The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG – When The Times arrived to interview Waitsburg's new social studies teacher, Matt Elder, he was seated at his classroom desk, flanked by presidential candidate buttons and political comics, drinking coffee from a Roswell, New Mexico mug, and preparing to download text- to- speech software to his computer; all examples of his teaching philosophy.

Elder is confident his love of 20th century history, appreciation for travel and heavy utilization of technology will make history classes for Waitsburg middle and high school students anything but dry and stuffy, this year.

Elder, 32, currently lives with his wife, Erin (and two pugs), in Milton-Freewater, where Erin is director of the Milton-Freewater Public Library. The couple is looking for a home in Walla Walla, to split the commute between them.

Erin is a life-long Portlander, and Elder lived "all over the northwest" until he landed in Portland for ten years, where he attended college at Portland State University and met Erin.

After earning their masters degrees – Erin from Emporia State University (online) and Elder from Lewis & Clark College in Portland – the couple moved to Tribune, Kan., where Erin accepted a library director position.

"It was a unique opportunity for her to be able to take over a library right out of grad school and since we'd lived in the pacific northwest for our whole lives, we thought it would be good to try something new," Elder said.

They lived in the small town of Tribune for two years, enjoying the experience. "We did a lot of traveling around the United States, which is great thing about living in Kansas," he said.

While in Kansas, Elder worked as a long-term substitute before accepting a position running GED learning centers in Tribune and Syracuse, where he functioned as teacher/administrator/counselor. After two years, the couple decided to look for work in the northwest to be closer to family.

"We liked a lot of things about Kansas, but when Erin came to check out the job opening in Milton-Freewater it reminded us of the best of both worlds. It has a sprinkling of western Oregon and Washington, but also has the rural/agricultural areas and the ability to travel and do new things," he said.

"I grew up on the west side of the state and you hear about small towns on the 'other side' but it's a much larger area than you expect – from Waitsburg all the way to Boardman – it's a much more culturally rich and diverse area than you would think, " he added.

Erin moved to Oregon first, and Elder followed in Dec. after finishing up his GED programs. He substitute taught in Pendleton and Milton-Freewater, and taught GED and ESL classes for Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton before accepting the teaching position in Waitsburg.

Elder will teach World History (sophomores), Current World Problems (seniors), 7th grade history and U.S. History (juniors). He is certified "highly qualified" (a state requirement) in Oregon and Kansas, and is finishing up the process for Washington.

Elder says he makes heavy use of technology in his classroom and acknowledges that his own early struggles in school, as a dyslexic, play a large part in that.

"I had a lot of difficulty in school growing up, because of dyslexia, but when I was in college I saw declining grades and couldn't keep up. It wasn't until I was a junior in college that I fully embraced getting accommodations for it. My grades totally turned around and I sort of rediscovered education at that point," he said.

"Many people who really start to enjoy school later in life are people who struggled with education early on and then found that one thing they really loved. For me, it was history and stories and finding a way to interact with them that wasn't just reading a textbook," Elder said.

He continues to make heavy use of audio books and podcasts and considers himself a "tapeworm" (as opposed to a bookworm).

Elder plans to find ways to make history relevant to his students. Elder said the song, 'We'll Meet Again,' recorded in 1939 by Dame Vera Lynn, has recently become a popular music download among his peers.

"People are realizing, with technology and access to information, that the time that they live in now is not the only time that ever existed. I feel like kids are more aware of that now in certain ways, but they're not in other ways," he said.

Elder said each of his classes will complete several projects, which may include activities like planning a trip, researching local street names, or making cultural foods.

"I'm very into oral history and will incorporate that into a local/family history project with the juniors," he said.

Elder says he has already received a very warm welcome at school, with many students stopping in to say hello.

And what is Elder most looking forward to? "It sounds like a small and petty thing, but having my own room - a place that's stationary, with my own touches in it - is pretty special," he said.