Please join us in congratulating the 2022 AATJ Outstanding Teacher Award recipients: Kei Tsukamaki from Juanita High School in Kirkland, WA, and Izumi Matsuda-Kiami from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA.
The AATJ Teacher Award recognizes outstanding teachers who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, advocacy, and leadership, both locally and nationally.
The awards will be presented in-person at the AATJ Awards luncheon at the 2022 ACTFL Convention in Boston on Saturday, November 19.
2022 AATJ Outstanding Teacher Award (K-12 category)
Kei Tsukamaki (Juanita High School, WA)
I would like to thank the AATJ Teacher Award Committee for the honor of being the 2022 K-12 Teacher of the Year Award recipient. I am incredibly humbled and grateful for this recognition amongst so many colleagues who work tirelessly for their students and programs.
My utmost gratitude to the Washington Association of Teachers of Japanese (WATJ), and my fellow WATJ board members who submitted my nomination. I have been fortunate to be a WATJ board member for 11 of my 12 years as a high school language teacher, and I am so indebted to the collaborative, enthusiastic, powerful community of educators of WATJ. Without WATJ, I truly would not be the person or the teacher I am today.
Through WATJ and AATJ, I have had the opportunity to learn from the greatest 大先生 of our organizations, and I am constantly improving my own practice through the learning I engage in at workshops, conferences, and professional development trainings offered by and for Japanese language teachers. Teachers of other languages frequently comment on how inspired they are by the strength of our Japanese teacher community. We truly are stronger together, and this award belongs to all of us.
The past years have been hard on all of us. As I write this in September, I am filled with the optimism and hope the beginning of the year always brings. I think of the vibrant glee on my students’ faces as their brains ‘click’ onto the new learning and the unfettered joy in the room as together we celebrate every step on their language learning journey. I truly believe there is no more vital and rewarding work than what we as educators engage in, and I am so grateful to be part of this community.
2022 AATJ Outstanding Teacher Award (Post-secondary category)
Izumi Matsuda-Kiami (University of Washington)
I am truly humbled and grateful to be given this recognition. First, I would like to thank the AATJ Teacher Award Committee to have selected me as the recipient of this year’s award. Also, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the WATJ (Washington Association of Teachers of Japanese) board members for nominating me for this award. It has been a great pleasure to work with the highly motivated K-16 teachers in the area to learn through professional development opportunities to support our students and advocate for Japanese Language Education in the State of Washington. I feel extremely fortunate to be a member of this tight-knit community of hard-working Japanese teachers.
My teaching journey started in the early 1990s in a small TA office at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I studied under the supervision of Prof. Akira Miura and Prof. Naomi McGloin. Since then, I have become part of this enthusiastic Japanese teacher community, and AATJ has supported my professional development throughout. Belonging to the strong teacher community has also enabled me to connect with amazing professors, colleagues, and friends, who mentored and inspired me during my career. Without them, I would not be where I am now, and feel appreciative for their guidance and companionship over the years.
I would also like to express gratitude to my colleagues in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington for their continuous support. Together we have succeeded to develop a strong Japanese program which attracts hundreds of students yearly and serves many major and minor students.
Lastly, I would like to thank my family for the constant support for all these years, and especially my mother for setting me on the path to become an educator.
