Dana Starbuck has always been an encouraging role model to her students, supporting them in their mathematical journey. photo by Makayla Vasquez
Dana Starbuck’s retirement after 28 years in the teaching field is hitting students hard.
Math may not be everyone’s favorite subject, but Dana Starbuck has a reputation for making it enjoyable and engaging for all. In her 28 years of teaching, the last eight of which have been at Thomas Jefferson High School, Starbuck has taught just about every math class there is, from Pre-Algebra to AP Statistics. Sadly, she has decided to make this her last year of teaching – a shock for many of her former and current students, who will miss her outgoing personality and unique teaching style.
Starbuck is well known for a lot of things around TJ, including being the sponsor of the school’s National Honors Society. She also tutors students in math on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. Since the beginning of her teaching career, Starbuck has always been passionate about math, and she makes it a priority to help her students share that passion through her ecstatic, loving, and upbeat personality.
A former student of Starbuck’s, TJ senior Alizè Martinez, explained her memorable experience with the beloved math teacher: “She was probably the best math teacher I’ve [ever] had.” Martinez explains that she loves how Starbuck is always going on “little rants during class,” where she would tell the students about a story or life experience for a good majority of the class, when it was clear her students needed a break. TJ Junior Rachel Nelson also had Starbuck as a math teacher last year, “She made me enjoy math, and she’s always excited to teach her class, even if it’s a hard lesson.” Nelson loves Starbuck’s “upbeat personality,” and how she did seating charts, where she would give her students math problems and they had to find where it matched up to.
Aside from math, Starbuck also teaches her students lots of valuable life lessons that will likely stick with them in the long run. Nelson recalled the most memorable thing she learned from Starbuck, which was to “work hard, get stuff done early, and put myself ahead.” Martinez also explained that because of Starbuck, the senior will always know to “…make sure we’re paying everything on time, don’t date boys until you’re 30, and live your life out while you can.”
Though it comes as a devastating newsflash to many of her former and current students, Starbuck explained that she is finally ready to hang up the towel and put an end to her eventful career. “I’m still pretty young and healthy, and I think I’m gonna go out and start having some fun with my life,” Starbuck commented. While she did teach her students countless lessons, related to math or not, she has also learned a few things from them, including lots of patience. Starbuck added, “I kinda just go with the flow a little more…the hard part is that I’m gonna miss the kids.”
Over the years, Starbuck has earned the love of many students across several schools, and she feels like the those she taught and those she never got the chance to teach are in good hands when it comes to their education. “I feel confident about the way things are going,” Starbuck added. She also mentioned that with a job as challenging as teaching high school students, it requires her to have a good amount of motivation to keep a smile on her face, even in tough times. For her, good taste in music is the key to her constant positive attitude. Starbuck commented, “I listen to lots of U2, and I just kept going…every day is different with [high schoolers], it’s always a good day; something good always happens every day.” The secret to her popularity among students? “I just try to be a good person, I guess.”
Teaching, particularly as a math teacher, has been a huge part of Starbuck’s life for the past 28 years, and it has been a major source of meaning for her. She explains that it was what she was born to do, and that “math was the one subject that if you could turn kids on to it, it would be great… there’s always jobs out there for math teachers, and I’ve wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a little girl.” The impact that Starbuck has on everyone she interacts with is undeniable. Whether a student once had her, currently has her, or just knows her by reputation, there will undoubtedly be a huge gap in the TJ community without the beloved Ms. Starbuck. Some of her last words of motivation for TJ students before she embarks on a new adventure: “Dream out loud, that’s my quote. Dream out loud.”
