Seeing double when you visit a Giaudrone Middle School classroom? Yo
u just might think so if you find John and Ryan Prosser's classrooms. The identical twins, now 31, team teach about 150 students per day at Giaudrone, with John focusing on social studies and Ryan on language arts.
The twins attended Tacoma Public Schools from first through fourth grade, and then their family moved to University Place. They wrestled in high school and shouted as cheerleaders at Western Washington University and Boston College—they have loud voices by their own admission. In undergraduate school, they both knew they someday wanted to be in education, like many of their large, extended Italian family in the Tacoma area.
John, the taller by half an inch and thinner of the pair, and Ryan first team taught in 2002 when they were student interns at Drum Intermediate School in University Place under team teachers Jeanette Erickson and Elaine Besett (wife of Wilson High School Principal Dan Besett). Today Erickson is the literacy coach at Giaudrone.
The twins added to the variety of their experiences by enrolling as 20-year-old students for a Semester at Sea voyage which stopped in numerous ports around the world including Greece, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Israel. In 2003 at age 22, they hired on as the youngest assistant field office coordinators ever and youngest to serve as trip leaders for the Semester at Sea program. They led excursions from Chennai, India, to New Delhi. The second voyage took them to Cuba, South Africa and Japan, among other countries.
The twins opted for education law and received their law degrees from Seattle University after earning their master's degrees from Boston College. Both also interned with the Washington Education Association while in law school. After that, their careers diverged. John practiced law and Ryan worked at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).
After OSPI, Ryan taught humanities to gifted students in the Quest program in the Lake Washington School District. John continued to practice law until 2009 when he began subbing in the University Place School District and Tacoma Public Schools. He linked up with a long-term sub position at Mann Elementary School. The twins' careers melded again when John heard that Principal Zeek Edmond had openings at Giaudrone for team teachers for humanities, and they applied.
Their previous experience traveling the world fit well with Giaudrone's focus as a "turnaround" school striving for International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme accreditation. The IB follows a global curriculum built around real-world applications, a perfect tie-in for their sea voyages, touring other countries and meeting people from other cultures.
Edmond hired the twins and placed them in adjoining classrooms with a movable wall between them.
"It's cool that we work at the same school and team teach in the same class," John said. "Our students get a kick out of our being twins and teaching together. Team teaching comes naturally to use because we are so close and best friends. We're more impressed by our colleagues who team teach humanities and do fantastic work without the benefit of having known their partner all their life."
"It's real unique to teach with one another," said Ryan, who is older by 15 minutes. "We never expected this to happen. I work well with John and we always had a teammate and shared everything all our lives. We plan together and always talk about school."
"When we study ancient history in seventh grade, we use photos of Greece and Rome and share our first-hand experiences being in those countries," John said. "We bring perspective to history."
One tool they use in class is a satellite composite of the earth at night. The students can see cities as concentrations of lights, and the twins ask questions such as "Why is this area dark?" "What could it be?" "What does this line represent?" The dark area might represent a desert and the line the Nile River, John said.
"Who better to teach eighth graders the Constitution than two licensed attorneys," John said. "We incorporate our law degrees into our teaching. Some of our students think we are nuts for teaching rather than being lawyers who can earn more. But, Ryan and I love teaching and feel we can make a bigger difference as teachers."
"We both graduated with honors from Seattle University, which has the highest rated legal writing course in the country," John said. "While in law school, we were also able to hear a landmark case in the Supreme Court—it was a phenomenal educational opportunity to see the court in action."
Their background in education law and legal writing comes in handy for John and Ryan's work writing policies on the Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) Committee—as well as teaching their students. John also serves on the district's Section 83 Displacement Committee.
In his fourth year of teaching, Ryan is also busy working on his National Board Certification. John, with two years as a teacher, has to wait two more years to start the national certification process.
The twins also have more mundane experience to share with students: they were extras for the 1999 movie, "10 Things I Hate About You."
Ryan and John's great-grandfather came over from Italy in the early 1900s, and today many of the twins' family members are educators or lawyers in the Tacoma area. Their mother, Carol Costanza, works as a counselor at Birney Elementary School. Other educator relatives include DeLong Elementary School Principal Ed Schau; Erin Riordan, a counselor at DeLong; teacher Kathy Schau at Lowell Elementary School; Robert Orlando, a retired principal; and Barbara Constanti, retired from the Central Administration Building. John's wife is a former teacher, and Ryan's wife currently teaches in the University Place School District.
Family members often teach in the same district, or even the same schools, but you will find few twins sharing the same classroom and the same students, after starting out with very different careers. Or twins who bring such a wealth of experience to share with students and colleagues.