Blue Herons



Welcome to the 4th Grade

at Springwater ESS!

About Me

I'm so excited to be your new 4th grade teacher! I had the priviledge of student teaching at Springwater in Fall 2018 with Troy and finished out the school year as a substitute and instructional aid. Some of you may remember that I was a sub for Miss Lisa when the current Blue Herons were in the 1st grade. What a treat to be able to teach all of you again! Let's keep building up this caring classroom community that we already started 3 years ago. We're going to have a great year!

A little about my background: I grew up in NE Portland and fell in love with teaching about science and nature in an outdoor setting when I attended Outdoor School as a 6th grader and later as a high school counselor and special needs counselor. In college, I researched Rainforest Resoration while studying abroad in North Queensland, Australia and earned an Environmental Studies Bachelor degree from USC in Los Angeles and later a Master of Arts in Teaching from Concordia University in 2018.

I love exploring the outdoors and feeling the calm that it brings when I fully immerse myself in it. There are so many parts--from the tiniest microbe to the entire ecosystem--that fascinate me with their inticacies and interconnectedness. I hope to instill that wonder and appreciation into every one of my students. Let's explore together!

"The Leaf and the Cloud"

-Mary Oliver

Everyday – I have work to do:

I feel my body rising through the water

not much more than a leaf;

and I feel like the child, crazed by beauty

or filled to bursting with woe;

and I am the snail in the universe of the leaves

trudging upward;

and I am the pale lily who believes in God,

though she has no word for it,

and I am the hunter, and I am the hounds,

and I am the fox, and I am the weeds of the field…

I am the dusty toad who looks up unblinking

and sees (do you also see them?) the white clouds

in their blind, round-shouldered haste;

I am a woman sixty years old, and glory is my work.