My name is Sam Benner and I have been teaching since August of 2017. I am a Colorado Native and a product of the St Vrain Valley School District. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education with an emphasis in Music Education from the University of Northern Colorado in 2017. I also earned a Master of Arts in Learning Design and Technology with an endorsement in Instructional Technology Specialist K-12 from the University of Colorado Denver in December of 2021. I began my career teaching fourth grade at Sanborn Elementary in Longmont, CO. I taught fourth for three years before looping up to fifth grade with my class in the midst of the pandemic in 2020. I also am head of the drama club at Sanborn and have helped direct many shows including Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure (2024),  Beauty and the Beast (2017), The Wizard of Oz (2018), The Lion King (2019), and more.  Since 2019 I have been our building's Learning Technology Program (LTP) Representative. Additionally, I joined our Positive School and Culture Committee (PSCC) and have planned and lead our schoolwide assemblies since the 2023/2024 school year. 

I am the mother of a spunky, intelligent, and beautiful toddler named Amelia. She is the light of my life and has changed my outlook on so many things, including teaching. We spend a lot of time outside exploring animals, bubbles, and the playground.

I love dogs! I have two at home, Mac and Peggy. I absolutely love superheroes. In fact, my classroom and my kitchen are decorated that way! Music and theatre are also very important to me. I have always had a love for music, singing in choirs all throughout my life starting in elementary school and going into college. I even had my own radio program at the UNC Student Radio. I started doing theatre in the third grade, and eventually became the Drama Club President at Skyline High School, earning 3 Letters in Drama. 

I wanted to become a teacher because I loved working with kids. Growing up, I had lots of experience leading kids and teaching various topics. I was a Program Aide for Kiwa Girl Scout camp for 5 years throughout middle and high school. I also worked for SVVSD's Community Schools over the summer at Fall River Elementary and taught some after-school classes. While working on my undergraduate degree, I also worked as an AVID Tutor in a few Greeley-Evans District 6 schools. 

I have become one of the "go-to" technology people in my school and love to share what I've learned, either from district professional development, my professional learning network, or something that I've figured out on my own from fiddling around with various programs, apps, or sites. When it comes to technology, I believe it is important to use it in your classroom in a meaningful way. Technology should add to the learning, not just replace pencil and paper. Learning can take on so many forms that it is important to give students choice in how they show what they know. Technology can be one of those ways to show off. One of my favorite, one of the most impactful ways, to integrate technology is to use it to activate or establish background knowledge. I have used Nearpod's Virtual Reality field trips to take kids to Mesa Verde when learning about the Ancestral Puebloans, deep into the forests of the Massachusetts Forests to establish the setting of Bill Harley's Night of the Spadefoot Toad, or show them the surface of Mars when exploring space. In my experience, these field trips can expose students to new places and start conversations. They can also build connections as students share about their experiences, either having been to these places or making connections to somewhere they have been that is similar. Plus, these field trips are way more affordable than making the trips ourselves!