Meet Dr. Farrell
Family:
I was born in Traverse City, Michigan, the youngest of five. When I was seven, my parents moved our family to Montana, and we settled in the small town of Choteau (population 1700). I loved living in a small town, and even more, I loved living in Montana! Our family grew by adding two foster siblings, making me the youngest of seven. Our family was very close, and many of us pursued our love of music. I was the sole thespian. Family time was paramount, and you would find us regularly enjoying board and card games.
Education and Early Career:
My father was a Civil Engineer and Land Surveyor, and he owned his own business. He trained each of us to work for him in one capacity or another, and I learned how to draft, do office work, and to work in the field as a surveyor's assistant. I thought I might study architecture because of my love of the subject, but when it came time to go to college, I was unsure of this choice. At my parents' suggestion, I chose to study Theatre Arts at Montana State University, and soon added English Literature as a second major. My plan was to become a high school teacher, but at that point in time, it seemed better for me to pursue an MFA in theatre in order to teach at the college level. Well, life has a funny way of throwing curveballs, and my path changed abruptly in 1987 when my husband of six months died suddenly from leukemia. I moved to Cottage Grove, Oregon, in 1991 to be close to family who had relocated a few years prior. There, I met and married my husband, Michael, and we started our family with his five-year-old son, Mike. After our daughter, Rachel, came along, I returned to school at the University of Oregon to earn my M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and received my Oregon teaching license with an endorsement in English Language Arts, and soon after, I added drama. With the pursuit of a job came a relocation of our small family.
I began my formal teaching career, in the fall of 2000, at Klamath Community College in Klamath Falls, OR. In January, 2001, I began my high school teaching career at Henley High School. While growing our family, I also made several job relocations (OIT, Hosanna Christian School, Mazama High School). At Mazama High School, I added my CTE endorsement and began teaching a half day of pre-engineering classes, which involved design and drafting. The other half of the day was spent in English and drama.
Higher Education:
In 2009, while teaching full time, I began to change my career trajectory by entering a doctoral program through The University of Montana. My classes started online, but eventually, we had to relocate to the Missoula, MT, area in order for me to attend classes and to become a graduate teaching assistant. For two years, I was a full-time doctoral student and a full-time adjunct faculty member on three campuses. After completing my courses, but not my dissertation, we relocated once again to Oregon. This time, we moved to an even smaller town than I could imagine: Cove. In 2012, I was hired by the College of Education at Eastern Oregon University to teach in their teacher preparation programs. I completed my dissertation in 2013, and was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in 2017. In the spring of 2018, I made a career-changing decision to return to the high school classroom.
Contact me via email: teresa.farrell@covesd.org