Riverview Employee Highlight

Belinda Feller has been teaching at Cherry Valley Elementary for 25 years. During that time, she has taught the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. She looped up with a couple of her classes, which she found to be a wonderful experience. She shared “We picked up on that first day of school the second year and went right on from where we left off the previous year.” Teaching is a very popular profession in Belinda’s family. Her parents were teachers, and on her mother’s side of the family, she is a 5th generation teacher! She still has the bell that her great grandmother used to ring her students in from recess. She remembers always liking school and knew that she wanted to become a teacher from about junior high on. She did a lot of baby-sitting as a teenager and worked as a camp counselor in college. Belinda can’t remember a time when she didn’t enjoy working with children.

Riverview school teacher Belinda Feller. Courtesy photo When asked what she enjoys most about her job Belinda replied, “I love it when everything in a lesson comes together and the students’ eyes light up showing that they “get it”. She also likes pulling together units of study and being able to integrate different subjects. Witnessing the growth and confidence in her students as the school year progresses, brings her an wonderful sense of gratification.

A funny story Ms. Feller likes to share is from a fifth grade class she had while teaching in California. She shares, “we were studying California history and a student very excitedly shared with the class that her great aunt had been a mistress. I said, “Oh, really?” Wondering how I would respond to the parents who would probably call when their kids got home. “Yes,” she said, “she sewed clothes for other people.” “Oh,” I said, “you mean a seamstress”. “Yes,” she said. No one in the class seemed to know what a mistress was and no parents ever called, but it did give me a good laugh.”

At Cherry Valley her special memory is of the last day of school one year when the whole class formed a circle and putting their arms on one another’s shoulders, swayed and sang their class song for the last time. “Girls always give hugs, but I even got hugs from all the boys as they left that day,” she exclaimed. “This has happened a couple of times over the years, and watching them all leave filled with confidence, ready to move on to 5th grade is very satisfying.”

When Belinda is not in the classroom she loves to spend time reading, and seeing plays at the Issaquah Theater with a special group of friends who also taught at Cherry Valley at one time or another. She also enjoys visiting her sister and nephews, and new grand nephew in Oregon. One of her newest hobbies is knitting; which she finds to be very relaxing. Other activities she has enjoyed in her “spare time” are completing her Masters in Reading and Language arts, and taking as many tech classes as she possibly can.

You may also have seen Mrs. Feller’s name in the “Who’s Who among America’s Teachers” a few times, as she had the honor of being nominated by her students.