Every year at Taft Union High School, a teacher is recognized with the “Teacher of the Year” award for all the excellent and outstanding work they’ve done at Taft High. Mrs. Finn had the pleasure of presenting Marsha Eubank with the honor for all the wonderful things she has done. Marsha Eubank has been working at Taft High for 29 years, and has taught in different areas. Next year will be her 30th year at Taft High. In her time as a faculty member, she’s taught biology, worked as the Athletics Director, and coached basketball and track. She now works as a P.E. teacher where she helps students become fit and athletic. TUHS board member, Wendy Berry, said, “…I never had a biology course before Marsha.” Berry has also had the pleasure of working alongside Eubank and shared many fond memories during the presentation of the award.

Ms. Eubank stated, “It’s really an awesome honor, and at this point in time I really feel like all of our teachers have super stepped up this year. I’m proud of the whole teachers association. We’ve really stepped up this year, and I think everyone needs to be recognized for that.” She was also asked what inspires her to be a good teacher: “The improvement I see in my students, once they get the buy-in and they start seeing what they can do. That’s what makes me want to be more creative and a better teacher.”

When asked what her most memorable moment was, she stated, “This was a really long time ago, but he’s now a P.E. teacher. He was a football player named Chad Brown. We were on the track. They were athletic [P.E.], so we were doing 200 workouts, so we were doing 6-200s. He started complaining and I said ok we are going to do pushups and situps in between now. The rest of the class was about ready to kill him, but later they all said that they felt like they became way better shape than what they were prior to lots of conditioning like that.”

Eubank will be honored at the Kern County Teacher of the Year ceremony this spring.