On April 4, science teacher Jennifer Inaba taught her last day at Clague Middle School. She moved to Maryland on behalf of her husband’s new job.

“I am very excited about her new opportunities,” seventh grader Chen Zhao said. “But I’m sad about Mrs. Inaba’s departure.”

Although most staff and students are sad about Inaba moving away, Inaba says she is looking forward to “new jobs, new friends, warmer weather and a beautiful landscape.” In Maryland, she is planning to keep on teaching, being a long term sub for a third grade class until the end of the year and then a content specialist in the Fall.

Since 2018, Inaba has been learning how to help students learn through a variety of unprecedented settings.

“It’s been a wild ride! I was fresh out of college when I started,” Inaba said. “ Since then, I’ve had three kids, experienced virtual and hybrid teaching during Covid, and moved classrooms a few times with the construction.”

Someone who had a huge impact on Inaba’s career choices was her mom.

“I like to say I was raised to be a teacher,” Inaba said. “My mom is a teacher, and I was tutoring students in her class at age eight.” 

In college, Inaba wanted to teach music, but she found that the classes were more in-depth than she enjoyed so she went a different way. She got degrees in elementary education with minors, science and language arts. She also got a master’s in educational psychology. After college, she taught elementary for a couple of years. Later, she applied for a science teaching position at Clague on a whim, and she learned to love working with middle schoolers. 

“I’m definitely a different person and a different teacher than I was when I started. I’m a lot more confident and knowledgeable about the science curriculum,” Inaba said. “I’m thankful for the coworkers I’ve had for mentoring me, helping me see my value, and being so encouraging as I found my stride in teaching middle school.”