{"id":14105,"date":"2020-10-07T00:14:15","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T06:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=14105"},"modified":"2020-10-07T00:14:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T06:14:15","slug":"frontline-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/07\/frontline-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"Frontline Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valley honors \u2018Teacher of Year,\u2019 40-year nurse<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/p>\n

\"\"
Pulleiro, who served in the U.S. Army for six years, congratulates a student at an event last year. Photo credits: Blaine County School District<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Often lost in the daily reporting of COVID numbers and sometimes forgotten in the 24\/7 news cycle of higher-profile healthcare givers and receivers is the fact that in communities like the Wood River Valley there are scores of frontline workers going unheralded. Well, not recently, in a couple of instances at least.<\/p>\n

In recent days, both a local educator and nurse were honored for a career in two industries on the frontlines of keeping society\u2014essentially\u2014functioning. Jorge Pulleiro, a world language teacher at Wood River Middle School (WRMS), was named Idaho Teacher of the Year, and Barb Scher, a nurse at St. Luke\u2019s Wood River, was celebrated by staff upon retiring after 47 years of working in healthcare.<\/p>\n

For Pulleiro, it is another accomplishment in what is already an impressive career. For Scher, it puts to bed a career that saw everything from the emergence of the AIDS epidemic to the peak of the current COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The Teacher and a Ruse<\/b><\/p>\n

Pulleiro has taught Spanish at the middle school since 2012 and is part of the dual immersion world language team that helps students become biliterate. Last week, he was asked to leave that classroom for a few minutes and speak off the cuff about dual immersion at a principals\u2019 conference being held on campus. It was a ruse.<\/p>\n

Pulleiro got to the meeting, began speaking about dual immersion, and then Sherri Ybarra, the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Idaho, appeared. She announced that Pulleiro had been named the state\u2019s Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw my wife and my daughter come out with a check and a plaque,\u201d Pulleiro recalled. \u201cI was an emotional wreck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The award means Pulleiro now will travel across Idaho talking with other teachers, legislators and policymakers about education in the state, meet with Teachers of the Year from other states, and serve as Idaho\u2019s nominee for National Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n

Even a cursory look at Pulleiro\u2019s career reveals how he got there.<\/p>\n

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pulleiro received a bachelor of arts degree in Spanish Translation and Interpretation from Brigham Young University, a master\u2019s in Teacher Education from Eastern Oregon, and a master\u2019s in Educational Leadership from Boise State University. He also served in the U.S. Army for six years, part of it in Heidelberg, Germany, which he describes as some of the best years of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give back to my country and I thought what better way than to serve in the best military in the world,\u201d Pulleiro said.<\/p>\n

Pulleiro also enriches the experiences of his students beyond the classroom. He is a strong advocate for and active participant in the Latino community in Blaine County. He facilitates the involvement of Spanish-speaking families in the Blaine County School District. He serves on the Latino Staff Advisory Committee and has been instrumental in planning the Conferencia Educativa Para Padres for our Spanish-speaking parents, also serving as a conference presenter.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Pulleiro founded the WRMS exchange program with Gredos de San Diego Schools in Madrid, Spain. Students from Spain visit WRMS each year for three to four weeks to be immersed in school and family life here in Blaine County. In addition, well over 100 students from WRMS have traveled to Spain for three weeks of immersion there. These students have received language acquisition while earning college credit during high school.<\/p>\n

Today, Pulleiro has a legacy at WRMS, literally. Last school year his daughter was hired to teach Spanish there, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m not her boss. We are colleagues and it\u2019s great,\u201d Pulleiro said. \u201cI was never expecting my daughter to become a language teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bullied as a child, Pulleiro said it was in the third grade he realized he wanted to teach.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy third-grade teacher was a terrific example for me. I\u2019ve always suffered from bullying from peers and even from teachers, but my third-grade teacher was compassionate, loving, and caring. She made a huge difference in my life because she believed in me and let me know that I could have a bright future,\u201d Pulleiro said.<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes Pulleiro\u2019s style unique is how he doesn\u2019t just teach language, he exposes students to culture, letting language come to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s time to learn the culture, we don\u2019t just read about it. We live it! My students will be found sharing a dish they cooked at home with their peers at school. We don\u2019t just read about a particular country\u2019s music. We get up and learn how to dance that country\u2019s national dance,\u201d Pulleiro explained.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s next for Pulleiro? He says being an administrator is one potential course, which is why he earned his master\u2019s degree in Educational Leadership. But Pulleiro says he\u2019ll know when the right opportunity comes along and what will make it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be a co-teacher. It\u2019s a little bit different than how we think of administrators. When I became an officer in the military, I rolled up my sleeves and I worked closely with the enlisted. I love the classroom and I don\u2019t want to ever completely leave that,\u201d Pulleiro said.<\/p>\n

The Nurse and Her Doctor<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Longtime Valley nurse Barb Scher at the beginning of her 40-year career.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Barb Scher started her career as a nursing assistant in high school, went on to get her medical assistant certificate, and continued on to become a full-fledged registered nurse. Since June 1988, Scher worked for Dr. Kathryn Woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Woods had just come to town to start her family practice, and married Dr. Paris. Back then, each doctor had their own nurse. So, it was a wonderful way to really grow and nurture patient care. We were always a team and that was one of the nicest parts of working together,\u201d Scher said. \u201cI saw Dr. Woods deliver many, many babies and we took care of a lot of kids as they were growing up. And now we even get to see third generations. It was wonderful to be a nurse all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Scher\u2019s retirement party last month, Woods was there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking side by side with Barb Scher for 30 years has been a rich journey. Her sincere, loving and caring manner has benefited our patients every day, every visit or phone call. Patients would leave their appointment knowing they had been heard and understood,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n

Not only has Scher dedicated her career to taking care of others, she has also volunteered outside the job. When St. Luke\u2019s offered \u201cHealing Touch\u201d training, she eagerly participated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The next stage of Scher\u2019s life figures to be spent on her new mountain bike with her husband, Jerome, Scher said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valley honors \u2018Teacher of Year,\u2019 40-year nurse By Eric Valentine Often lost in the daily reporting of COVID numbers and sometimes forgotten in the 24\/7 news cycle of higher-profile healthcare givers and receivers is the fact that in communities like the Wood River Valley there are scores of frontline workers going unheralded. Well, not recently, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-health-news","7":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}