Former BGHS student marks college graduation with a series of firsts

A 2021 Battle Ground High School graduate will be entering the classroom this fall with a lot of firsts behind her.

From student teaching to her first teaching job this fall, MacKenzie LeDoux not only gained valuable experience, she finished with an engagement ring on her finger and a first job on the horizon.

LeDoux gained an interest in teaching at a young age, she said. After receiving a degree from Eastern Washington University, LeDoux, who was the first in her family to attend college, heads to a quiet and cozy coastal town in Oregon as a first-year teacher this upcoming fall. She will become a second-grade teacher at the Nehalem Grade School near Rockaway Beach, Oregon.

LeDoux will begin her first job with a strong foundation from student teaching a kindergarten class at Spokane’s Stevens Elementary School.
Rockaway Beach, Oregon, will not be new to Le Doux, however. She has been a frequent visitor to the area her whole life as her grandparents reside there, she said.

“I’m most looking forward to having my own classroom and then also just being closer to home and closer to Battle Ground,” she said about the next chapter in life.

Having her own classroom is a teacher’s dream come true, and LeDoux has many thoughts and ideas she takes with her from her student-teacher experience.

“It’s all I think about. I made a big wish list, and I just am so excited, and I took so many notes from my mentor and other teachers in classrooms about things that are best for students and just help with setting routines in the room,” LeDoux said. “I’m just so excited. I have all my decorations and all the things I want, and it’s going to be really cute.”

LeDoux encourages those aspiring to become a teacher to act on their interests.

“I think that they should go for it and that teaching is the best job ever, and you get to make so many lifelong connections with the students and the parents, and it’s just such a unique career,” LeDoux said. “It’s the best job as you get to wear so many hats as a teacher.”

In another first, LeDoux, known as “Miss Madoo” to her young students, was surprised and saw her life change forever as a student teacher, as well. On May 17, her boyfriend’s regular Friday recess visit turned into a lifetime memory as Alex Wells popped the question to his girlfriend, properly raising his hand, of course.

“Will you marry me, Miss Madoo,” Wells asked in the classroom.

Coincidentally, LeDoux told the students to ask Wells when he will marry her prior to one of his visits to her classroom. One student told Wells that she knew why he hadn’t proposed to Miss Madoo yet.

“You’re just not prepared,” the student told Wells, he recalled.

But, he was prepared that day with a ring in his boot.

“I was totally speechless and shocked, and all the kids are standing up and getting close, and I looked over at my mentor, and she’s taking a video, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, wait. This isn’t a joke. He’s actually proposing,” LeDoux recalled.

After being speechless and caught off guard, LeDoux forgot to say the obvious answer, so the students began chanting, “Say yes. Say yes. Say yes,” which LeDoux did once she found her voice.

“After that , my school was just so supportive and so happy for me and they sent us home,” LeDoux said, adding they called their families to celebrate.

For the rest of the school year, Wells then became known as “Mr. Madoo” to the students.

Wells said he will be finding a job in Rockaway Beach or the surrounding communities as LeDoux sees herself staying at her first school for multiple years.