get to work with her. Her teaching style is fun. I honestly wish I had an English teacher like her when I was in high school.”

Richards has a unique perspective in Central Kitsap High School that comes from attending as a student, working as a paraeducator, and now teaching in her own classroom.

“I think we sometimes in education get lost in trying to teach skills, and at the end of the day, I think we have to also consider that we need to teach kids to love things, right?” Richards said. “I want kids to come out of my class with skills in analyzing or skills in writing, but I think if there was one thing I could pick for them to leave my room with, it would be a greater love or even an appreciation of reading and writing. Sometimes that just looks like finding a genre of book that you actually enjoy. The best thing for me is when you listen to a kid that’s like, ‘I hate reading. I don’t like reading, but I don’t hate this book’.”

Richards wants to make her classroom not only welcoming to her students but also wants them to leave with a new understanding of reading and literature.

“If you leave high school and you can dissect sentences, that’s awesome,” Richards said. “But if you know how to write about something that you’re passionate about in a way that maybe changes people’s point of view, that may be something that you actually take with you into adulthood.”

There is a lot going on in Richards’ day-to-day schedule. While going to work every day, she plans lessons, grades papers, attends staff meetings, and also takes care of her son at home.

“So I have a toddler at home,” Richards said. “I work full time. My husband works full time, and so it’s, I mean, it’s often a bit of a circus. Think every day is kind of like its own unique thing. But I try to utilize my mornings. I’m usually up early and try to get here early. To maintain a good balance between work and home you don’t want to miss out on being present when you get home. I’m not a morning person, but it allows me to, oftentimes, be home when my kids get off the bus and be present with my family in the evening.”

Richards’ advice for those in the education field is emphasizing connection with your coworkers and helping them out when they need a hand.

“It’s cliché, but it takes a village, and you got to ask for help,” Richards said. “I think sometimes it’s easy to feel like we need to kind of just sit in our corner and do everything on our own and not ask for help — I think that’s probably what’s been like the greatest help to me this year is just being open and honest about where I need help and where I need support, and taking time to also get involved. Sign up to volunteer for things and come to different meetings, or, get involved in different staff things and make connections.”

Even with her busy schedule, Richards always makes time for both her home and her classroom, with students openly sharing their appreciating for her.

“I love her teaching style because she’s just really nice, and the workload isn’t like a lot; you only really get homework if you didn’t finish stuff in class,” Haley Paulson said. “The work in general is always fun. She tries to make sure that we’re all creative with what we’re doing, like goals that we strictly have to follow.”

Richards is not only well regarded among students, but also staff.

“I would like to tell her, thank you,” Smith said. “It’s my first year being a para[educator] in the high school. She made it really easy to transition working with the staff here, but working with her has just been fun.”