Kyrin Gregory is a middle school special education teacher.
By Isaac Donovan, College of Education
Washington State University College of Education alumni, Kyrin Gregory, won the middle school teacher of the year award for the Kennewick School District at their Welcome Back Staff Rally on August 27. Kyrin was recognized for her outstanding work as the special education teacher at Chinook Middle School.
In the award presentation speech, a Kennewick school administrator was cited saying, “Every student that walks into her classroom is seen, known, and valued for exactly who they are. She creates a classroom environment that is safe and free of judgements. She is extremely creative and is always adapting her instruction to meet the needs of her students.”
Kyrin has been a special education teacher with the Kennewick school district for the last six years. She just finished her PhD coursework last spring and is starting her dissertation at WSU.
“I have the most amazing professors at WSU, they are wonderful teachers, and my dissertation committee is epic. They are supportive, available, and always willing to give me encouragement and lead me in good direction,” says Kyrin. “All of that course work has helped me immensely with educating others with autism facts and evidence-based strategies and recent and new theory about special education.”
Kyrin said she shows her dedication and love for what she does by “being a fearless advocator” to do what is right for her students including educating families and co-workers through “critical conversations and purposeful collaboration.”
Another WSU faculty member in the special education program, Yun-Ju Hsiao, speaks on how Kyrin stood out as a student at WSU.
“Kyrin is always eager to learn and enthusiastic to share her experience and knowledge with her fellow students. She always welcomes our students who are pre-service teachers to reach out to her. She also goes above and beyond and offers opportunities for our students to shadow her classroom,” says Hsiao.
WSU takes pride in their special education program in the College of Education and prepares our future teachers to have all the tools needed in their toolkits to support learning in any environment. Faculty members devote their time to their students in assisting them in every step of their learning in pursuit of being the best educators they can be.
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