Kori Dunn: The Heart of the Hillsboro Learning Center

By Abraham Dale

I interviewed Kori Dunn, a teacher at TEACH-NW To learn secrets about the inside secrets of TEACH-NW, and even more. When TEACH-NW started with just 20 students and they now have and they now  have over 700 students. That number continues to rise each year that number will go up even more. Ms. Dunn started her teaching career at TEACH-NW. The reason she joined TEACH-NW and not a different school is because TEACH-NW cares more about other individual people and they do different things. “I think I like the way that this TEACH-NW cares so much about each individual student and the way each individual student learns.”

Ms. Dunn wanted to be a teacher because one of her teachers made an impact on her. She would teach in a way Ms. Dunn liked very much. “My favorite teacher from third grade Ms. Glassen” stated Ms. Dunn “did this thing called kinesthetic math where instead of writing down math problems we would act them out as students. So she would be like three plus three and she would make us run into piles of six kids to figure out math and I really liked it.” This is who Ms. Dunn aspired to be.

Another one of Ms. Dunn’s crazy stories is about how different the classes are at TEACH-NW than any other school.  “I think the fact that there are entire classes based off of 3-D modeling, Minecraft, and robotics is pretty crazy and it's unusual.” Ms. Dunn is valuable to the school because she is hard working and nice. 

Ms. Dunn doesn’t care about the number of students. She cares more about how collaborative everyone is with each other. She says she would like to see students create a “supportive environment where everyone feels like they belong and can contribute”. When Ms. Dunn prepares for class, she starts by looking at the educational standards for classes. Then, she thinks of ways to demonstrate to the class of what they are working on by using a slideshow. Ms. Dunn uses classes like Minecraft to mimic reality because it is fun and helps students learn about the subject.

“Currently my largest class has 22 students.” Ms. Dunn says students already do so much support for HLC, her biggest request is for students to help create a welcoming environment. “Simple actions—like cleaning up at the end of class, pushing in chairs, or throwing away trash—make a big difference. Students can also help with side projects such as: creating menstrual dignity kits, organizing legos or art supplies, making artwork to display on our walls. These small acts of care help keep our learning environment positive and beautiful.”says Dunn

For the First Tech Challenge they had an upgrade from the First Lego League. The robots are bigger, same with the playing field. And they are learning new controls. “One of the best parts of this class is that we’re all learning together, myself included!” says Ms. Dunn “Each week brings new discoveries and opportunities to grow as a team.” 

Ms. Dunn’s Minecraft class is working solely on social science. In the past they had done things for each quarter, math and coding, social science, language arts, and science. “I currently hold four Minecraft Education certifications, which I earned through training and workshops that explore innovative ways to use Minecraft in education. It’s such a fun and powerful way to learn!” said Ms. Dunn.