Growing up as an immigrant herself, Daxa Thomas feels she is well-suited to her new role as principal of East Hill Elementary, where a large percentage of the students share a similar background.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing through the whole education system was so tough,\u201d Thomas said this week in her new office at East Hill, adding that getting extra help and basic understanding of the culture and language are among \u201call the little things I teach my kids now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas and her family moved to Burien from a tiny village in India (\u201cIt\u2019s not even on a map!\u201d) when she was 9 years old and Thomas went through the English as a Second Language Classes and credits her teachers with inspiring her as well as helping her along.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a lot of teachers that really pushed me and directed me,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cI consider my job a service and a way to help these kids without a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
After high school, Thomas headed to the University of Washington (\u201cIt\u2019s a great time to be a Dawg!\u201d said said with a laugh) to study medicine, but discovered her true calling while she was working with children as part of an outreach program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s really where my heart was at,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Thomas changed her career path and headed into education.<\/p>\n
After graduating from UW with a masters in technology integration, Thomas taught at Covington Elementary and a few other schools around the district before wanting to move on from a single classroom to working with a whole school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to impact learning on a greater scale,\u201d she said of her choice to go into the administration side of things.<\/p>\n
In 2005, Thomas was named an assistant principal at Mill Creek Middle School and last year was chosen to replace the retiring Dr. Kyle Good as principal at East Hill.<\/p>\n
Thomas said her goal for East Hill is to continue along the path on which Good set the school while being as supportive as possible of her staff and students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to take this on and continue the journey they were on, knowing that Kyle and I are very different people, she said. \u201cMy job here is to support our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas said she is excited the year has finally begun and she is working to create the type of school she would want her own children (she has two preschool-aged youngsters) to attend and often talks about a \u201cvision\u201d for the entire school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like that word, \u2018vision,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like in order to make positive changes we have to have long term goals so we don\u2019t get lost in the day-to-day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I don\u2019t have a vision of where we\u2019re going I can\u2019t lead anybody,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Thomas is also looking to highlight the diversity within both the district and the school with the theme \u201cA Window Into Our World,\u201d which she said will highlight the cultures of the students and staff.<\/p>\n
Thomas said she wants families to \u201csee a part of themselves when they come to this school.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want to reel people into being more involved,\u201d she said, adding that she understands the cultural pressures placed on many families and students.<\/p>\n
Thomas also is hoping to get to know all of the students in the school, especially those who may need additional help or intervention. To do so, instead of just keeping names, she keeps a picture of the student as well, so she and her staff can see exactly who it is they\u2019re discussing.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is here to talk about the child, but not everyone knows who the child is,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like I need to know the kids just as well as the teachers know them.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy goal is to make this the kind of school where kids want to come to everyday to learn … and be inspired,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For more information about East Hill Elementary School, visit http:\/\/www.kent.k12.wa.us\/ksd\/EH\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Growing up as an immigrant herself, Daxa Thomas feels she is well-suited to her new role as principal of East Hill Elementary, where a large percentage of the students share a similar background. \u201cGoing through the whole education system was so tough,\u201d Thomas said this week in her new office at East Hill, adding that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":5117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5116"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}