Hello! I’m Erika Sterkel, your sixth grade Mathematics and Social

 Studies teacher! I also teach Life Skills and Lighthouse Enrichment

 classes. I am starting my ninth year teaching at Deer Creek. It is 

 truly a special place with wonderful students, teachers, and

 administration. I am so happy to be a part of it!

I never doubted what I wanted to be when I grew up. In fact,

I announced to my parents that I wanted to be a teacher

when I was in kindergarten! I met my husband in high

school, and we married in 2017. We live not far from where I

grew up, with our son, Conner, and our two calico cats,

Nefertari and Cleopatra.

In my spare time, I love to cook and bake. My specialties are

soups and breads. I am an avid reader and a student of

anything Ancient Egypt. I am also a Stitch fan, you will see

many hints of Stitch in our classroom! We love our family time.

Among other fun adventures, we try to visit as many zoos as

we can throughout the country.

I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Early Adolescent-Middle

Childhood Education Grades 1-8 with minors in Mathematics

and Social Studies Summa Cum Laude from UW-Milwaukee

in 2014. I also earned my Master’s Degree in Educational

Design and Technology at Concordia University in 2020.  I am always looking for opportunities to learn and improve myself.

I look forward to meeting all of our new 6th graders and 

 guardians and getting to know everyone.  Letś all work together to

 create a wonderful year for all of us at Deer Creek!

“We all use math every day.” This is a motto that I use often

in my classroom since math is a big part of all of our lives,

whether we realize it or not. If I can help my students build

their confidence in math, and realize that they can indeed do

it, and do it well, then we will all have succeeded.

I am so excited to teach our 6th grade Social Studies classes this year! Social Studies has always been one of my favorite subjects, and there are so many interesting things to learn. Together we will explore many aspects of our world, and discover just how geography, environments and different cultures  influence us all.