GLENWOOD SPRINGS - Glenwood Springs native Taryn Gillespie is honored as one of the 9News 9Teachers Who Care.

A teacher at Monarch High School near Boulder, she'll receive a check for $900 and will be featured by 9News during its Dec. 13 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. television newscasts. The story will appear again the following Saturday during the 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. newscasts.

"She pretty much just goes above and beyond just because," said Kayleen, a Monarch High School student. "I remember a specific day my freshman year I was kind of struggling in her class. I had a lot of test corrections to do and she stayed with me until five or six at night. It really made me thankful that she was my teacher. I know a lot of the teachers here at Monarch would not be as willing to do that as she was - no questions asked."

Kayla, another student at Boulder's Monarch High, said, "She found ways to communicate with me because she knows me. ... She thinks of others before herself."

Kayla agreed to be Gillespie's student aid for the remaining three years of her high school career.

"She told me how much she wanted me for the rest of my high school life. ... We just have a great time together," she said. "It's like hanging out with a friend."

Jordan, another student, knows Gillespie through the school's LINKS program - a program where upperclassmen help incoming freshman adjust to high school life. Gillespie, 26, is one of the coordinators of the program at Monarch. Despite the sometimes early and long hours the program demands, Jordan said, Taryn is incredibly organized and is always fun to be around.

"She's always making sure she's energetic and full of crazy amounts of energy to get us pumped up," she said. "I think it's because she just has such a good relationship with every kid that she meets. I feel like she can connect a lot better on a different level than most teachers can with their students. ... She's almost like a kid already."

Nancy Newton, a teacher, said she hired Gillespie when she was working as chairwoman of the Language Arts Department.

"What most impresses me?" she said. "She really is the kind of person that will go to extreme lengths to help people. Most of the time that's her students."

But Gillespie also goes out of her way for colleagues and the entire school, Newton said. Newton has seen in 30 years of teaching that sometimes awards like this one can cause some division or jealousy, but in Gillespie's case, Newton said, "Everyone is applauding her. Nobody thinks she didn't deserve it or that they didn't deserve it more. ... In terms of a human being, she's extraordinary."

Newton described a time when Gillespie - in addition to her own busy schedule - graded another teacher's papers because the teacher was about to go on a maternity leave.

Newton said at first she told Gillespie to take it easy or she'd burn out because Gillespie was volunteering for everything. But Gillespie sort of took offense in a sweet way and said not to tell her what would burn her out.

Besides her regular workload and the LINKS program, Gillespie also takes summer classes, is on an equity committee, runs the Junior Senate, works on curriculum for the freshman seminar and is on a literacy team with others who make efforts to get grant money for books and technology. Plus she enjoys going to pretty much every single event at the school.

Mike Garlan, another teacher at Monarch, said, "I've been teaching for 30 years. I'm in a lot of teachers' classrooms, and she's exceptional. ... She really connects with kids. She's got a really broad knowledge of literature and poetry. She's willing to try and experiment with different teaching and learning techniques. She's amazing at individualizing assignments and supporting kids with individual things. I've never seen anybody as patient with kids as she is."

"She's like this little dynamo," Garlan said. "She never stops doing. It's amazing. I don't know how she finds the time to do it all. ... She has an incredible amount of energy, and kids respond to that."

Gillespie graduated from Glenwood Springs High School in 1999 and went on to graduate from the University of Colorado at Boulder. It's her fourth year at Monarch High School, where she teaches classes in language arts. She always wanted to be a teacher. She had family in education and was inspired by good teachers she had growing up.

"I just was born to be one," she said. "I always wanted to help kids that struggled or kind of be one of the teachers who inspired me."

She said she's able to find the energy and really care probably because she's so passionate about teaching, which is just intrinsic for her. Her parents' high expectations helped instill the ethic, she said.

"We just get such a short time, and I want to do as much as I can in the time I have," she said.

She said she was humbled to receive the honor.

"I think it's great because she cares a lot for the kids, and obviously it must show," said Don Gillespie, her father.

Contact Pete Fowler: 384-9121pfowler@postindependent.com



Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO