Mrs. Buzalsky

About Me

Welcome! This is my sixth year teaching at River Homelink after 4 years teaching Math Intervention at Tukes Valley Middle School, after 5 years of teaching 5th and 6th grades in Portland.  I love teaching math!  A little about me, I have four grown children and as of last November, seven grandchildren.  As much as I love them, I find it hard to believe myself! We also have a border collie named Denali.  My favorite things to do are reading, home improvement projects, and exploring new places. Last summer, my husband and I drove to Florida and spent a month there with our daughter and two grandkids, Emily and Daniel. My husband and I are both Air Force veterans, and our two boys also served in the Navy and Marines. The tall handsome Marine in the right hand  picture is my son, Daniel, who is now a Certified Flight Instructor with Pure Flight Aviation Training in Newberg. My oldest son, Ben, and his family now live in Texas, where he works on the booster rockets for SpaceX! 

Experience

 I have been teaching is some capacity for over 30 years. I taught kindergarten , 10th grade Biology and Geometry at a private Christian school in Pennsylvania for about 10 years. We moved to the Northwest in 1999 where I started homeschooling our four children. I started with a four year old, 2nd grader, 7th grader, and 9th grader. Eventually, I also got a part-time job interpreting for the deaf at Evergreen High School and Fircrest Elementary.  Not busy enough (!), I decided to take college classes in the evenings and get my teaching degree. I continued that crazy schedule until my two boys finished with Running Start, my oldest daughter went off to college in California, and the youngest daughter started 8th grade in public school.   I got my WA state teaching credentials in 2008, and  finally started teaching full time.  I taught 5th and 6th grade in a combined class  for 5 years at Greater Portland Christian Academy in Gresham, and then 4 years of Math Intervention at TVMS.  I cherish all these experiences because I learned SO much about the progression of learning from my own students/children, as well as the 40+ teachers I got to observe and work with as an interpreter.

Education

Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction with focus in Mathematics, Concordia University, Portland, 2016

Bachelor of Arts in Education, City University of Seattle, 2008

Associate's Degree, Clark College, 2006

USAF School of Health Care Sciences and Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX - Medical Laboratory Technology