Tahoma High School has had great teachers through the years, but one particular teacher, who has been there for 10 years, stood out among others in the nation.

On July 27, Gretchen Wulfing, a social studies teacher at the high school, was selected to attend C-SPAN Classroom 2017 Educators’ Conference in Washington D.C. She is one of the 30 other teachers from across the nation that were selected to go.

To get selected for the conference, one must be nominated by someone to get an application.

According to Wulfing, she does not know who nominated her, but she did get an invitation in the mail with an application attached to it and that’s how she found out. In the application, she said she had to state why she should be able to go and how she would use the tools learned to her in her classroom.

“I was really honored (and) I was really excited because I love Washington D.C., but I was really excited in part because C-SPAN has so many great opportunities,” she said.

Wulfing said she thinks she was nominated because of the “We the People” class she teaches at Tahoma for seniors.

In this class, students learn about current events and applying what they learn in a senate hearing format.

Students are required to take at least a half year of a civics class across Washington state, and this class counts toward that requirement.

She said the program is really “cool” because it helps the seniors grow up to be incredible people.

“It’s so wonderful for students because we don’t go throw a commentator at them,” she said.

At the conference Wulfing said they would teach the teachers that attended how to implement what they learned into their lesson plans.

She said it was all really useful information that she learned and she can’t wait to incorporate it into her teaching at Tahoma. Wulfing said she thinks her students will really like the new lessons she has learned.

“I learned so much, it was fantastic,” she said. “I can use this to really connect with them (her students) even better.”

The new teaching methods Wulfing learned at the conference will help her students be able to incorporate technology into their learning and lives outside of the classroom, according to Wulfing.

According to Wulfing, her favorite part of the conference was getting to meet all of the C-SPAN employees because she said they all seem to love their jobs so much.

She said she also really enjoyed meeting the other teachers that were picked to go to the conference. She even got to meet the CEO of C-SPAN as well as tour the company building.

“I got to meet some people who had some wicked cool life experiences,” Wulfing said.

Wulfing said she decided to become a teacher while she was living in Washington D.C. working in the government, 10 years ago. Then she and her family moved to Maple Valley. She earned her masters degree and fell in love with Tahoma High where she was hired.

She said she loves the people she works with and the students she gets to teach every year.

“Our job is to encourage them (students) to be engaged citizens,” Wulfing said. “I feel like I have a very important job and I love working with them (students).”