Heart of a teacher: Gaynor Edwards found her calling and touched lives

MOSES LAKE — Education, like many professions, is often considered a calling. For Moses Lake High School instructor Gaynor Edwards, it was a call she didn’t expect to hear. But she heard it, and many students in the Moses Lake area have been enriched by her teaching talents.

Edwards’ teaching style grew from her own learning process, a process that began on a little ranch in Kittitas County.

She was born in 1945 and grew up near Ellensburg. With both parents working, Edwards was asked to take care of tasks around the ranch at an early age. She recalled reading notes from her father on what needed to be done that day.

“I was 5 when we moved to that ranch,” Edwards said. “On a ranch, children have chores from day one. They must have gone back to work the spring I was 10, because at 10 years old I cooked my first meals for thrashing crews.”

From training sheep and riding horses to learning to sew, Edwards was taking care of things from an early age.

She married Roger Edwards in 1967, and the two moved to Moscow, Idaho. A few years later, they moved to Royal City.

“Roger worked at a feedlot, and I did seamstress work,” Edwards said. “I’ve always done seamstress work.”

From Royal City, the Edwardses made their way to Moses Lake, finally settling in the Mae Valley area where she, her husband and their two young daughters Stacey and Kelly built their home. Although they hired people to build the structure, she said, the family did most of the rest.

Edwards and her husband trained numerous dogs for competition, as companions and for rescues.

From teaching animals on their ranch, Edwards moved into teaching students, a move she never expected, or regretted. Growing up, Edwards said she struggled as a student.

“I didn’t know how to read,” Edwards said. “When I met my husband, Roger, I learned how to read. I was not dumb, but I didn’t know how to read.”

Edwards said she realized she’s probably dyslexic, learning to cope with it at a young age in order to save face.

“Now, it’s kind of a blessing,” Edwards said. “You don’t think like other people. You think out of the box when you have to be creative, and I did that early on.”

After learning to read from her husband, who happily stayed up at night to help, Edwards got her first entrance into education working at the Warden Hutterian Brethren School, furthering her own education in the process.

As her confidence grew, at age 46 in 1991, Edwards made the decision to go back to school, enrolling as a freshman at Big Bend Community College. It became clear that she didn’t choose teaching, it chose her.

“I realized that my forte had been teaching, whether it had been how to train dogs or riding lessons,” she said.

Edwards helped successfully petition, with a few of her classmates, for Heritage College, now Heritage University, to bring programs to Moses Lake. She said there are a lot of people in the teaching world today who are graduates of the program.

After completing her education, Edwards worked at Jubilee Youth Ranch, a private school in Prescott, before moving to a school in the Marlin Hutterite Community in 1997. She would teach there for 14 years.

“The Hutterites are based on family and God, and being a guest in their community as a teacher, I saw the diversity and what they would go through when they came to town, what people thought of them, and what really was true about their family, their religion and their work ethic,” Edwards said.

Given her own education, Edwards said, she was able to better identify different learning styles and adapt to them. Art has always been key in beginning any lesson.

In the classroom, Edwards said she still feels the sting of being the kid in class dreading the teacher calling her name to read.

“When I teach and I see a student having a hard time, it’s easy for me to get in their world and find out things,” Edwards said. “Sometimes it’s through their artwork, or their doodles they’ve done on their page, that I can initiate a conversation from.”

Through connecting with their artwork, Edwards said, she can better understand her students and begin to teach, whether it be math, history, drama or science.

Edwards’ ability to connect with her students, and commitment to helping the Hutterite students graduate even with their tradition of finishing school at 15, landed her the award for Teacher of the Year for private schools in Washington in 2008.

With both her mother’s and her husband’s health worsening, Edwards made the decision to return to teaching closer to home in Moses Lake, working as a part-time substitute for a year. In 2013, Edwards started a job with the Lind-Ritzville school district as a special education and skills center teacher.

In early 2015, after 48 years together, Roger Edwards passed away.

Edwards returned to education as a paraeducator with Moses Lake High School, a position she still holds today. It’s the connections with students that have kept her coming back each year.

“Most of it is finding out who these kids really are and being able to speak to them about something in their life and understand, not always give advice, but really listen,” Edwards said.

Time spent helping students, especially those going through a tough time, has earned her appreciation.

“When I walk down the hall, I get lots of nods, a few hugs, and wedding invitations from students I help,” Edwards said.

As an educator, Edwards said she’s just there to serve, and she loves every minute of it.

“At nearly 75, you bet I’m going back this fall,” Edwards said.