Contact me at: rachel.robinson@washoeschools.net 

I love it when a parent/guardian contacts me. I welcome your advice or insights on how to best serve the needs of your child. Even though I have been teaching for 33 years, I still need to grow in ways that will best serve all students.

My mottos are: "Treat everyone with compassion, kindness and respect." and "Learn and teach each other and ourselves with joy, gratitude, and appreciation for all learners." 

Because I worked in industry, I teach from a practical work perspective where kids learn real world job skills that relate to creative problem solving, computers, art and design. I am so grateful I get to teach!  I care deeply about kids, animals, and the world. That is why I teach. My goal is to help others reach their full creative and intellectual potential. I want every student to feel that I value them and their ideas. 

In my classroom, everyone is both teacher and learner. I also love it when students ask me questions or share their ideas and insights about how I can be a better teacher. This is a critical idea to embrace for life, because technology, art, design and the world are constantly changing so we have to learn to be adaptable and be learners for life. Students get extra credit for teaching/showing me and/or the class how to do something a different way or pointing out when I am mistaken. I strive to create a safe and creative learning environment where all students feel safe enough to be curious, questioning, creative, and learn to problem solve and think for themselves.

My other motto is: "Be curious and playful; try to make everything you have to do as fun as possible and work hard." Living on the bright side helps us to do our best in most things we have to do. Being curious and playful with an idea helps us learn, problem solve, and reach higher levels of understanding. Sometimes getting silly can be the best way to learn because we will remember the information and when we are relaxed, and learning new ideas becomes easier.