Woodson is a marketing teacher and supervisor of Fairfax County Public Schools’ Tysons Corner Classroom on the Mall. To the Virginia Department of Education, she’s the winner of the 2011 Virginia Creating Excellence Award. To her students, she’s “Woody.” Before teaching, you were a buyer and merchandiser for Nordstrom. How cool are your clothes?
[Laughs.] Everybody always asks me that! They’re like, “Let me see your closet.”
Well, what made you switch careers?
Teaching was a calling. While at Nordstrom, I started taking classes at the University of Virginia in education. One of the top 10 things on my bucket list was to coach girls’ basketball, which I did at McLean High School. There was a teacher going on maternity leave, then another school had an opening in fashion business. Now I’m teaching at Tysons Corner Mall to students from McLean and Marshall high schools, and every other day I teach at Falls Church High School. It’s in my own neighborhood, and I’m very proud of that.
You were recognized by the Virginia Department of Education for giving back to the community.
I love to see students find their passion through real-life experience. We cleaned up Falls Church High School. We’ve made paper flowers and delivered them to the Sunrise Assisted Living Center, because they were taking down the chrysanthemums at the end of Christmas. We did that in the snow, it was so funny.
What’s an easy way for busy, working parents to encourage their children to give back?
The way I start with my kids is I tell them there are small ways to help people, and there are ways to make money — that’s a hook for the men. On days when it snows, you have an automatic way to make money: Go knock on the door, offer to shovel. Organize a block cleaning, or something small that gets people going.
Lisa Gartner
