For the 2025 Best of Renton award for Best Teacher/School, Rose Gannon of Hazen High School is this year’s winner, having been the lone teacher of the finalist round.

“It’s very exciting and sweet that somebody would nominate me for this. It makes me feel good,” said Gannon.

The only thing more impressive than being the only teacher up for this year’s award is the fact that Gannon is a math teacher, a difficult subject for many students. But when you hear Gannon talk about what she likes about teaching, it makes sense why students and parents would vote for her.

“I love the light bulb moment, when a concept clicks with them. That’s the best moment,” she said of her students. “With geometry, it’s very visual math with a lot of vocabulary, and in trigonometry we teach sine, cosine and tangent and we use triangles that we cut out and that shows how the math works out, and students tend to love or hate it.”

While Gannon has been at Hazen for three years, she has been a full-time teacher for just over six years after subbing for half a year. Hailing from Maple Valley and a Central Washington University alumna, Gannon was inspired by her grandmother.

“She taught kindergarten for many, many years and I thought that I might be a kindergarten teacher too, but my love for math put me in a better spot to teach,” she said.

Along with going to school to become a teacher, Gannon also studied Spanish, a skill she utilizes in her work.

“I use that a lot with students and parents who are Spanish-speaking and it’s especially handy at parent-teacher conferences,” she said.

As for winning a Best of Renton 2025 award, Gannon said that it would be fun.

“This was a surprise all around, but I’m feeling really good and recognized for the hard work that teachers put in. I appreciate that,” she said.