Teaching/Education Background This is my second year teaching third grade at Pinecrest Elementary, and my 4th year teaching third grade. I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, and went to college at the University of Minnesota - Duluth. I graduated in 2004 with my Bachelor's degree in Psychology.
Life After College While attending college, I got a job creating the curriculum for, and teaching the summer zoo camp program the Lake Superior Zoo. It took me about three days to realize how much passion I had for teaching about wildlife and education. This job changed the trajectory of my adult life. After college I moved to Vallejo, California to be an Animal Trainer at a Six Flags park. While in California, I worked as an animal trainer/keeper (you can ask the students more about this after the first week of school) for 5 years. I also worked as an educator at the Oakland Zoo for two years. In 2011, I made the difficult decision to leave the zoo world, and go back to school to become a teacher. I loved working with animals, but found that my favorite part of my job was teaching others and sharing my passion about the natural world. I finished my teaching credential program in May 2012. As much as my family loved California, it wasn't "home" for us. In 2013, we planned to move to Minnesota to raise our two children and plant our roots as a family. We are thrilled to call Hastings home.
My philosophy If you were to ask me what my goal is as a teacher, I would tell you it's to empower young people to have a voice and create change. Our day is filled with discussion, questions, and applying our learning to real-life situations. I cultivate a community of global citizens, aware of what's happening in our town, our country, and around the world. We build connections with other classes and professionals to expand our learning, and gain insight from outside our four walls. I also believe that the teacher is also the learner in the classroom. With technology, our class can learn and explore so much more than we could with past textbooks and worksheets. The knowledge of the world is literally in the palm of our hands. We utilize technology to enhance our learning experience. Students learn to responsibly use technology, which is a skill they will carry with them and use for the rest of their lives. In the end, I want students to feel alive when they're learning. My job is to create the spark to ignite the fire of loving to learn. The students will work together and individually. They will feel success and failure. They will make mistakes, learn to persevere through challenges, and learn to appreciate how good it feels to make it through those mistakes and challenges. The students in my class are a family and we work together to create a safe, comfortable, and fun space for learning.